Multigrain Red - dry hop or no?

[dmercer]

I ordered up NB's Multigrain Red to brew today as my third all-grain batch. I have a couple ounces of 3.5% AA cascades lying around that I should use up and was kicking around the idea of dry hopping with an once for 7 days or so in secondary.

Has anyone brewed this recipe or something similar that can give me an idea of what to expect? I'm looking mostly for some added aroma (there's not much for late additions in this beer), but I'm not sure the Cascades would blend well with the Willamettes or what. I guess the worst I get is beer Here's the ingredient list:

Grain Bill
7.75 lbs Pale Malt (2-row)
0.50 lbs CaraMunich 60
0.25 lbs CaraWheat
0.25 lbs Chocolate Rye
---------
8.75 lbs

Mash at 153 for 60m
(recipe calls for a mash-out at 168 that i'll probably skip)

Hop Additions
1oz Willamette @ 60m
.75oz Willamette @ 30m
.25oz Willamette @ flame out

 

[ArcaneXor]

I would just taste it when it's done and decide based on your impression at that time. If you keg, it's even easier - Chill it, carb it, taste it. If it's not hoppy enough, throw the dry hops into a bag and add them to the keg until it tastes right.

 

[kanzimonson]

I think you're barely going to have any hop characteristics from the Willamette based on that hop schedule. Why not use the Cascade for late hops and forget the dry hops? Maybe 1oz at 10min and 0min. That's a nice, average hoppiness for a red.

 

[dedhedjed]

i dry-hopped a red wheat a while back with cascade, and it turned out surprisingly well...i'm not much of a wheat beer fan, but the citrus aroma sucked me in...i say go for it.

 

[dcp27]

cascade goes well with willy. if you want it to have more aroma, throw some in

 

[dmercer]

So I was originally worried about getting the IBUs too high on this batch, which is why I didn't originally consider a late addition of Cascades, but now I'm glad I did.

I had a few problems with this batch, including some thermometer doubt (the dial therm I got with my starter kit last year disagreed with the lab thermometer I just got and verified in boiling and ice water by 10* ) and I boiled off a bit much, but I decided to toss an ounce in with 5 minutes left in the boil. I gotta say, it came out good. Great balance against the chocolate malt notes.

We'll see in a few weeks what it's like. Tasted great going into the primary, and the S-04 is already winding down considerably. I'm sure it'll make beer