Question about hop rate

[BryanMaloney]

Here is what I have come up with so far for a beer:

Drowsy Duck Entire

5 gallon final volume

Grain Bill:

• 7 lb Crisp Chevalier Heritage Malt (3 EBC, 9.5% N, 79% dry extract, DP 50 Lintner)
• 2.75 lb Crisp Brown Malt (110 EBC, ~1.5–2% N, ~75–80% extract, DP <10 Lintner)
• 0.75 lb Black Treacle (added at start of boil)

Hops

• 3 oz "fresh" Goldings or Fuggle cones (AA 4.5%). If aged cones are available, increase by +50%.

Yeast

• Wyeast 1098 "British Ale".

Water:

• 50% Kentucky River Station II + 50% RO/distilled water
• Amend water:
  • 0.40 g NaHCO3/gallon
  • 0.10 g CaCl3/gallon
  • 0.08 g MgSO4/gallon
• nb: Approximate mash profile: Ca ~ 68 ppm, Mg 7 ppm, Na 30 ppm, Cl 19 ppm, SO4 28 ppm, HCO3 250 ppm (based on CaCO3 additions during mashing).

Mash Schedule – Batch Infusion, Three Mashes:

• Insulation: Wrap HDPE mash tun in bubble-wrap foil, cover with thick blanket; insulate beneath if on floor.

First Mash (Dry Grist, presumed 70F)

• Milk-warm water (~105 °F): 4.25 qt (1.06 gal)
• 2.84 g CaCO3
• Stir slowly and deliberately, 3 minutes (30–40 strokes)
• Let stand while heating treated water.
• Sharp water (~195 °F): 7.75 qt (1.94 gal)
• Mash 1 hour
• Total water added: 12.00 qt (3.00 gal)
• ~1.78 gal of first runnings
• ~151 °F to ~148 °F temperature range

Second Mash (Wet Mash, presumed ~140 °F after runoff)

• Milk-warm water (~105 °F): 5.00 qt (1.25 gal)
• 2.84 g CaCO3
• Stir slowly and deliberately, 3 minutes (30–40 strokes)
• Let stand while heating treated water.
• Sharp water (~196 °F): 7.00 qt (1.75 gal)
• Mash 1 hour
• Total water added: 12.00 qt (3.00 gal)
• ~3.00 gal of second runnings
• ~157 °F to ~154 °F temperature range

Third Mash (Wet Mash, presumed ~145 °F after runoff)

• Milk-warm water (~105 °F): 3.25 qt (0.81 gal)
• 2.13 g CaCO3
• Stir slowly and deliberately, 3 minutes (30–40 strokes)
• Let stand while heating treated water.
• Sharp water (~199 °F): 5.75 qt (1.44 gal)
• Mash 1 hour
• Total water added: 9.00 qt (2.25 gal)
• ~2.25 gal of third runnings
• ~163 °F to ~160 °F temperature range

Boil:

• Combine runnings.
• Add hops.
• Add treacle at boil start.
• Boil 90 minutes.

Post-Boil:

• Chill wort, settle overnight.
• (Start Wyeast 1098 pack)
• Rack wort off trub and hops.

Fermentation:

• Pitch 1098 Yeast.
• Primary fermentation to completion.
• Rack to secondary and settle 2 weeks.

Priming Wort (1.5 quarts) – Before Bottling:

• 0.25 lb Crisp Chevalier Heritage Malt
• 0.10 lb Crisp Brown Malt
• 0.2 oz (weight) treacle
• Mash grains with treacle dissolved in mash water at 158–165 °F for 45 min.
• Boil 10 min.
• Cool completely before use.

Bottling:

• Prime with priming wort.
• Bottle condition ≥ 6 weeks
  
  

The thing is that I'm always nervous about hops. The idea is to emulate an old porter, the treacle is meant to substitute for essentia bina, because I'm lazy. I'm aware that the lore is that porters and stouts used to be hopped to preposterous levels, but I've come across information that the hops could often be on the older (weakened) side and weren't very high AA%. A lot of homebrewers lore is pretty sketchy, like automatically presuming that Maris Otter is "old style" when the line didn't exist until 1965. Anyway, ideas on the hopping? Right now, Brewer's friend is guessing around 50 IBU.

 

[mashdar]

Crisp brown malt is not the same as historical brown malts, if that matters. The old stuff was diastatic. The modern ones are roasted and just named for a color. Crisp's has a very strong coffee note. That much will be extremely strong.

I've made fairly bitter american stouts (e.g. Shakespeare, ~ 70 IBU), and they're fine, but I like them more after the hops mellow out (~3 months).

For three mashes, I'd expect the brewery to partigyle into a number of strengths and types. It was also normal to add grain between, because the mashes will denature the enzymes.

But the multiple mashes will not work at all like it once did, because of modern malt modification. Anybody mashing like you describe would have been getting partial conversion, so there'd be a bunch of starch left for the next mash to act on.

 

[Yooper]

Baking soda will increase the alkalinity of your water, so you may need to use phosphoric or lactic acid to negate that. Your mash pH will probably be too high with that level of HCO3. Luckily though, the CaCO3 is not very soluable and will not dissolve properly unless you take extraneous measures (like bubble CO2 through the water to help it dissolve) so maybe it would still be ok.