Recipe to show contribution of home grown hops

[eko]

I was gifted 2.5 oz of cascade hops grown just for fun by a friend of a friend. They don't brew. I thought it'd be fun to brew something to show the contribution those hops make to beer.

So, I was thinking that I'd brew 10 gallons of something, split it at the end. 5 gallons stays untouched. 5 gallons boils longer, up to 15 minutes, with some hops thrown in at the 5 to 15 minute mark, some at the 0 to 5 minute mark. The question is how best to show the contribution of those home grown hops on beer?

What kind of beer would you brew? And when would you add the whole hops?

One final note: since I'll have 5 gallons of each, the un-hopped should be drinkable as well.

Following is one idea, what do you think?

American Pale Ale - Adjusted
Double the following 5 gallon recipe:
Mash at 152F
9.0 lbs 2-row
.75 lbs Munich light
.50 lbs Wheat malt

.75 oz Horizon (13% AA) pellet hops - 60 min boil - IBUs: 32

After 60 minutes, pull out 5 gallons (chill via CFC)

With the remaining 5 gallons, add the whole leaf, home grown cascade hops:
1.5 oz - 10 min boil
1.0 oz - 3 min boil

Recirculate while chilling for 15 minutes. Pull the hops. Ferment. Each batch gets a packet of US-05.

 

[JohnSand]

Sounds right.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I was gifted 2.5 oz of cascade hops grown just for fun by a friend of a friend.

Is this 2.5oz of wet/green/fresh hops, or have they been dried? If the former, you need to adjust for the water content, and divide the weight by 7 or so - which means you really haven't got much.

Even if they're dried, I'd be tempted to reduce the volumes to highlight the contribution of the hops.

Aside from the bittering charge (which personally I'd knock down a little bit, to say 25IBU, to give the Cascade more room to breathe), I might be tempted to add something English, say 0.4oz/gal Goldings at 10 minutes to a) make the control more drinkable and b) give more of a contrast with the Cascade. And I'd nudge the Cascade later, maybe all at flameout or split 5 minutes and whirlpool.

 

[dmtaylor]

Your recipe looks perfect, for dried hops. If they have any moisture, you'll need to use as much as 5 times as much to get good benefit from them. Otherwise follow your recipe as written.

 

[eko]

Thanks all for weighing in. The 2.5 oz weight is after drying them. The hops were given to me fairly freshly harvested, and I weighed them in at 6.5 oz before drying them further. My first time working with fresh hops. Was a little shocked when they 'shrunk' by over 60%.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Per above - 60% is low, it suggests either you haven't dried them fully or they had dried out significantly before you got them. Fresh hops decline really quickly after picking, they really need to be used or start drying on the same day they're picked - in fact one of the leading lights in the Kent beer world reckons that ideally you want to use them within 4 hours, one of the specs for Kent green hop beer is that the hops can be no more than 12 hours after picking.

Even once they're dry, you want to get them either cold or vacuum-packed, preferably both - Cascade are notorious for their poor keeping qualities, exposed to air at room temperature they lose nearly a tenth of their alpha acids every month.