Cloning Sierra Nevada Estate Homegrown Ale

I am a fairly new brewer with half a dozen extract brews under my belt. I have now gathered enough equipment to switch to all grain brewing and I would like to attempt to clone this SN beer. The hops in this beer is supposed to be Cascade, Chinook and Citra. I do not know the grains used and so I am going to use the recipe for their Pale Ale. My question is that in a five gallon batch, how much of each of these three hops should I use and when should I use them? the Cascade and Chinook I have are pellet and the Citra are whole. I know the recipe is incorrect and that they wet hop this beer but if I could approximate it and enjoy it as much as the original I would be quite satisfied

Thanks for the help!

I really think you can't approximate this beer without wet hops.

Wet hop of fresh hop beers use hops that are taken from the vine and then used without drying. My favorite example of this style is Port Brewing High Tide, which is made with fresh wet Simcoe hops.

While you can make a GREAT beer Cascade, Chinook and Citra and the maltbill of SNPA, you will not be able to get that "wet hop taste" unless you get your hands on some wet hops. There are tons of threads on growing your own hops, I'm not sure if you can buy hops from any LHBSs.

Keep in mind, lots of people have hops growing in their yards for ornamental purposes. Using these hops wet along with high quality dried hops can result in a great fresh hop beer with that wet hop taste.

Also, since Estate is 6.7% ABV rather than 5.6% like SNPA, I'd think you'd want a maltbill closer to Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA. Should be plenty of clone recipes for that on this board.

Yes I mentioned that they wet hopped this beer and also mentioned the hops I have to work with. My question was what my hop schedule should be. Good tip on the ABV though.

SpaceJunk said:

Yes I mentioned that they wet hopped this beer and also mentioned the hops I have to work with. My question was what my hop schedule should be. Good tip on the ABV though.

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Sorry, I can't help myself from talking about how much I love wet hops.

I'd say you'd want something like this:

2 oz Chinook @ 60
4 oz Cascade @ 15
2 oz Cascade @ 5
2 oz Citra @ 5
2 oz Chinook Dry Hops
2 oz Citra Dry Hops

Beautiful thanks!

alexdagrate said:

Sorry, I can't help myself from talking about how much I love wet hops.

I'd say you'd want something like this:

2 oz Chinook @ 60
4 oz Cascade @ 15
2 oz Cascade @ 5
2 oz Citra @ 5
2 oz Chinook Dry Hops
2 oz Citra Dry Hops

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That looks like a hop schedule for a 10 gallon batch to me. 66 IBUs in that beer. That looks like double the amount of hops needed.

Zoinks! 2 oz of Chinook for 60 minutes is A LOT of IBUs for a 5 gallon batch.

This sounds like a dare.

I have a total of 121 IBU's between the three hops .... Excessive?