Harvested my hops the other day, now it's time to get them dancing.
American Brown
8# Washington Select
1.5# crystal 40
1/2# chocolate
2 oz HG Centennial FWH
2 oz HG Cascade at 60
2 oz HG Cascade at 15
1056 at 67°
Seems like too much hops, but I have no idea the alpha content. I'm assuming by smell only that it's about 50% of normal. So I should come in at about 45-50 IBUs
How fun is this?
It's very fun! That recipe looks tasty.
But as you noted, when you add up your time and the investment to grow them, financially it's more silly than trying to justify brewing your own beer to save money. I just do it for fun.
I have first year Columbus, Chinook, Horizon, and Centennial. All three did well with the Chinook and Columbus giving great yields considering their early development. Water regularly is key!
I've followed the same recipe formulation guideline - 50% alpha estimated. I like to use them 20 minutes and later though and I ramp up my recipe by 1.5 gallons and use a lot of them. I use pellets from my LHBS for bittering.
I just brewed Jamil's "West Coast Blaster" at 7.00 gallons and added 3oz of home grown Horizon at flame out. There were other hop additions earlier but my estimate of loss was spot-on and I ended up with 5.5gal in the carboy. The aroma from the Horizon is very mild and rather disappointing however.
I expect different results from the Chinook and Columbus just based on smell when I vacuum bagged them and put them in the freezer. I still plan on bombing the heck out of an IPA with them using massive amounts late and steeping for max effect next brew.
I don't know about others here but I find dry hopping with whole cones a PITA because of both racking difficulties afterwards and getting them in my glass carboy to begin with. I dry hop in the keg instead sometimes.
GYOH!