Dry Hop question

[zaprozdower]

I have these questions in recipe section but no one is answering me and I'm brewing today! Please let me know what you think if you could, thanks!

Ok I found a LHBS in the area and have some Simcoe Plugs and Magnum whole flowers in the mail. How does my new hopping schedule look?

60 0.75 Amarillo pellet 7.0
60 0.25 Simcoe plug 13.0
40 0.5 Cascade pellet 6.6
30 0.25 Amarillo pellet 7.0
20 0.5 Simcoe plug 13.0
0-5 0.5 Cascade pellet 6.6
0-5 0.25 Simcoe plug 13.0

In beer calculus, IBUs come out to about 40...a little low for the style but so is my ABV, so hopefully it will be more balanced. Should I change it at all or incorporate the magnum as well?

Because I am obsessed over this batch as my first made up recipe, I have one more question for you guys.

I feel like I should dry hop a bit for this beer, any suggestions on what to take out of that schedule for dry hopping? I was thinking of taking out some of the cascade for a dry hop. And is it ok to dry hop for several weeks? Do I need to put the hops in something to make them sink or can i just throw them in?

And I think my water is a bit soft, should I add some gypsum to harden it up a bit so the hop qualities come out more? I have well water but water in the App mountains tend to be soft I've heard.

 

[larrybrewer]

Generally you want to bitter with high AA hops and use the lower AA hops for the aroma and flavor effects (added with 15, 10, 5, or 0 minutes left).

Adding the Amarillo at 60 minutes will boil off most of its subtle flavor qualities. Cascade I have seen used both for bittering and aromatic. As for adding the simcoe at 20 minutes and 0-5, that is why your IBU's are low. If you move those up the schedule you will get more bang for you buck in terms of bitterness. The hopping schedule you have will create a unique flavor profile. That is what is so awesome about home brewing. There is no right or wrong way to do this.

Looks like you are not doing any dry hopping? I have dry hopped amarillo and cascade with awesome results.

 

[neko]

I just dry-hopped with amarillo and approve of the results.

 

[bull8042]

I LOVE the Amarillo/Simcoe combination. I would dry hop that baby with 0.75oz Simcoe and 0.5oz Amarillo for at least a week.

 

[zaprozdower]

Alas I cant sacrifice that much hops or my IBUs would suffer, only have an oz of each. Think im going to go with a .25 oz of Amarillo and Cascade for the dry hop and bump some more Simcoe up for the bittering to up my IBUs. If im using pellets can I just throw em in the fermentor?

 

[bull8042]

A lot of people just toss them in the fermenter. It helps to cover the end of your racking cane with a SS scrubbie when you rack it off to leave the hops in the secondary...