[HoosierBrew]

I made a Pennsylvania Dutch Alt on Friday. 100% "Pennsylvania Dutch" malt (munich-ish) from Deer Creek Malthouse in PA. Bittered with magnum and tetnang for flavor. Fermenting with American ale yeast.

That sounds great.

I could have drank a pint of the wort!

Yeah, the malt sounds pretty fitting for an alt, too.

[Wort-H.O.G.]

Brewing a German Pils this morning.  1.048, 100% Best Pils, WY2124. Decided to blend Mt Hood and Liberty for late hops. Good combo.

nice. brewing german pils 1.052 with wlp835 on saturday. spalt and crystal late with magnum bittering.

[brewsumore]

I liked a recent German Pils enough (like it a lot in fact) that on Saturday I'm brewing it again, and again with all German hops:  Magnum for bittering and some mittelfruh and spalter spalt at 30 and 5 minutes.  Single infusion @148 - 149F with target OG of 1.051.

[brewinhard]

Kegging up an AIPA with new experimental hop 06277 (aka Nuggetzilla).  Aroma out of the sealed bag was not super intense, more resiny/herbal than anything, but we shall see. 

[69franx]

No brewing this weekend, but I should be bottling 5.5 gallons of "The Queen's Diamonds" English Barleywine from Experimental Homebrewing. Thanks Denny and Drew. Now to let it sit for 6 months, yeah right...

[homoeccentricus]

I'm going to brew an IPA, using the base recipe from Experimental Homebrewing: 88% pale, 8.8% crystal 60, and 3% carapils. Plus Denny's Favorite yeast, FWH, @5, whirlpool and dry hop.  Any suggestions wrt hops , oh ye Hop Gods? I have Chinook, Mosaic, Amarillo, Columbus and Citra. I might split up the batch into 2 or 3 for different dry hop combinations.

[brewsumore]

I'm going to brew an IPA, using the base recipe from Experimental Homebrewing: 88% pale, 8.8% crystal 60, and 3% carapils. Plus Denny's Favorite yeast, FWH, @5, whirlpool and dry hop.  Any suggestions wrt hops , oh ye Hop Gods? I have Chinook, Mosaic, Amarillo, Columbus and Citra. I might split up the batch into 2 or 3 for different dry hop combinations.

Maybe use all 5 of those hops.  Chinook for bittering.  Columbus at 30 min and dry hop.  The other three at 5 min and 0 min plus a bit more for dry hop, plus a 45 min hop stand.  I haven't done so but it sounds intriguing.  I know lots of folks warn about +3 hops, but depending on the combo/amounts used I like the complexity of 5-hop IPAs.

[HoosierBrew]

Maybe use all 5 of those hops.  Chinook for bittering.  Columbus at 30 min and dry hop.  The other three at 5 min and 0 min plus a bit more for dry hop, plus a 45 min hop stand.  I haven't done so but it sounds intriguing.  I know lots of folks warn about +3 hops, but depending on the combo/amounts used I like the complexity of 5-hop IPAs.

+1.  I like blending several hops for IPA, most times. Of course not every combo works, but that doesn't mean the practice is bad.  Personally, I'd bitter with Chinook too, blend the rest (I've blended all these) and use 8 oz of the blend for a 40 minute stand @ 175F - No other hops in boil than the 60 minute. Then dry hop with 5-6 more oz of the mixture for 5 days, room temp.

[homoeccentricus]

Maybe use all 5 of those hops.  Chinook for bittering.  Columbus at 30 min and dry hop.  The other three at 5 min and 0 min plus a bit more for dry hop, plus a 45 min hop stand.  I haven't done so but it sounds intriguing.  I know lots of folks warn about +3 hops, but depending on the combo/amounts used I like the complexity of 5-hop IPAs.

+1.  I like blending several hops for IPA, most times. Of course not every combo works, but that doesn't mean the practice is bad.  Personally, I'd bitter with Chinook too, blend the rest (I've blended all these) and use 8 oz of the blend for a 40 minute stand @ 175F - No other hops in boil than the 60 minute. Then dry hop with 5-6 more oz of the mixture for 5 days, room temp.

That's 8 and 6 ounces for 5 gallons?    Pity, I'm a stupid Belgian.

[HoosierBrew]

Maybe use all 5 of those hops.  Chinook for bittering.  Columbus at 30 min and dry hop.  The other three at 5 min and 0 min plus a bit more for dry hop, plus a 45 min hop stand.  I haven't done so but it sounds intriguing.  I know lots of folks warn about +3 hops, but depending on the combo/amounts used I like the complexity of 5-hop IPAs.

+1.  I like blending several hops for IPA, most times. Of course not every combo works, but that doesn't mean the practice is bad.  Personally, I'd bitter with Chinook too, blend the rest (I've blended all these) and use 8 oz of the blend for a 40 minute stand @ 175F - No other hops in boil than the 60 minute. Then dry hop with 5-6 more oz of the mixture for 5 days, room temp.

That's 8 and 6 ounces for 5 gallons?    Pity, I'm a stupid Belgian.

Well, personal taste should always come in.  I know the 8 oz seems high, but there are many IPA recipes that have 15, 10, 5, and 0 minute additions of 2 oz each, ie., 8 oz total. I'm just adding them all in the whirlpool. And dry hopping totals of 4-6 oz aren't uncommon for AIPA nowadays. If it seems too much to you, definitely back off some.


EDIT  -   Here's what I left out - if you add all of your bittering hops in the kettle and the late hops to whirlpool (like I do for hoppy beers), you need to wait until you cool to 180F or under to add the whirlpool hops. Two reasons :  1/ The volatile oils that give you great hop flavor and aroma get driven off at hotter temps. Cooler temps preserve more of this magic.   2/ You extract more bitterness above 180F. So if you account for all of your bitterness in the kettle, you will pick up extra bitterness and lose hop flavor/aroma above 180F. Lose-lose. However, for other styles ,I will add all hops PERIOD at ~ 200F (cream ale is one), and for many styles no whirlpool hopping at all. It all depends on what you're after.

[69franx]

Yes, and done this way, its all flavor and aroma, with a subtle bitterness. My Ipa is currently 2oz FWH, 2 oz Columbus for bittering at 60, 4 oz at 10, and 0, then 4oz dry hop. The 4 oz additions and FWH are a blend of Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra, and Centennial. This is for 5.5 gallons and it is fantastic! Thanks to fmader, I think it was his schedule he had posted here. I borrowed it and love it

[homoeccentricus]

Well, I'm gonna jump in then, although I can't swim...

[Wort-H.O.G.]

Maybe use all 5 of those hops.  Chinook for bittering.  Columbus at 30 min and dry hop.  The other three at 5 min and 0 min plus a bit more for dry hop, plus a 45 min hop stand.  I haven't done so but it sounds intriguing.  I know lots of folks warn about +3 hops, but depending on the combo/amounts used I like the complexity of 5-hop IPAs.

+1.  I like blending several hops for IPA, most times. Of course not every combo works, but that doesn't mean the practice is bad.  Personally, I'd bitter with Chinook too, blend the rest (I've blended all these) and use 8 oz of the blend for a 40 minute stand @ 175F - No other hops in boil than the 60 minute. Then dry hop with 5-6 more oz of the mixture for 5 days, room temp.

That's 8 and 6 ounces for 5 gallons?    Pity, I'm a stupid Belgian.

Well, personal taste should always come in.  I know the 8 oz seems high, but there are many IPA recipes that have 15, 10, 5, and 0 minute additions of 2 oz each, ie., 8 oz total. I'm just adding them all in the whirlpool. And dry hopping totals of 4-6 oz aren't uncommon for AIPA nowadays. If it seems too much to you, definitely back off some.

Yes and the late additions requires more hops and IMO lends itself to smoother and more pleasant hop flavor / bitterness.

[erockrph]

Finally brewed my first beer of 2015 today. I had been planning on brewing a hoppy pale lager for a while, but I had a great Märzen at Hofbrauhaus while I was in Florida last week that changed my mind. I made a minor tweak to my Märzen recipe (removing the last of the CaraMunich) and gave that a go.

I also finally was able to use this as a chance to experiment with the "shake till it's foam" starter method. I split my 2L starter into two 1-gallon jugs. It often takes well over a day to see a robust ferment in a WY2633 starter, but by early the next morning after pitching both jugs were chugging along nicely and smelled like a nice lager fermentation with no sulfur to speak of. It looks like 2633 likes this technique.

One other thing of note - this was my first time using Avangard base malts and I overshot my gravities by 4 points. I'll have to take note of that next time.

[HoosierBrew]

One other thing of note - this was my first time using Avangard base malts and I overshot my gravities by 4 points. I'll have to take note of that next time.

Yeah, that's about the same amount I overshoot with Avangard, so I adjust for it now. Regardless, nice malts.