A Tale of two Pails

[phyllobeddo]

I'm thinking of brewing the following recipes back to back to use up grain inventory and to compare Amarillo and Mosaic hops. Shooting for 35 IBUs on both and basically using the same hop schedule. Two ounces of hops in each recipe. I brewed a similar pale earlier this year and it was real good so I want to do it again, twice. Besides any recipe critique or suggestions, I'm looking at how to handle the hop additions. Listed below is something more or a traditional hop schedule I think. Or, I was thinking of trying something along the lines of one ounce at flameout and steep for 30 minutes and then either dry hop with 1 oz four days before bottling or throw in a 1/2 ounce at day 3 of fermentation, like "they" are doing with NE IPAs, and then 1/2 ounce dry hop four days before bottling. I've only used Cali V on one batch, a Vienna/Cascade SMaSH, but I have a couple of jars of it to use up. The hydrometer sample of the SMaSH tasted really good. Thoughts on grain bill, hop schedule, or yeast? My main deal right now is figuring out how to handle the two ounces of hops per batch, traditional or try something new?

2.5 gallon batches

Honey Pail (Amarillo)
4 lb Maris Otter 2 row
4.5 oz Honey Malt
4 oz Cara-Pils

WLP051 Cali V

2 g Magnum 60 min
10 g Amarillo 10 min
12 g Amarillo 5 min
10 g Amarillo 0 min + 10 minute steep
24 g Amarillo Dry Hop four days before bottling

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Honey Pail (Mosaic)
4 lb Maris Otter 2 row
4.5 oz Honey Malt
4 oz Cara-Pils

WLP051 Cali V

4 g Magnum 60 min
10 g Mosaic 10 min
12 g Mosaic 5 min
10 g Mosaic 0 min + 10 minute steep
24 g Mosaic Dry Hop four days before bottling

 

[Ike]

I am, as I type, sipping on a glass of a Maris Otter/ Mosaic SMaSH I've just completed (aptly named Yer M.O.M.) And it is just awesome. So, pardon any typos.

You mention "traditional" vs. "something new;" might I suggest a hop tea at bottling? For 2.5 gallons, I'd say cut your dry hop dose in half, and save the remainder for bottling day. About an hour before you start bottling, make a tea with the remaining 12g of hops. Easiest way for me is to use my french press and about 1L of water. I start with the water at about 160*, so I'm getting a lot of hop flavor but basically no bitterness from it. Once I'm ready, I press the hops down and add it to the bottling bucket along with the priming sugar.

The results (I've only done it twice so far, myself) have been PHENOMENAL. Talk about hop-forward! The above timing is assuming pellet hops. If you're using whole leaf, you may want to steep the hops a bit longer? I'd probably punt that one to the crowd to see if they had any suggestions...

 

[phyllobeddo]

Hop tea at bottling. Very interesting. I've never tried that and it never crossed my mind to try something like that. This leaves me with even more options to consider, haha. And yes, hop pellets. I've never used whole leaf hops before. Thanks for the suggestion. Next up is a stout and then these two recipes, so it'll be at least two weeks before I brew the first one. I doubt I will have time this weekend for the stout.