brewin this!

Hey guys, I'm in the process of brewing a half batch of the Hop Hammer IPA from the Brewing Classic Styles book. I'm about 15 minutes into the 90 min boil and I'll keep updating as I go. I had to sub out a couple of hop varieties due to my LHBS being out of simcoe and warrior. Here's the recipe I'm using, feel free to point out how I'm messing it all up.

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.40 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 80.73 %
0.20 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 3.67 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4.59 %
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (90 min) Hops 75.7 IBU
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (90 min) Hops 49.5 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (90 min) Hops 49.5 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (45 min) Hops 32.5 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (30 min) Hops 29.3 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.13 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.63 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.88 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.60 lb Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 11.01 %

finally learned how to post images correctly. here's a shot of the hops and the start of the 90 min boil!

Looks good! What are you replacing the simcoe with?

Looks good! What are you replacing the simcoe with?

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The closest hop AA%-wise was chinook. Rather than double up on that, I decided to go out on a limb and try other hops that I've meant to try for a while: Amarillo and Northern Brewer. My reasoning was that I can use more of these hops than what was called for with simcoe and hopefully come out close. I'm not too worried, should I be? What would you guys have used instead??



Here's the measured hops for the 30 min addition. I've managed to muck up the timing of the hop additions so far. I'm keeping track of what I'm changing though and I'll post the results at the end.

214 IBUs! I didn't pay attention to the timing when I first read the recipe! I'm sure Jamil knows what he's doing but I thought anything over 100 didn't add any percieved bitterness. Seems like a waste of hops adding all those at 90 minutes.

KingBrianI said:

214 IBUs! I didn't pay attention to the timing when I first read the recipe! I'm sure Jamil knows what he's doing but I thought anything over 100 didn't add any percieved bitterness. Seems like a waste of hops adding all those at 90 minutes.

Click to expand...

Yeah I know! Thats why I'm doing a half-batch this time. I really like Pliny the Elder, the beer this recipe is based on, so I thought I'd follow as close as possible for now and then tweak later. We'll see how it turns out!

chillin

The hopping schedule ended up:

1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (90 min) Hops 49.5 IBU
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (90 min) Hops 75.7 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (90 min) Hops 49.5 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (53 min) Hops 36.9 IBU
0.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (30 min) Hops 17.8 IBU
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (30 min) Hops 14.6 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (0 min) Hops
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (0 min)

Those extra 0 min hops from the first post are for dry hopping.

I ended up pitching a smack pack of 1056. I'm planning making a simple syrup with the sugar and adding it as fermentation looks like its winding down. I've read that this helps the yeast ferment out the more complex sugars first and helps dry out the beer, so I thought I'd give this method a go.

Well its in the primary now. Hopefully it'll start bubblin away soon!