Easy German Beer Recipe

[CrazyGnome07]

I am looking for an easy German style beer recipe to brew using my own homegrown Tettnang hops. This is my first harvest and I have about a cup and a half of them. I have no idea what their potency is, and want to make a lighter beer that will rely mostly on the hops for flavor. My logic is that either the hops will come through a lot giving me a pale ale type flavor (which I plan to call a German Pale Ale, GPA, "I stopped studying to work on my GPA!") or they won't come through hardly at all giving me a nice boring light beer that my relatives would appreciate this Christmas.

What sort of other ingredients should I use?

 

[iowabrew]

is that 1 cup dry or wet? That doesn't seem like a whole lot of hops...i got about a 5 gallon bucket full wet that dried down to about 7 oz total.

 

[CrazyGnome07]

A 5 Gallon bucket filled with hop cones became only 7 oz of hops? Really? That would mean for an IPA, which frequently use 6-8oz of hops, you'd have to use 5 gallons of cones! Not saying you're wrong, that is just sort of depressing to hear, because I doubt my 4 plants will ever make 5 gallons of pure cones. These have been dried out, but I don't know how compressed they are.

 

[iowabrew]

ha! yeah that may be off. i didn't actually use a bucket more like some cardboard boxes, just estimating here. I do know that it's more like 5/1 wet to dry, so 6 oz dried equals roughly 30oz wet...

 

[feinbera]

1. Weigh those hops. I would be surprised if a cup of dried whole-cone came to more than an ounce or two, but, like you said, you don't know how compressed they are, this is the only way you can find out!

2. Use commercial hops for your bittering addition(s), since you can't really know the alpha acid percentage of homegrown hops

3. I'd go with a nice, simple blonde ale -- in fact, I am going with a nice, simple blonde ale with three dry ounces of home-grown centennial and cascade in it, loosely based on the Centennial Blonde.

 

[C-Rider]

This is "my" recipe for a German IPA. Using all German produced or "style" ingredients.
This was for a 2 gallon into the fermenter batch and came out SUPER!!!!!

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 1 83.3 %
1 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 16.7 %
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 119.3 IBUs
0.75 oz Perle [8.00 %] - Aroma Steep 10.0 min Hop 4 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Aroma Steep 5.0 min Hop 5 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Perle [8.00 %] - Aroma Steep 5.0 min Hop 6 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg SafAle German Ale (DCL/Fermentis #K-97) [23.66 ml] Yeast 7 -
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days