#56 Where's the Passion (GP & Rakau SMaSH APA)

I really wanted to get a feel for the AlphAroma hops that I have growing in my side yard.  I also wanted a good feel for Golden Promise.  It was the perfect chance since I had 1/2# of hops in the freezer, and would have a enough from the second runnings of my Wee Heavy for an American Pale Ale.  I have been dying to use these hops ever since I read For the Love of Hops by Stan Hieronymus last year.  There, tucked away in the hop profile chart is a New Zealand hop named Rakau.  In his description it says that Rakau used to be named AlphAroma, and that this hop is high in passionfruit and peach.  Needless to say, that sounds awesome, and I had been looking for any information I could find on the hop prior to that moment with no avail.  I actually contacted Stan via email to confirm and he sent me the document that he had found in researching the book showing a handful of NZ hops that name changes about 10 years ago.

Recipe: Just Freshin' Up - Wet Hopped Red Ale

The hop harvest has come, and gone, leaving me with quite a bit of hops to do something with.  That something was the question.  I was torn on whether to brew a Wet Hop ale, or to dry them out and package them up for future use.  Seeing that my garage is overrun with wild yeast do to my sour program that inhabits most of that area and it being my brew house, I thought that drying my hops in the open air of that space might not be the best option since I may want to Dry Hop with my harvest at some point.  The spare room was taken by my dad who was up visiting, and the temps in Eugene are barely in the upper 70s so to dry them out properly I would need to run the heater.  This all seemed to point towards doing a Wet Hop beer.  I had been toying with the idea for awhile, and had a Red recipe worked up for it.

I was able to harvest 12.5oz of Chinook, 5.25oz Brewer’s Gold, 2.5oz AlphAroma, and 1.5oz of Shinsuwase.  I also have some Cascades that aren’t quite ready yet, as well as my Santiam, and a few Brewer’s Gold left to pick.  I packaged all of my 1.36# of hops together in a vacuum seal bag and put it in the freezer until they hit the brew.  I will pull them out just after knock out and get them into the batch, dropping the temp some, and getting as much of the aromatics into the beer as possible.

For the base, I wanted something with a great malt backbone for setting the hops against.  I went with Marris Otter for a little more of a malty, toasty base, a touch of Vienna for a little more malt complexity; MFB Kiln Amber will add some breadiness, add a sprinkle of Roast Malt for color and to help the finish dry out.  For the caramel malts, I decided to go with 2 CaraMunich malts instead of standard 2 row crystals.

Stats:

5.4 gallons

1.067 OG

1.016 Fg

6.6% ABV

63 IBUs

15 SRM

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Fermentables:

11.0#  Marris Otter

1.0#  Vienna Malt

1.0#  CaraMunich 40L

0.4#  CaraMunich 120L

0.4#  MFB Kiln Amber

2.0oz Crisp Roast Barley 695L
0.25# Rice Hulls

45 Minutes @ 150*F

76% Extract Efficiency

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60 Minute Boil:

60 mins - 1.5 oz Zeus 16.4AA%

WP @ 150 20 mins - 12.5oz Chinook (Wet) 

WP @ 150 20 mins - 5.25oz Brewer’s Gold (Wet) 

WP @ 150 20 mins - 2.5oz AlphAroma (Wet) 

WP @ 150 20 mins - 1.5oz Shinsuwase (Wet) 

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Fermentation:

WLP 001 Cal Ale - Slurry from Oakshire

Aerated 25 minutes

6 gallon Better Bottle

6 days @ 66

8 days @ 69

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Additional:

Gypsum 5/8 t (mash), 3/4 t (boil)

Epsom Salts 1/4 t (mash), 1/4 t (boil)

Calcium Chloride 1/2 t (mash), 1/2 t (boil)

Despite getting less Extract Efficiency (76% compared to 82%), I still hit my numbers spot on due to a lot less absorption from the hops.  Everyone says that Wet Hop ales will kill your efficiency and just suck up all the wort.  So far (last year as well), I just don't find it to be so, but I do squeeze the hop sacs dry before racking as well which helps.

Pitched @ 8:30pm, fermenting @ 5:45am.

Hop Harvest Pending

Sorry for the long break from posting.  I had been in California for two weeks as my mother suffered from cancer and was taken to glory.  I don't have anything in the works at this time outside of an impending hop harvest, so I thought I would let you all enjoy some great shots of my hops awaiting the final stages of maturity, as well as a shot of some seeds from my Brewer's Gold plant.

What To Make With A Hop You Have No Info For

I recently got tons of hops from a fellow brewer who has a fairly large variety of hops that he grows.  I got some of the unknown and experimental varietals that he has like American Blisk, European Cerara, French Tardif de Bourgnone, and Japanese Shinsuwase which is supposed to be very perfumey.  I also have some of an old school New Zealand hop the they no longer grow, that was a precursor to the new varieties named AlphAroma.  Since I don't have any beers to taste as to understand this hop, and no one has any information on it, including the guy who gave them to me, I decided to brew a small extract batch with them while I mash my Double IPA.  I have 2.6# of Pils DME left over from the 5# bag I bought for the Last Runnings Sour from my last brew day.  I grabbed some CaraHell for some body and head retention assistance as well.  The goal is a pseudo Pils/Pale Ale just to get a handle on what the hop can do, if it is a Noble knock-off then more of a Pils, if it is American like many other NZ strains, then more of a Pale Ale.

3.8 gallon batch

OG 1.036

IBUs 33

SRM 3

Est ABV ~ 3.7%

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Steep CaraHell in 1 gallon water @ 155*F

Sparge with 1 gallon water @ 170*F

Add 2.58# DME

Bring total preboil volume up to 4.5 gallons

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Boil (30 minutes) 

15  1.40oz AlphAroma

KO 1.40oz AlphAroma

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Ferment 65*F 1056 American Ale (Oaskhire Slurry)

14 days