Any advice on how to use a pound of hops in one batch?

[earlingy]

So Austin HBS had a sale on Cascade pellet hops, 1lb for $8, so I got this great idea to use a whole pound of hops in a 5 gallon batch. I was imagining something like, just throwing the whole pound in at flameout, or maybe 8oz at 5min, 8oz dry hop, something along those lines. My goal is for a pale ale with explosive fruity aroma. As I mess with the calculator, using huge numbers on the hop weights gives crazy IBU numbers, even for a 5 minute boil. It seems to me that, just like beers with 150 and 200 IBU aren't "real" calculations, a pound of hops at flameout/whirlpool is going to do some stuff that can't really be calculated with plain old IBU calcs. But at the same time, I'd like some way to quantify the contribution of all these hops... Any personal experience with an experiment like this?
Grain: 10lb 2 row, 1lb Crystal 10
Haven't decided on yeast, usually get whichever bag is the freshest at the local shop, I'm taking recommendations though.
I use an igloo cooler w/false bottom + electric brew kettle + copper chiller. I go back and forth between batch and fly sparging depending how lazy I am that day, but get about 65% and 72% efficiency respectively. I usually put the hops in a mesh bag, I seem to have had better luck not allowing all the boiled hop gunk into the fermenter, but I wouldn't bag any dry hops unless I did them in the keg.

 

[SEndorf]

Rather than invent a Hop bomb that will make your eyes roll to the back of your head, why not freeze some of that cascade?

 

[Lefou]

Excuse me, but this made me laugh.

 

[chris000]

8 bucks for the pound is either an unbelievable deal or the hops are pretty old/stored improperly and they just wanted to get rid of their stock.
Having said that, I have a hard time passing cheap ingredients. Just be mindful when you use them.
BTW, I also freeze my pellets; always nice to have some variety of hops, grains and yeast on hand when I change the recipe all over while the liquor is still heating up...

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I think the base beer needs to be big enough to support the hops. Even doing hop bursting/ massive whirlpool/ flameout additions will give you considerable bitterness in addition to aroma and flavor. I'm a huge hophead and the only beer I've used a pound of hops in was a Pliny clone! @chris000 makes a good point that these are probably last year's batch, but they were likely stored appropriately so won't have lost a ton of punch. I love the idea of a big, hop bursted, fruity, hop bomb! Just make sure the beer has enough body/ character to balance the hops. Maybe go more IPA or a big pale like Dale's Pale Ale. I dig the simple grain bill but consider tossing in a pound (or more) of flaked something--oats, wheat, barley, rye--for body and mouthfeel. Let us know how it goes...I use a lot of whirlpool hops but have been too chicken to completely skip at least a small FWH addition!

 

[MrHopScotch]

8 bucks for the pound is either an unbelievable deal or the hops are pretty old/stored improperly and they just wanted to get rid of their stock.
Having said that, I have a hard time passing cheap ingredients. Just be mindful when you use them.
BTW, I also freeze my pellets; always nice to have some variety of hops, grains and yeast on hand when I change the recipe all over while the liquor is still heating up...

An LHBS near me does a huge discount on select pounds of hops on Black Friday as (I assume) a loss leader. I haven’t ever had problems with freshness, but I imagine overstock could play a factor. Who knows...

Your point is valid and taken, but I want to include my positive experience with hops around this price.

OP: I use 3/4-1 lb of hops in NE IPAs. Definitely juicy like you are looking for. I typically add a touch of something early to get IBU where I want them, but the vast majority are split up something like this:

40% in a 20-30 minute hop stand at 170 or so
30% dry hop at the tail end of fermentation
30% dry hop in the keg once fermentation is complete

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

This is easy. I use about 12-14 oz on my 5G NIEPA beers. Here's what I'd do:

3 oz at 5 mins
3 oz at FO (assuming you can chill to 170 reasonably fast)
4 oz WP for 30 mins
3 oz DH as fermentation slows
3 oz DH 3-5 days later (or in spider in the keg)

How exactly you distribute will depend on the AA of the hops. You could do a small amount FWH if you want more bitterness. Shoot for 60-70 IBU's if you go the big DIPA route.

Whomever said this needs a big beer is correct. I'd use a full flavored base malt like marris otter and maybe something else to give more malty backbone, build a recipe to get to 1.060-1.065 OG or so, then bump up with some sugar. Look to hit 7.5-8.5 ABV.

 

[dstockwell]

SMy goal is for a pale ale with explosive fruity aroma. As I mess with the calculator, using huge numbers on the hop weights gives crazy IBU numbers, even for a 5 minute boil. It seems to me that, just like beers with 150 and 200 IBU aren't "real" calculations, a pound of hops at flameout/whirlpool is going to do some stuff that can't really be calculated with plain old IBU calcs. But at the same time, I'd like some way to quantify the contribution of all these hops... Any personal experience with an experiment like this?

A hop stand at say 170 for and hour or more is not going to add any significant IBU contribution, more flavor and aroma.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I like the Maris Otter idea to get more of a malt backbone, might even toss in some Vienna or Munich + the light crystal and flaked something.

 

[earlingy]

Thanks for the advice all! Guess I should've expected some flaming, but why not try it? I like hops. Especially their smells. Hop bomb is not unlike what I want to make, I just want it to be mostly an aroma-bomb over a bitter-bomb. If it sucks, I'm only out $25.

Yeah, only Cascade was $8, most of the others were still $20-25/lb. I couldn't pass them up either, and maybe they are the old stock, which just means that I should just use 'em all up rather than freeze them and let them get even older!

I prefer simple grain bills, my best beers have always been made with them, but I'll add a pound of flaked barley (or good ol' Quaker if LHBS doesn't have any barley). Too late for Maris Otter, since I already ordered regular old 2 row. I can still add some extra sweetness and body to balance it out, but I'd prefer to stay lower in ABV, I'd rather be able to drink more than one! If I fly sparge, that gets me to 1.060 OG, and maybe I'll mash a little warm for more unfermentable sugars, and get a yeast with lower attenuation, aiming for 1.020 FG.

It usually takes me about 30-45 mins to cool from 212 to 75, but is very exponential, and faster in winter (cold groundwater). I was originally thinking just one addition at flameout, but the more I read about it, the more important that 170F number looks. Maybe 3 oz at 5min, add 3.5 oz at flameout, and add another 3.5oz at 170F. Then leave all the additions in until I'm done chilling, or for at least 30 minutes, whichever is longer. That leaves 6 oz for dry hopping.

 

[stz]

Everybody has a take on it, but have you tried no/very few kettle hops? Recently brewed a beer with only 17 ibu's from magnum at 60m, but 17g/L dry hop. It works (I'd next time go for around 25 ibu's because beer is still 5.2%)

 

[bierhaus15]

I would recommend doing something like SN Bigfoot Barleywine. Simple recipe and it can handle all the hops.

Here are the specs:

• ALCOHOL CONTENT 9.6% by volume
• BEGINNING GRAVITY 23.0° plato
• ENDING GRAVITY 6.0° plato
• BITTERNESS UNITS 90
• YEAST Ale yeast
• BITTERING HOPS Chinook
• FINISHING HOPS Cascade, Centennial, Chinook
• MALTS Two-row Pale, Caramel

 

[SEndorf]

Thanks for the advice all! Guess I should've expected some flaming, but why not try it? I like hops. Especially their smells. Hop bomb is not unlike what I want to make, I just want it to be mostly an aroma-bomb over a bitter-bomb. If it sucks, I'm only out $25.

No flaming intended.
If you're really intent on blowing that pound of cascade on a 5G batch, I'd recommend 40-50% dry hop. Otherwise, I'm afraid the bittering may overwhelm your intent.

 

[FatDragon]

I'd make it a CDA/Black IPA. Add a pound of rye, 8-10 oz. roasted barley/chocolate/midnight wheat (I like RB and chocolate malt - like that roast in a CDA), and base malt to bring it up to about 1.070. Then hop it all through the boil - FWH, 60 min, 45 min, 30 min, 15 min, 5 min, whirlpool - and do a three-stage dry hop - one on day two or three of fermentation, one longer one from the end of fermentation until packaging, and one shorter one a couple days before packaging. If you keg, you could move the third stage to (or add a fourth stage in) the keg. The moderate roast and the higher gravity will counterbalance the IBUs (which will be high even if you're just using a half-ounce at the early kettle additions) so it won't be a total bitter bomb, hence doing such a brew as a CDA rather than a regular pale or IPA.

Actually, now I want to brew something like this. The last time I did something like this, though much more moderate, it was absolutely killer.

 

[SEndorf]

I'd make it a CDA/Black IPA. Add a pound of rye, 8-10 oz. roasted barley/chocolate/midnight wheat (I like RB and chocolate malt - like that roast in a CDA), and base malt to bring it up to about 1.070. Then hop it all through the boil - FWH, 60 min, 45 min, 30 min, 15 min, 5 min, whirlpool - and do a three-stage dry hop - one on day two or three of fermentation, one longer one from the end of fermentation until packaging, and one shorter one a couple days before packaging. If you keg, you could move the third stage to (or add a fourth stage in) the keg. The moderate roast and the higher gravity will counterbalance the IBUs (which will be high even if you're just using a half-ounce at the early kettle additions) so it won't be a total bitter bomb, hence doing such a brew as a CDA rather than a regular pale or IPA.

Actually, now I want to brew something like this. The last time I did something like this, though much more moderate, it was absolutely killer.

I like this idea, but my palette suggests Briess Midnight Wheat. IMHO a dark roasted toasted IPA is an oxymoron.
Black wheat gives the dark color without the stout characteristics, which are counterintuitive for an IPA.

 

[FatDragon]

I like this idea, but my palette suggests Briess Midnight Wheat. IMHO a dark roasted toasted IPA is an oxymoron.
Black wheat gives the dark color without the stout characteristics, which are counterintuitive for an IPA.

CDA then. I don't care much for adding midnight wheat to make a black IPA that tastes pretty much like a regular IPA. I don't see the point. My ideal CDA has decent body and a moderate roast. More or less a strong American stout with double IPA hoppiness.

 

[tri_clamp_ninja]

You get a lb of Cascade at a lhbs for $8 retail yet my wholesale supplier for my brewery just told me that I can't get any Cascade hops for several weeks on a wholesale/commercial scale... Ugh. Worst part is all 3 of my core beers in my portfolio use Cascade at some point.

For your question: I would agree on freezing some of it. If you really want to use it all I would suggest a high og malt forward beer as a base and use some sweet specialties (like honey malt and/or c40 for example) then make use of mash hops, first wort hops, late boil, flame out, and whirlpool additions in addition to staggered dry hops (say 2oz for 3 days, another 2oz for 3 days, etc). You'll be amazed at how quickly you can use up a whole pound like that. Now Cascade typically falls between 6-8% aa and if it is an older crop that wasn't vacuum sealed your are more likely looking at 4-6% aa at this point. Good news there is you can use a lot without huge flavor, bitterness, and aromatic contributions like fresh and/or high AA hops. Bad news there is since you can and will use so much your beer will be very "vegetal" in flavor and aromatics.

Now, I'll throw a huge wrench in the mix here:. Since you have so much hops and got them so cheap, go out and get a 750ml of high proof vodka or grain neutral spirit (ever clear, Bacardi 151, etc). Put the hops and the spirit into a growler, flask, whatever and let them sit for at least a week or two (month is better). Swirl it occasionally or, even better, put it in your yeast starter flask with a stir bar and once every day or two sit it on a stir plate for 10 mins. After it's "ready" you can strain it out and save the liquid. Voila! You just made a potent, sterile hop extract! Now whenever you have a beer that you are about to bottle/keg and feel is lacking in it's hop profile you can simply squirt a few mL's or even a few ounces into your beer before packaging. Quick, easy, and most importantly: sterile.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I love me a good CDA! I'm somewhere between @FatDragon & @SEndorf on the roast. I don't think it should taste like an IPA with black food coloring and it shouldn't taste like an American Stout. Carafa special dehusked or midnight wheat should be used but a touch of cold steeped chocolate malt, black malt, roasted barley, etc should give a hint of smokiness/ roastiness so even if you were blindfolded there'd be something suggesting you're not just drinking an IPA.

And holy sh!tsnacks (poopysnacks? Really censoring software?! ) @tri_clamp_ninja you just blew my mind!
No idea why I never thought about a hop tincture for adjusting bitterness. Or why I've never read about it in 8 years of subscriptions to Zymurgy and BYO!

 

[tri_clamp_ninja]

@TANSTAAFB see the thing is byo and zymurgy are geared more toward homebrewers and most professional brewers started as homebrewers. This leads many professional brewers to approach brewing like they are in their garage with a 5 gal pot. I actually started brewing professionally before I started homebrewing which leads me to approach a 5 gal pot in my garage as if it were a full commercial system. I don't mean that in a braggy way and i'm not saying one is better then the other, i'm just simply saying that sometimes you have to approach a question from a different point of view. For me it makes financial sense on a commercial level to use old hops to make a tincture like that to nail batch consistency as well as not waste one of the most expensive ingredients. That same thought can be applied here to do something really cool at home. If you were to drink a large volume of that tincture it would be "hot" and vegetal for sure in addition to being very bitter however if you were to dose say 2-4mL per gal you can really boost your beer's hop profile without tasting the ethanol.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

So Austin HBS had a sale on Cascade pellet hops, 1lb for $8, so I got this great idea to use a whole pound of hops in a 5 gallon batch. [...] My goal is for a pale ale with explosive fruity aroma. [...] Any personal experience with an experiment like this? [...]
Grain: 10lb 2 row, 1lb Crystal 10

I have a wet-hopped cascade IPA right now - a 3g bucket full of whole fresh hop cones, plus dried cascade at 60, 20, flameout, with the wet hop additions over whirldpool, and a dry hop charge. It is way too much cascade, to the point of being unbalanced. I have a Pliny clone that I enjoy and I am a general hop-head, but that much cascade becomes nothing but spice and floral, to the point of being akin to snorting potpourri. The Illinois hop crops came out a big heavy on the spice due to the weather, and that is only exacerbated by using only one hop. In my experience using that much cascade is overpowering, with an end product that is overly harsh. It is enough to turn me off from cascade for a while. Compared to my pliny clone, the variety of hops plays well together even while being objectively (IBU) and subjectively more bitter by being more balanced and harmonious, since the floral/fruity/spice/bitter/piney/resin cover a broad spectrum, where my single hop cascade bomb is singularly overwhelming.

I also think your grain bill is a bit light - I would use some C45 or C60 instead. That little crystal is going to get blown away by that much hop, even at 8oz of Cascade.

In retrospect, I would probably have used cascade at 60 for bittinering, an ounce of citra at 20 (or simcoe if you like pine), and then about half the cascade during whirlpool. Either heavier pine or citrus would give the cascade floral/spice something to work with and against, leaving a more balanced end product.

 

[imasickboy]

I have a fair bit of experience with 1lb/5G beers. I've successfully done a Simcoe beer several times this year that way. I later took the same recipe, and used Cascade, only adding 2 extra ounces to account for IBU differences.

My recipe for the Simcoe beer:

59% pils
26.2% Vienna
13.1% Munich
1.6% Crystal 60

Shoot for an OG somewhere in the mid 1.060's.
Mash @153

75 minute boil

1oz @20
1oz @15
1oz @10
1oz @5
8oz whirlpool starting at 150 degrees and letting the temp freefall for 30 minutes.
2oz dryhop starting third day of fermentation
2oz dryhop starting sixth day of fermentation

Keg by day 12.

US05/WY1056/WLP001

My water is pretty hard, so for this beer I use distilled for a bit more than half the water.

It's really, really good.

However, the Cascade version was just...meh. I was very disappointed. I think that Cascade just isn't bracing enough to stand up to my grain bill. Should I do the Cascade version again, I'd probably eliminate the munich altogether, switch the pils to pale, and boil for 60 instead of 75.

The Simcoe version I'm perfectly happy with.