New brewer questions about dry hopping and clarifying

I am about to brew my second batch. It will be the Falconer's Flight IPA from Austin Homebrew. They do not include any hops for dry hopping in the kit so I bought some Cascade hops to dry hop. Since the Falconer hops are the only hops used for the boil, will using Cascade hops be okay for dry hopping, or will their aroma "clash" with the Falconer's and possibly ruin the intended taste?

If it is best to not use them for that IPA, then what about the Amarillo Pale Ale or Rocky Pale Ale from Midwest Supplies? The Amarillo is another one that is a single hop brew, but they will not be getting their Amarillo hops in until mid to late December and whichever one of these kits I get will be a Christmas gift that would likely be ordered before they could get the Amarillo hops in. I'm assuming they would be fine for the Rocky Pale Ale if that's what I wind up getting.

I also bought some gelatin finings for clarification. When do you add these to your brew? My initial plans for each of the brews, assuming FG has been reached is 1 week primary, 1 week secondary. I am assuming not until secondary, but I just thought I'd ask those with experience.

How much do you use? I saw a reply on Austin's website that said the intructions said 1/2 teaspoon per 1 gallon, but on the website description it says 1/2 teaspoon per 5 gallons. His review made it sound like the correct ratio was 1/2 teaspoon per 5 gallons, so I just wanted to double check in case the instructions are still contradictory.

Austin Homebrew lists Cascade as one of the possible substitutions for Falconer's Flight. I have never dry hopped a Falconer's IPA with Cascade, but the flavor and aroma of Cascade should go well with Falconer's. I've done my own Falconer's Flight IPA a couple of times and the flavor and aroma I get is very citrusy with more grapefruit than anything else. I think it adds an awesome hop character when I dry hop with Falconer's but I really like dry hopping with Cascade as well.

Seems that the Falconer's hop pellets are a proprietary blend. From what I can gather they probably use Cascade and Amarillo, possibly Centennial... These are pretty standard America IPA hops. Cascade would more than likely compliment them as they are probably already included in that proprietary blend.

Throw away the gelatin finings or whatever you have and go with Whirlfloc tablets. Everyone swears by them. I have used Irish Moss but prefer the ease of using Whirlfloc. 1/2 a tab to 1 tab at 10 minutes to flame-out should be all you need.

IPA = Cascade Hops will more than likely work. Only use Whirlfloc as a clearing agent... cheap and simple.

VTrookie said:

Throw away the gelatin finings or whatever you have and go with Whirlfloc tablets. Everyone swears by them. I have used Irish Moss but prefer the ease of using Whirlfloc. 1/2 a tab to 1 tab at 10 minutes to flame-out should be all you need.

IPA = Cascade Hops will more than likely work. Only use Whirlfloc as a clearing agent... cheap and simple.

Click to expand...

+1 Cascade work with most American IPA's, I wouldn't get too hung up on the finings but if you want to use one, go with Whirlfloc. I've never tried the gelatin, but I think it needs to be used at packaging (mainly kegging) and must be boiled etc...Whirlfloc is much easier...just toss in a tablet with 15mins left in the boil. An IPA, with all the hops, is going to be cloudy anyways.

On the cascade, I actually went the other way on my last brew. The LHBS was out of Cascade and they suggested Falconer's as a good substitute.

As far as finings go. I bought some gelatin and I've been using Whirlfloc as well on my last couple of brews. Since originally, I din't use any finings, I just went with Whirlfloc for the first batch, to see what it did. And honestly, I haven't seen any reason to add gelatin at this point. My beer clears up really nice. The ever so slight bit of cloudiness that may be left, really isn't worth the hassle of boiling something else and adding to the keg. I tend to go from fermenter to keg, then cold crash after flushing the headspace with CO2, so I've decided not to mess with it. Most people say it's best to add the gelatin before racking, but after the beer has been cold crashed. It's just an extra step I personally don't seem necessary.

Thanks for the help. My kit should be here tomorrow or Monday. Will dry hop and avoid the finings. Read a little more and don't want to risk any problems with carbonation since I bottle. Can't wait until the IPA is ready.

If you have any qualms about bottling, go here:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11.html

Section 11-4 is about creating a priming solution and has a helpful little chart to assist you in determining what level of CO2 you want in your beer based on the style and how to get that. I think it is built around 5 gallon batches but it is pretty easy to do the math and scale it as needed.

If you are doing an IPA you want to hit the 2.2. - 2.7 volumes of CO2 levels. In a 5 gallon batch at roughly 68F, typical fermentation temp (at least for me), about 4 oz. of Priming Sugar (Corn Sugar) or a little less than 4 oz. of Cane or Table Sugar should do you fine. You will of course want to judge it for yourself based off of your temperature readings.

I recently bottled a winter warmer ale with far too much priming sugar and now it is like drinking seltzer. Tasty seltzer but seltzer none the less.