Fresh Cascade Whole Leaf Hops Recipe Help

[bowlersp]

I have 4oz of Cascade Whole Leaf Hops that my friend harvested late last year. They have been in the freezer in ziplock bags ever since. How should I approach using these hops? Is there anything I have to do to them to get them ready to use? Anything I need to look for/remove? If not I was thinking about using them all in a Pale Ale recipe below:

6lbs gold malt extract
1lb Belgian Cara Pils
1/2lb Crystal 20
1/2lb Crystal 60

1.5oz Cascade @ 60 mins
.5oz Cascade @ 15 mins
1oz Cascade @ 5 mins
1oz Cascade Dry Hop 7 days

Safale US-50 yeast

Thoughts?

 

[sptaylor70]

That's an acre of crystal malt you have there. I think that you'd be happier if you were to replace the CaraPils with a 8 oz. of amber DME. Otherwise, this looks like a classic APA. You could add even more hops, say at 10 minutes, if you had a mind.

 

[Yooper]

Assuming he dried them before freezing, the hops schedule looks fine.

If not dried, the hops will not be good by this point.

I'd cut out the carapils, as you don't need it with a pound of crystal malt in there.

 

[bowlersp]

thanks for the replies, I'll drop the pils. I really don't know if he dried them out or not. I'll ask him. That may change things.

 

[bowlersp]

I confirmed that the hops have been dried. I am switching up my recipe from a 5 gallon batch to a 2.5 gallon 15 minute boil batch. I always wanted to try a smaller batch and smaller boil time and have seen that many people have had good results with 15 minute boils:

3lbs DME - light
8oz crystal 20

Hops (all whole leaf)
1 ounce cascade @15 minutes
3/4 ounce cascade @5 minutes
1/4 ounce cascade @flameout
1/2 ounce cascade Dryhop 7 days

IBU's = 38

I'll let you know how it goes!