Experiemntal Hop HBC 342 HopNog

I bought the HopNog extract kit for 2011 today at my local supplier in Omaha. It has an experimental hop that has the temporary name of HBC 342. The description of the kit is below along with a link to it's instructions. Some places online are selling 2010 kits as the 2011 kits so be careful as they are totally different kits. It also came with a free HopNog Growler.

Anyway, I was looking for ideas on the hop schedule. I'm boiling around 3.75 - 4 gallons of water in a 5 gallon stainless pot so I'm thinking 1/2 ounce for bitterness instead of the suggested 3/4 ounce and 1 once at flame out for aroma with 2 ounces dry hopped. But that seems kind of dull. I want more aroma so I may just skip the bitterness all together and only dry hop but that seems crazy. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

HopNog™ 2011

http://www.ldcarlson.com/public%20catalog/Brewers%20Best%20Recipes/1053.pdf

2011 marks the end of NASA’s historic 30-year Space
Shuttle program. Five orbiters conducted thousands of
experiments onboard 135 missions into space. HopNog™
2011 celebrates innovation through experimentation.
This year’s IPA offers, for the first time, experimental hop
HBC 342. HopNog™ 2011 offers 3 oz. of whole leaf HBC
342 for brewers to come up with their own flavoring and
aroma additions - creating an IPA experiment like none
ever conducted before.

Also, around August 20th this year I brewed a wheat beer. Due to a health problems I was unable to bottle it but could do it now. Now that it's over 2 months later sitting in primary I'm 90% towards dumping it. I was planning on adding a blueberry extract when bottling. I know wheats are only usually good when young so.... It was an American Stye Wheat extract all liquid and I added 1 pound of honey at flame out.

I know most of you are going to say just bottle it and taste it but the pain bottling causes me would make it not worth bottling something that has a huge chance of sucking. So give it some thought and let me know if you think i should bottle it today with the extract or just dump it. It cost me little to purchase so I don't care about dumping it but with my arthritis I don't want to bottle just to see if it doesn't suck.

Any thoughts....

Rocky71 said:

Also, around August 20th this year I brewed a wheat beer. Due to a health problems I was unable to bottle it but could do it now. Now that it's over 2 months later sitting in primary I'm 90% towards dumping it. I was planning on adding a blueberry extract when bottling. I know wheats are only usually good when young so.... It was an American Stye Wheat extract all liquid and I added 1 pound of honey at flame out.

I know most of you are going to say just bottle it and taste it but the pain bottling causes me would make it not worth bottling something that has a huge chance of sucking. So give it some thought and let me know if you think i should bottle it today with the extract or just dump it. It cost me little to purchase so I don't care about dumping it but with my arthritis I don't want to bottle just to see if it doesn't suck.

Any thoughts....

Click to expand...

Yeah, bottle it. I leave plenty of my beers in primary for two months. I prefer at least 5 weeks, and sometimes I just don't get around to them until two months or so. At the very least, you should take a hydrometer sample and taste it - you'll know if its going to suck. I know you said that the ingredients didn't cost much, but time is money, and beer is...well, beer, so its a crying shame to waste a whole carboy of beer just because you THINK it might not taste great after bottling.

I'm going to go ahead and bottle the wheat. I'll taste it tonight before and after I add the blueberry extract. Hopefully the extract will hide any off flavors.

I contacted Brewers Best and they only made 1500 of the HopNog 2011 kits with the experimental hops. I bought mine for just short of $60 but I found them online for as much as $99 before tax and shipping so shop around if you want one.

Rocky71:

Did you brew your Hopnog 2011? Curious on your results. Just bought a kit today. I was thinking about dry hopping in secondary, but the AA is 14.9%, many recommend dry hopping a hop that is at/less than 6%.

Let me know your results. I'm looking for more aroma and flavor at this point.

Thanks!

DS6

Rocky71 said:

I bought the HopNog extract kit for 2011 today at my local supplier in Omaha. It has an experimental hop that has the temporary name of HBC 342. The description of the kit is below along with a link to it's instructions. Some places online are selling 2010 kits as the 2011 kits so be careful as they are totally different kits. It also came with a free HopNog Growler.

Anyway, I was looking for ideas on the hop schedule. I'm boiling around 3.75 - 4 gallons of water in a 5 gallon stainless pot so I'm thinking 1/2 ounce for bitterness instead of the suggested 3/4 ounce and 1 once at flame out for aroma with 2 ounces dry hopped. But that seems kind of dull. I want more aroma so I may just skip the bitterness all together and only dry hop but that seems crazy. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

HopNog™ 2011

http://www.ldcarlson.com/public%20catalog/Brewers%20Best%20Recipes/1053.pdf

2011 marks the end of NASA’s historic 30-year Space
Shuttle program. Five orbiters conducted thousands of
experiments onboard 135 missions into space. HopNog™
2011 celebrates innovation through experimentation.
This year’s IPA offers, for the first time, experimental hop
HBC 342. HopNog™ 2011 offers 3 oz. of whole leaf HBC
342 for brewers to come up with their own flavoring and
aroma additions - creating an IPA experiment like none
ever conducted before.

Click to expand...

DS6 said:

Rocky71:

Did you brew your Hopnog 2011? Curious on your results. Just bought a kit today. I was thinking about dry hopping in secondary, but the AA is 14.9%, many recommend dry hopping a hop that is at/less than 6%.

Let me know your results. I'm looking for more aroma and flavor at this point.

Thanks!

DS6

Click to expand...

Dogfish head dryhops high alpha in their IPAs all the time (warrior, simcoe, Amarillo for the 90 minute) as do other breweries. It works fine.


Any updates on the HBC 342 flavor and aromas? Even preliminary stuff from brew day would be great