Wort hog????

[DaveO]

I decided today to make an extract SMaSh brew just for kicks. Also I decided to try leaf hops for the first time.
I didn't have an establish recipe, I just kinda winged it.
Here's what I did -
1# Crystal 40L steeped @ 150º for 30 min.
Sparge and top off kettle to 4 gal
Add 6.6# liquid light extract, bring to a boil.
1.5 oz leaf Cascade @ 60 min
1.5 oz leaf Cascade @ 30 min
1 oz leaf Cascade @ 15 min.

When I drained my kettle i only ended up with ~2.5 gallons of wort. The rest was sucked up by the leaf hops. So I topped the wort off with 2.5 gallons of bottled water.
My OG before I pitched my yeast (Wyeast 1272) was only 1.0413.

I think I just made a very hoppy light beer. Is that OG as low as I think it is? How do you avoid the wort hogging effect of leaf hops? Or deal with it, I feel robbed

TIA for your thoughts,
Dave

 

[McGarnigle]

Leaf hops suck up lots of wort, but I wouldn't think you'd lose that much wort. If you did, however, you lost wort that was hopped, which would cut down your IBUs as well (in a sense, you watered down your beer).

BTW: that's really not a SMaSH, its a single hop beer.

 

[Yooper]

Well, in a 5 gallon batch, you should have had an OG of about 1.047. So, no, it's not too bad really. In retrospect, I guess you could have poured the wort through a strainer and poured the top off water over the hops in it.

I would worry about it, though. A .0057 difference isn't very much.

 

[DaveO]

Thanks Yooper, I appreciate the reassurance. I wish I had thought about pouring my make-up water over the hops. They were sitting in a big strainer, and it would have been so easy.

I know this isn't a true SMaSH brew, but I think it's about as close as you can get with extract. A simple malt bill, and a single hop. Hopefully it will show me the flavors that Cascade can give as I plan on growing some this summer.

Dave

 

[DaveO]

Well this brew has finished it's run. 3 weeks in the primary with a steady final gravity of 1.011. I bottled it today, and it smelled great. I tasted the last little bit that I couldn't fit in the bottles. Wow this is a bitter brew. With very little hop aroma or flavor. It's all Alpha. I couldn't finish my small sample. I would have thought with my hopped wort lost to the leaf hops that this would be a very watered down tasting brew. My plan was to experience the true taste of Cascade hops, in making a single hop brew. Cascade is considered a good aroma/finishing hop, with low but acceptable use in bittering. The Cascades that I used had an AA of 6.5%. How did it get so bitter? Will this brew mellow with time? Is my green tasting not a good representation of what the final brew will be once finished...will the bitter decrease over time? I hope so because I now have 26 bombers of this brew, and I hope it will be drinkable.
I hindsight I should have upped my malt amounts, but based on other Pale Ale recipes I've read the extract amount was about right. This also wasn't a full boil, and that should have affected my hop utilization. Basically this brew has gone against the grain of all that I've made, and all the facts that I've read.

 

[Yooper]

3 ounces for bittering is quite a bit, especially with a 4 gallon boil. I come up with 63 IBUs, pretty high for a 1.050 beer.

The other thing, if you wanted cascade flavor and aroma, you didn't add any real flavor or aroma additions. The addition at 30 minutes would be a bittering addition. The 15 minute addition would be for flavor, of course, but then you didn't add any hops at 5, 1, or flame out that would provide a hoppy flavor.

 

[IrregularPulse]

The other thing, if you wanted cascade flavor and aroma, you didn't add any real flavor or aroma additions. The addition at 30 minutes would be a bittering addition. The 15 minute addition would be for flavor, of course, but then you didn't add any hops at 5, 1, or flame out that would provide a hoppy aroma.

fixed that for you

It will taste quite different once carbed and conditioned as well. Plus the beer is only 3 weeks old. Give it time in the bottle. Those additional 3 weeks plus some carbonation should improve it a good bit.

 

[remilard]

What was your post boil volume? I can't imagine you lost more than half a gallon to the hops, probably less.

I use whole hops with a false bottom and don't lose much more than I used to with pellets. They can kinda drain a little once the liquid is below the false bottom and they end up wet but not really trapping any excess liquid like I would imagine they would just sitting on the bottom of a pot.

Pouring through a sufficiently large strainer (like a splatter screen over a bucket) should yield a similar effect.

 

[DaveO]

3 ounces for bittering is quite a bit, especially with a 4 gallon boil. I come up with 63 IBUs, pretty high for a 1.050 beer.

The other thing, if you wanted cascade flavor and aroma, you didn't add any real flavor or aroma additions. The addition at 30 minutes would be a bittering addition. The 15 minute addition would be for flavor, of course, but then you didn't add any hops at 5, 1, or flame out that would provide a hoppy flavor.

Thank-you that is information I haven't had. I have always considered the 60 minute hops to add bittering, due to the long boil releasing the full potential of the AA. Then the 30 minute addition was splitting the difference, releasing a good amount of AA, but also a equal amount of BA, which would lead to flavor. The late addition (15,10, 5 , or flame out) would give the aroma as very little of the AA/BA were worked into the wort.
Pre-boil volume was around 4 gallons, at final straining of the hops I had around 2½ gallons in the carboy. I should have dry-hopped, and upped my malt bill considerable. I hope this will age well in time, this is the first time I hope a brews flavor will fade or mellow with time. Well at least I got a good handle of Cascade hops, and they cankick a bittering.