Fresh Hop IPA Recipe - Critiques welcome

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BakerStreetBeers

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Picking up ingredients at the LHBS this morning for my Scottish 60/- brewday (and rib smoking hee haw) tomorrow, I noticed a flyer next to the hop fridge which said that they were taking orders for fresh hops. Orders to be taken until next Tuesday 9/1 and then said hops to be picked in adjacent Lake County and subsequently available for pickup. $10 per half pound, it said. And it said assume the need to use 4-5X the volume of dried hops given the relative moisture content.

The few fresh/wet hop beers I've tried haven't really blown me away. But I'm not a huge Scottish ale fan either and look at me happily preparing to brew one. And why? Because I've not made one before and fresh off my own taps I have no doubt it will satisfy. Similarly, brewing with fresh hops is another opportunity to brew (and drink) something different. So I ordered me up a half pound each of Cascade and Chinook (they also had Mt. Hood, Liberty and Willamette). Dude who took my order (Gabe) gave me a flyer prepared (last year I believe) by Vinnie at Russian River with a recipe, which reads:

For a Complete Lupulin Experience . . . Drink HopTime Harvest Ale

7 lbs of "wet" hops per barrel of beer!

Recipe - net volume 10 Gallons
Gross volume to the kettle 12 Gallons
OG: 1.064 TG: 1.012 IBUs: 58-68 6.75 ABV
Water: Hard, same set-up as would be used for an IPA

Malt Bill
24 lb 2-row malt
1.5 lb Caramel 40 malt
2 lb Carapils malt

Mash temperature: 152 degrees Farenheit

Hop Bill
Chinook (wet, un-dried) 3 oz 90 min
Cascade (wet, un-dried) 14 oz 90 min
Cascade (wet, un-dried) 10 oz 30 min
Chinook (wet, un-dried) 5 oz 0 min
Cascade (wet, un-dried) 11 oz 0 min
Chinook (wet, un-dried) 2 oz Dry hop (7-14 days)
Cascade (wet, un-dried) 2 oz Dry hop (7-14 days)

Here endeth the words of Vinnie.

Dude (Gabe) said that he made a wicked red last year, a single hop with Chinook, but that it lacked bitterness. He recommended using standard dry/pellet hops for bittering and dedicating the fresh to late additions.

So then, friends, here is my plan for my fresh hops, based largely on Vinnie's recipe. I used, as I always do, TastyBrews recipe calculator and just divided the standard IBUs on the fresh hops by 4. As good a guess as any I figure.

Serendipity Fresh Hop IPA

Batch size: 5 gal (usually I shoot for 5.5, but I'm going to need a lot of room for the Dry Hops)
Boil Volume: 7 gal
OG: 1.066
FG: 1.013 (Assuming 80% attenuation)
IBU: 63 (but who knows)
ABV: 6.8%
SRM; 8

Grain bill:
10 lb american two row
1 lb american crystal 40
1 lb carapils

Mash temp target 152

Hop Bill:
0.5 oz columbus (pellets) 60 min (15.4 AA, 27.3 IBU)
2 oz Chinook (fresh/wet) 30 min (3 AA, 16.3 IBU)
2 oz Cascade (fresh/wet) 30 min (1.7 AA, 9 IBU)
2 oz Chinook (fresh/wet) 15 min (3 AA, 10.6 IBU)
2 oz Chinook (fresh/wet) 0 min
4 oz Cascade (fresh/wet) 0 min
2 oz Chinook (fresh/wet) Dry Hop 7-14 days
2 oz Cascade (fresh/wet) Dry Hop 7-14 days

About half my IBUs are from "normal" hops, which means even if the fresh are lower in AA than I'm guessing, I will still be reasonably bitter. Put another way, I only need 13 IBUs from 6 oz of fresh hops in my boil to get me within the style guidelines. I would like to avoid too much "fresh cut grass" taste/smell in this and so may end up cutting the dry hopping more toward the shorter side.

Cheers!
 
Freeze the reserve (dry hop) hops immediately. Most Fresh Hop beers do not dry hop because of the time limitations on availability. Commercial Fresh Hop beers hit the tap within a few weeks of brewing.

Extra yeast for a fast ferment is also a good move, just keep the temperature down.
 
I made a pretty similar cascade/chinook wet hop pale ale two weeks ago, but I bittered with dry northern brewer pellets. It went into the keg today and the hydro sample had a very strange taste. It was good, but unlike anything I have brewed before. I'll need a few more samples to describe it accurately and I can't wait to see what it tastes like cold and carbed.
 
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