Help with last-minute wedding beer recipe: I have too many hops!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

AntDoctor

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2020
Messages
71
Reaction score
28
I am getting married in three weeks, and I just now decided I want to serve a homebrewed beer at the reception. We already will have a keg of my sparkling hydromel (session mead), bottles of my blueberry wine at the tables, and a cooler of miscellaneous commercial beers. However, I have two more smaller kegs (1.6 gal and 3 gal), so I was thinking of hopping 1 gal of the sparkling session mead in the smallest keg. And if I'm already using two kegs... why not use them all and brew a beer too??
However, I have so many hops in my chest freezer, I don't want to buy more for this. Can you guys help me craft a quick, simple, fool-proof beer recipe (preferably a hazy IPA, my fiancé's favorite type) using hops I already have? I think I'll need to use a kveik yeast given the +90F temps outside and the speed I need to get this done...

Hops​

I don't really know which hops "go well together" because I usually choose my hop schedule and dosage off existing recipes I find. And I haven't repeated many recipes, so I have lots of half-opened hops or hops I got for free that I haven't tried yet.
I have LOADS of unopened, relatively fresh hops from these varieties:
  • El dorado
  • Idaho 7 (I've never used this variety)
  • Idaho Comet (also never used this one)
I have these one year old hops (kept in freezer, opened bags taped shut):
  • Michigan copper
  • Galena
  • Mackinac (unopened!)
  • Centennial
  • Magnum
  • Nelson sauvin
  • Glacier
  • Willamette
  • I also have a tiny bit of Bru-1 and a few random varieties left over from 1.5+ years ago. (Are they still good??)

Malt​

Grain is easier to buy quickly from the brew store in whatever size I need, but I currently have:
  • Loads of pale malt
  • Loads of pils
  • Rye
  • Cararoma
  • Some Munich
Thank you so much in advance! I'm sure no one else at the wedding will care, but the idea of serving beer I made at my own wedding makes me very happy.
 
Hate to mention this…. There's so much going on at a wedding… personally, as much as I enjoy home brewing, the last thing I want to be doing is screwing around with a bunch of homebrew, in a tuxedo, trying to show off my latest batch.

Then there’s all the wasted half drank cups laying around from people not into it.

I think I’d get some ice filled coolers with some commercial bottled beer or cans and let them have at it. Don’t forget your Mother in law’s punchbowl, they will want some fruity drink there. You’ll have too much other stuff going on to be dealing with beer IMHO..!
 
I would go simple in general. Crowd pleaser that does not have too much going on,

Get a little Cara 40

Pale 85%, Munich 10%, cara 40 5%

Centennial straight through. 60, 20 2, dry hop. (Maybe some BRU-1 in dryhop)

US-05.

Keep it simple
 
Back
Top