What’s the most hops you’ve put into a 5 gal batch?

Im wanting to do an ultra high abv ipa sipper, initial recipe calls for 8oz mash hops,

then 14oz hops in the boil (first wort, 15min, and flameout additions)

then 12oz dry hops.

I do want to have some beer left over after all those hops... what’s the most you’ve ever put in? And how did it work out?

 

16 oz is the most I have ever put in a boil for a 5 gallon batch. That was in May of 2015, before I did any kind of Whirlpool and as expected, it plugged my plate chiller something nasty!

As for that beer? At that time, it was the best beer I had ever made, says those who got to try it when I took a growler to my local bar and shared some. It's a malty, 8.5% IPA that uses Cascade and Citra. I brewed a 1 BBL batch of that a couple weeks ago for the first time since getting all my licenses in July. Looking forward to seeing it on tap locally soon.

 

Sounds amazing! Can I try some?!

So you’re saying I need more hops...

 

That seems like a ton to me. I’ve seen recipes calling for about a pound before, but you’ve got almost two pounds in there.

I’m still relatively new at this and staying away from making very hoppy beers that are easily oxidized, but what’s the deal with the mash hops? I’m under the impression that the oils in hops don’t isomerize until the temperature is above about 175F (above a typical mash temperature) and that the aromatics are generally volatile and boil off quickly.

 

LOL. I used to be the one that would say "There never can be too many hops". Realistically, that just isn't true, but the point is, I love a big ass hoppy beer. Now, with the business, I am the kind that wants to make the big hoppy beers, but also needs to find the balance between pricing and utilization of those hops.... aka "get the bigger hop bang for my buck". Case in point, when scaling up that recipe from 5 gals to 1 BBL, directly it would be ~6# in the boil. I ended up using ~5.7# in the entire batch, including DH. That's still a load of hops though. Contrast that to the house beer we do for a local taproom and that's only 4.1#/BBL. I honestly feel I could trim that some still, but have been almost afraid to touch that recipe because people like it the way it is.

 

Some think mash hopping can extract more flavor, some don’t and that’s ok.

On oxidation, the dry hops will be added along with sugar additions; whatever oxygen is in there will be eaten up by yeast, personally I think dry hopping oxidation is another brewing boogeyman and I don’t worry so much about it anyways.

 

Interesting! I learn something new every day and today I learned something about beer.

Sorry, I think that my intended message wasn’t conveyed properly. I meant to say that in brewing for a year now I’ve only had a maximum of about four ounces of hops in a 5g batch. That’s because with my current packaging process I don’t believe that I can properly prevent oxidation of beers with high amounts of hops. That said, very highly hopped recipes that I’ve seen have about a pound of hops in them.

 

Plan on doing a 1lb whirlpool and 2oz cryo dry hopped Simcoe IPA. Build your malt to accomadte the hops you'll be a okie. I am BIAB so FWH is foreign to me and honestly seems pointless I'd rather WP them