Hop profile for Mosaic, Galaxy and Topaz.

[PaulCa]

Hi,

I haven't brewed in a while, maybe 2 years. Now that supplies are easier to get again I put an order in.

My plan is to make a basic all-grain irish red ale, but to try and apply a hop taste similar to Samuel Adams or HopHouse13 etc.

My understanding is that those beers use combinations of the above hops.

I just don't quite know which order or amounts of them to use. Both of these beers have a distinctly fruity, tangy hop taste without any over powering bitterness.

I believe that Mosaic and Topaz can be used as both bittering and aromatic introduced at different points in the boil and Galaxy is more of a flavour hop.

I understand that some of these have the potential to make a very, very bitter beer if I get the amounts wrong.

So I would be very grateful for some help in designing a triple hop profile. I'm open to using the hops in several stages.

For example:
15g Topaz + 15g Mosaic - 60 min
25g Galaxy - 30min
25g topaz + 25g galaxy - 10 min

Note there are all pellet hops as "leaf" hops seem less abundant today from the suppliers. Previously I have used leaf hops from the freezer, but I'm assuming I can put them into muslin or plastic mesh bags for the boil?

Oh.. the rest of the beer is:
22 litre target, 22 litre mash, 25 litre boil, with light sparge to wash the grains and add the extra water after mash.
60min full volume steep mash in strainer bag (BIAB)
3Kg Maris Otter Pale
500g CaraRed (option of 500g of light crystal or 500g in total of both)
60 min boil
Danstar Ale yeast.


Thanks,
Paul

 

[PaulCa]

Also. I used to be using a post boil fluculant to help settle the trub out of the boiler before transfering to the fermenter.

I just can't find it anymore. I hope I have some left, but does anyone know what it's called or where I can find it?

 

[Green Tiger]

PaulCa, all hops have the potential to make very bitter beer. The poison is in the dose.
Do you have the alpha acid % for each of the hop varieties? Do you know what IBU you want to hit? Find yourself a good brew calculator - try Brewers Friend to start - and do the numbers. Those varieties you are using are always up there in AA% so you'll 100% want to know what each is contributing.
You've got some pretty punchy hops there, should be a great beer!

 

[AdeDunn]

AA% and boil time both impact bitterness from hops big time, as Green Tiger says, use software, cut out guesswork. Me, I brew a lot of less bitter styles, and find that 20-15 minutes before the end of the boil is golden for hop additions, not too much bitterness added but still good flavour stability. 10 minutes and stability is too wishy washy for longer storage (I'm still drinking beers I brewed over a year ago.. and they're lush. lol). I use Beersmith 3 though (desktop on my PC, android version my phone for the timer feature, with the gold sub so I can use their cloud to store and transfer my recipes) which makes it all much easier for me. I do still do 10 minute and 0 minute additions for some beers sometimes too (flame out addions, whirlpool additions etc, contribute hop flavour with no IBUs), but those beers have a shorter shelf life.

 

[PaulCa]

I'm not really "learned" in IBUs TBH. I'm new to these hops too. Previously I accidentally made a really nice beer by using 30g Target for 1 hour with 30g EKG 30min and another hop I can't remember for 5 mins. I figured it was I'd usually only used 20g of each previously. First taste made my face scrunch up, but it rapidly grew on me.

You know what? I'm going to mix 25g of each hop in a bag and add divide it in 3. 60min, 30min, 10min. See what happens.

 

[PaulCa]

 

[PaulCa]

Oh and answering my own question. The kettle clearing agent is proto-floc (an irish moss alternative). I dump it in 5 minutes before boil end along with the copper coil cooler. It drops the sediment and haze causing proteins out of suspension by the time it's cooled... or that is what it appears to do.

 

[PaulCa]

I ran it through a brew calc. Good job. 25g each of those hops would produce a massively high IBU, probably undrinkable.

Seems 10g each and removing the 60min batch and adding at 30mins is needed to bring an IBU around 34. Samuel Adams has an IBU of 30!

 

[PaulCa]

So it's coming up on 2 weeks in the fermenter. I had to bring it indoors from the garage as the temp (of the beer) dropped to 13*C.
Thankfully after an evening near a radiator indoors it started to bubble again.

Smelling the airlock is all I have to go on and it could still be a hop disaster.

Will be kegging it tomorrow night but I think I'll restrain myself until the weekend to taste it.

Breaking tradition, I tend not to let my beers mature fully for 6 weeks. They get 2 weeks in the fermentor and 3-7 days in the keg to clear, then it's open season.