Hop Bill Help!

[MidlleBrotherBrewer]

Hey everyone,

My brother and I are planning our first 10-gallon batch and we are going to do a west-coast AIPA. We both are really in to the big hop aroma: grapefruit, citrus, with mild pine and spicy undertones.

Here is what we are planning for the grain bill:

25lbs pale malt
2 lbs crystal 40L
Est OG: 1.074
Est FG: 1.021
Est ABV: 7%

The hops we have in stock are the following (8 oz of each):
Cascade
Centennial
Columbus
Galaxy
Zynthos

Since we haven't done a big hoppy beer yet, we are not sure which combinations would be best. We also didn't just want to throw everything we had willy-nilly and not be able to detect the qualities of each individual variety.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[PaulyWantsABeer]

Centennial for bittering and Cascade for aroma/finishing

 

[jldc]

Columbus for bittering. Then 2 oz each centennial and cascade at 15, 0 and dry, or maybe at 20, 10, 0, and dry.

L

 

[bobbrews]

Agree with jldc's mindset, but way more hops since this is a larger batch (14 oz total for an average). Columbus is versatile; you can use it anywhere. In conjunction with Centennial, you will have a very interesting piney/citrusy/juicy character. The Cascade will brighten things up with all the floral grapefruit notes.

Use 5% sugar in place of the base malt and keep the crystal below 5% as well. Go with an adequate amount of clean American yeast starter to attenuate the beer much lower than 1.021

 

[MidlleBrotherBrewer]

Go with an adequate amount of clean American yeast starter to attenuate the beer much lower than 1.021

What would be an adequate yeast starter for a 10-gallon batch? Typically I take a Wyeast slap-pack and do a 1/2 gallon starter in a growler with some DME. Would I want to do two 1/2 gallon starters for a batch this size, since we will be fermenting it in two separate buckets?

 

[bobbrews]

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

For a 10 gallon batch of 1.074 OG wort, with a swollen liquid Wyeast smackpack dating 7/15/12, and the Intermittent Shaking technique:

508 billion cells
6 packs without starter
2 packs with starter
4.71 liters starter required

For 5 gallons of the same:

254 billion cells
3 packs without starter
1 packs with starter
2.35 liters starter required


Pay attention to the date on the yeast pack as well as the method you're using to help it along, i.e. stirplate, shaking, etc. Also, there is no guarantee you will hit 1.074 OG. If you pitch all this into your wort, which only attained 1.063 OG, then you would be overpitching.

 

[MidlleBrotherBrewer]

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html
Also, there is no guarantee you will hit 1.074 OG. If you pitch all this into your wort, which only attained 1.063 OG, then you would be overpitching.

What are the consequences of overpitching?

Thanks for all the input. We will use the Mr Malty calculator and pay close attention to our actual OG.