Brewed using my hops for the first time!

[7Enigma]

So today after pawning off the daughter to my SIL I decided to finally get around to doing the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone. Since I ended up with about 9oz of dried cascade hops it was just begging to be made. I also got 3/4oz dried Nugget, but that was not enough to use and so I purchased 1oz of Perle along with the yeast and malt extract (and 1lb grain). As this was my first experience using whole flower hops it was crazy to see them all floating around in the wort.

Wanted to quickly add I only used ~40% or so of the malt extract, the rest was added @15 before finish. I'm hoping since I had a bit more extract than the recipe called for I might get a bit more out of the perle with the late addition.

The recipe which I used called for 0.8oz @ 15min and then 1.2oz @ 5min before the end of boiling. After the 0.8oz I seriously thought my math when vacuum sealing these buggers was off. The whole top of the wort was covered, and after adding in the remaining 1.2oz I felt there was more hops than wort!

Here's another shout out to using a whisk for aerating the cooled wort. In all of 30 seconds it was nice and frothy. I gave it a good 2-3 minutes of whisking, but I bet 30seconds on top of pouring through the funnel would have been enough.

Fortunately my wife was around to help me when I poured the cooled wort into my primary (6.5gallon glass carboy so it has a very narrow mouth). She had to keep stretching and bouncing the muslin bag I use to strain the wort as it hits the funnel. That sounded naughty. Otherwise it would clog very quickly. After all had been poured in the bag weighed close to a pound if not more and so I had to sit there for several minutes draining the liquid. I didn't have gloves on or I would have squeezed the bag to finish the job quicker.

All in all though it feels very rewarding to know I grew the hops that went into this brew. Hopefully next year I can get a much larger yield of the Nugget hops and use those for bittering.

For anyone interested the recipe I used was:

Hillside pale ale
7lbs malt extract
1lb 40L crystal (20min steep ~170F)
1oz perle (bittering)
3oz cascade (0.8oz @15min, 1.2oz @5min, 1oz in secondary)
Nottingham dry yeast

Thanks to Hillside Pale Ale - A Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone

 

[Parker36]

Hope it turns out good. Was this the first year with the plants or just first harvest year?

 

[The Soft Underbelly]

The recipe looks tasty. I brewed a similar beer, only where you used Perle, i used chinook. It turned out to be quite a good beer. i had to dial back on the Crystal the next time out and used 1/2 a pound and found that to be just about where i wanted to be. Also i used Safeale-04 which i understand lends it self to expressing the malt character over the bitterness of hops. Next time out i may try a different yeast. I found the late extract addition i did with the second batch help the color and the bitterness as well.

Let us know how it turns out. I cant wait for the next hop harvest....

 

[Schlenkerla]

I think that will be quite good. I did Edwort's Hause Ale and 2oz of my cascades dry hopped. It smelled awesome and tasted great.

 

[Danek]

Congrats! Brewing with hops you tended yourself is a serious achievement. I take my hat off to you, sir.

 

[7Enigma]

Parker36, this was 1st year. I would have had significantly more cones if an entire bine hadn't dried up from the mini drought we had when on vacation (lost a whole nugget rhizome from that dry spell), and I also didn't anticipate quite how vigorous the growth would be for the first year and so only had an 8' tepee setup that the plants maxed out on by early summer. Next year I've already decided to go to a minimum of 15', but I may just find a way to run it up the side of the house and let it go wild.

Thesoftunderbelly, thanks for the comments. I'm hoping my late addition of the remaining malt helped, but we'll see. It certainly smells fantastic. And I'm lazy and use dry yeast at any opportunity (haven't used a smack pack yet actually).

So now to the bad news

I brewed this yesterday at around 2pm. Yeast was hydrated like always (~20min prior to pitching, in warm water, let sit 5 min, stir in and froth, let sit covered until pitching, yeast was clearly active), cooled wort was aerated as mentioned above (actually this would be the most aerated I've ever done), and after yeast was pitched i swirled the fermenter to make sure the yeast was evenly spread out.

I checked it before I went out to a party last night (~6pm) and saw no airlock activity but it was still early. When I came home last night ~11pm I was very worried to see still no airlock activity. Something was screwed up with my airlock and it seems as if a bit of the vodka I use for liquid had gone back into the fermenter. This could have only been a little bit so I can't imagine that would be a cause of lack of activity. I replaced the airlock with another one and this appeared to be fine. The yeast had settled to the bottom and so I removed the airlock, swirled the wort to get the yeast back in suspension and put the airlock back in.

I came down this morning and NOTHING has visibly happened. There is no churning, no airlock activity, and no krausen layer (I had hoped maybe the fermentation was so vigorous it had completed overnight). I'm very concerned now something has gone wrong.

The first 2 things that popped into my mind was:

1. So many hops the preservative nature did something to the yeast

2. Pitching temp of the wort was too cold. I've never brewed when it's below freezing out and so may have cooled the wort a bit much. It said 75F on my turkey friar thermometer but I doubt it's very accurate that low. I'm also sure the yeast temp when pitched was probably below 80F so I can't imagine the temp swing was enough to hurt the buggers.

Right now I'm testing the temp of my basement to see how cool it is down there. I'm pretty sure it's in the low 60's so again that shouldn't have been a problem, especially since I wrapped the carboy in a thick black trashbag which should have helped to insulate the bottle while the yeast got to munching.

Anyone else have problems with slow/non starts when using lots of hops? My hops were bone dry before vacuum sealing and I used a balance to measure them out (28g per ounce or something). I'm just wondering if it was too much too soon (secondary will have no effect since the yeast are basically done fermentation).

 

[Schlenkerla]

Wait at least 48hours. Some times they need time before they get rip-roaring. What yeast did you use? Cooler temps will make it start out slower.

Do you have a dry yeast back-up?

BTW - Your hops will have nothing to do with the yeast getting started.

If you pitched the yeast and it shocked them it might have had a bad effect but you need to wait a little longer.

 

[7Enigma]

I do not have a dry yeast backup but do have a LHB store I can go to in an emergency. This is the Nottingham dry yeast which I have used 3 times previously all with exceptional results. I also have a very specific hydrating process that IMO gives the yeast the highest viability out of the packet so that conversion to alcohol begins very quickly. My last batch was so vigorous I thought I had a problem the next morning due to virtually no airlock activity. It wasn't until I saw the 2" krausen layer that I realized it had fermented out overnight.

The temp shock was the only thing I can think of but have no idea exactly how much (or even if) a shock occurred.

The only other thing I did this time differently was a quick wash of rubbing alcohol on the inside of the carboy and funnel (had been previously sanitized). But this was washed off both pieces of equipment, and isopropyl shouldn't have a negative effect (especially in such a low amount after being washed out).

So pretty much I'm just stumped. I'm ready to wrap the carboy in something and heat it up. The Sierra Nevada clone recipe says 68F fermentation temp which I know the basement isn't but I brewed my first pale ale in march and my basement was colder than it is now for sure.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I would get a few packs of Notty or S-05 to have for just in case situations. I think time is the more important right now. Even the same strains can behave slightly different. Don't sweat it yet.

If you plan to get a few packs of yeast you might pick up a brew belt too. It keeps the beer around 70 if your storage space is cool.

​

NORTHERN BREWER: Fermentation Temperature Control

You can also use a tub filled with water and an aquarium heater as well.

I like to use "S" air locks to check fermentation. It much easier to monitor progress and you can see a fluid level change in the air lock. Its really good because the subtle changes are much more noticeable.

​

 

[7Enigma]

I ended up watching the fermenter after my last post for 5 minutes and did get 2 airlock bubbles in that time (probably another 1 but I got bored staring at an unmoving container). I ended up swirling the yeast back up again and after checking the temp (63F) I'm going to chuck a big blanket in the dryer for a couple minutes and wrap it around the carboy.

And my first thought on seeing that picture was, "Jeez that's an easy way to crack a glass carboy". Sure enough on their own site they say, "Not recommended for glass carboys". I would want something closer to a heating blanket that spreads the heat out more evenly. That strap would simply heat the area around it to much warmer than you want, and hot and cold glass to not mix well....

But I'll definitely be getting an extra pack or two of Nottingham and chucking it in the back of the fridge for just this type of problem.

Thanks.

 

[Schlenkerla]

It sounds like its starting to get going.

I use the brew belt on my 8 gal pails. Not on my carboys. You could use it on a better-bottle. The belt is supposed to be set right about at the krausen line. It seems to work quite well. I have held this belt it does not get hot. It just gets a warm feeling, nothing more.

I think the aquarium method would be the most reliable and economic method. An electric blanket might work too. You could construct a box and use a heat lamp. Walmart has bulbs and lamps in the auto section. Try the dryer blanket thing.

Notty can go as low as 57F without puttering out due to the cold. 63F is Ok just a bit cool.

 

[7Enigma]

I used a large styrofoam container and put ~75F water in it. It's a tight fit with the carboy so I expect the temp to drop very quickly but should raise the temp of the wort by 3-5 degrees or so. I'll report back if it picks up.

Thanks again for the all the help.

 

[Schlenkerla]

No Problem!

 

[Nablis]

For my last batch I pitched at 57f, it took 36 hours to start and I let it ferment at 63f. When its cold give it more time it hasn't been long and you will probably have better tasting beer.

 

[Scotty_g]

When I have to ferment something at higher temperatures, I throw a cardboard box over the pail/carboy and put in a 40W lamp. I have an old LME container I put over the bulb to keep it darker inside the box (incandescent lights don't emit much UV light, but better safe than sorry), and open the top of the box more or less to control the temperature.

This has worked well enough to hold the temperature inside the box at least 10 F warmer than ambient--I can get into the 70's in the basement during winter (ambient 60-62 F) and in the mid-upper 80's during summer when I have the A/C on.

The one thing I'm not 100% happy with using that setup is that I control the air temperature, not fermenter temperature. Vigorous fermentation can produce enough heat to raise the wort several degrees, and I'm not accounting for that.

 

[7Enigma]

Update with great news!

Seems the warm water bath and another swirling was all it took to get the yeast cranking. Airlock activity is vigorous and everything seems to be going as planned. Thanks again for everyone's input and I'll be sure to post back when I'm done the brew with an initial taste test.

Quick question:

I've never dry hopped before so do you just chuck the hops in the secondary and siphon from the primary right onto them? Or do you put the hops in a bag and weigh them down or something?

 

[Schlenkerla]

Update with great news!

Seems the warm water bath and another swirling was all it took to get the yeast cranking. Airlock activity is vigorous and everything seems to be going as planned. Thanks again for everyone's input and I'll be sure to post back when I'm done the brew with an initial taste test.

Quick question:

I've never dry hopped before so do you just chuck the hops in the secondary and siphon from the primary right onto them? Or do you put the hops in a bag and weigh them down or something?

Just chuck the hops in the secondary and siphon from the primary right onto them.

 

[7Enigma]

Still going strong this morning! Clearly less activity than previously since it's been fermenting for quite a while (for Nottingham), but I'm not complaining.

Schlenkerla, since the whole flower hops float how will the beer "take up" the lupulin from the hops? Should I swirl the secondary every couple days or something?

 

[Schlenkerla]

After siphoning, cap it up with your air lock and let it sit. Don't swirl it, you still want flocculation. (Yeast to settle out.) They will get wet if you siphon on top them.

This is 4 oz of Cascade in my house amber. Its damn tasty too.

​

 

[JarrodH]

Congrats! It always feels nice to use your own hops.

 

[CentralWABrewing]

It feels good to brew with your own hops, doesn't it?!
I haven't bought hops in over 2 years.
I only grow 5 different varieties so I might be limiting myself, but I'm having fun with it.