Hop Head type recipe for 1st AG brew?

[G-Town Brewer]

The AG kit is coming together and am thinking about my first AG brew, with a little excitement.

Sensibly, I'm going to try something fairly straight forward for 1st brew.

I love the Dark Star HopHead and was wondering if this is something I can try to emulate in my first brew?

Does anyone know of recipe to make this or a similar beer or whether I'm biting off more than I can chew?

Thanks

 

[Ceejay]

It's quite a low ABV session beer, light in colour so it's not the best thing to start with - there's nowhere for any bad techniques to hide, but to be honest I say take a leap of faith and GO FOR IT!

Recipe wise, it might be worth someone making something up. It seems like quite a simple beer - probably 95% pale malt with a bit of crystal or munich and maybe some wheat malt, hopped mainly at the end of the boil with cascade for aroma rather than bitterness.

I'll have a crack at a recipe in a bit if you like :thumb:

 

[G-Town Brewer]

Great thanks.

 

[Ceejay]

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/recipeview.php?recipe_id=953

That's a first attempt. I'm not exactly sure what the bitterness ratio of the original Hop head is, but this must be ballpark at 77% - which is in between APA and IPA bitterness. I've loaded most of the hop additions at the end to favour aroma rather than bitterness.

I've specified S04 yeast there, which will give you some English estery-ness but if you ferment it cold ish (say 18 degrees) that will clean it up a little. It won't attenuate as much as US-05 so will leave some body there.

 

[G-Town Brewer]

Thanks Ceejay - I'm definitely going to give it a go.

 

[jaquiss2005]

A novice question as I am looking to have a go at this one.

What is the difference between using Cascade as bittering hops and aroma hops? I know one adds to the bitterness and one to the aroma, but the hops used for 20 mins as aroma hops - when do they get added? To the last 20 mins of the boil?

 

[oz11]

I'll leap in here as no one else has (yet) answered, and if I am wrong I am sure to be corrected.

I believe the aroma hops are steeped once the boil has finished, therefore no bitterness is extracted from them. Normal practice seems to be to cool the wort to about 80c and then add the aroma hops.

Hope that helps