Single Hop Fuggles recipe - Homegrown Hops!

[Greg167]

With a summer of neglect in the garden I finally walked the 5 yards to the end and saw that the hidden one of three hops I planted has flowers! The other 2 not obscured from view have nothing. It's their first year so I wasn't hoping for anything.

Anyway, the one that has grown is Fuggles (photo attached I hope) there will be enough for a brew at least. Can anyone recommend a recipe that I can use these as a single hop?

I currently have a bag with;

3.75kg M.O.
370g of a crystal malt
Safale S-04 yeast

This should give me something around 4% for a batch of 20 litres.

The only other thing I was thinking of adding was some wheat to help with head retention to make this more of a traditional English Bitter where the hops are there but so is the malt to taste.

I'm new to all this, and I have googled but not found anything for a recipe.

 

[Dutto]

Jealous? Me?? YOU BET!

I did this one ...

SMASH WITH EKG HOPS

Ingredients
4.50kg Maris Otter Malt
50g EKG Leaf
Muntons Beer Yeast
Yeast Nutrient
Started 11th July 2017

Mashed at 62 degrees for one hour.

Boiled with 25g of EKG for one hour.
Boiled with 25g of EKG for five minutes.

Fermented on Worktop (with Heat Pad as back up).
Muntons Ale Yeast pitched at 26 degrees.
Transferred to Wilco Keg with 85g of sugar and 25g of EKG Hop Tea on 2nd August.
Carbonated on worktop.
OG 1.043
FG 1.010
ABV 4.3%
Kcal per litre = 414Kcal
Perfect pint! VERY tasty!


It's still a bit cloudy but as Fuggles is supposed to be a substitute for EKG it should work perfectly with your own malt bill.

Now all you have to do is to work out how to pick and dry the Fuggles hop flowers so that you can replicate the dry weights above ...

... and when you learn how to do it, please let me know! :thumb:

I actually do need to know because I hope that (with a load of good luck) the Prima Donna hop that I planted in France in March, has come good in the last six months and I have some flowers to pick! :thumb:

 

[dan125]

For a green hop beer I believe you need 6x the weight of dried hops you'd use.

 

[marlon]

Yep...as Dan says, I'd do a green hop brew with what you've got there. Hope you can find enough :thumb:

 

[Greg167]

Will using green hops give me any different flavours to dried hops? I only have a few so it's not worth buying anything to aid drying. :thumb:

They're not quite ready yet so I've got a bit of time to get organised

 

[jceg316]

Whilst usually English style beers would benefit from S-04, I also have a fuggles plant I'm gonna use for a single hop beer, I was considering using US-05 to emphasise the hop character. Also I use a store bought hop for bittering as it's not possible to tell the AA% from homegrown hops.

You can get dehydrators for ~£25 which might be a worthwhile investment if you plan on using hops every year. However, if you plan on green hopping every year then probably no need to dry them!

 

[Greg167]

Thanks I will bear that yeast in mind in future, I am going to be using it for a couple of American recipes that I've got. This is more of a "what I've got" recipe too.

 

[Sandimas]

With your ingredients, do a 60min boil of 46g Fuggles (dry, or scale up if still green) - nothing else, no late hops. Will give you a brew similar to Donningtons, a popular ale here in the Cotswolds.

I normally dry my hops on trays in the airing cupboard, although that might result in a bit of stick from the Mrs.

 

[Greg167]

Well, I got 251g of these little beauties, they were from what I've read, ripe and ready. Unfortunately it started raining as I picked them so there's some added water in. But I've got what I've got, so these will go in at the start.

46 x 6 .... I'm not that far out and if it's less hoppy then I'm happy.

I've just found a Ten gram pack of EKG pellets I've got...hmm

 

[jceg316]

My opinion is to not use them as bittering hops for a couple of reasons.

The main one is because if all's good these hops have a lot of aroma and flavour - fuggles is an aroma hop after all - and it's really satisfying being able to taste the flavours of the hops you grew. The second reason is because you don't know the AA% so you don't know how bitter it will be. Not a big reason, granted, but if not much AA or essential oils were produced this year, having them as a bittering hop will provide a weak bitterness, whereas having them as a flavour hop will provide a subtle flavour.

Just my opinion. I use store bought hops as bittering hops as I love to taste the flavour of mine.

 

[Greg167]

Hi, appreciate your comment and in the future I think this is what I may do. Unfortunately on this occasion it was too late, I did the brew last Sunday. I was just after doing something that was completely from my own crop. Next year hopefully the Goldings and Challenger Hop plants produce. I think this year they were hampered by next doors grape vines and the Buddleia that seem to crop up everywhere.

I might barrel this today/tomorrow as it stands it's going to be about 3.5% ABV so might be something different to the other brews I tend to do

 

[Greg167]

Well, after tidying the garage a bit this morning I thought why the hell not try this beer? So after walking the dog I set about fixing the hedgecutter before using it, and treated myself. The local ale house has had a few green hopped beers in recently so I had an idea of what they should taste like.

I'm so pleased this is drinkable, and even better than that it's really drinkable! Definitely know the hops are Fuggles, a little bit of bitterness and a bit more flavour. A damn nice pint for what was using some ingredients I had for a clone recipe. There's a touch of sweetness at the end. Really well balanced for me anyway. Attached a picture, unfortunately I knocked the barrel this morning so it's not as clear as I'd have expected.

Thanks to everyone who helped me along the way

 

[Sandimas]

I'm so pleased this is drinkable, and even better than that it's really drinkable! Definitely know the hops are Fuggles, a little bit of bitterness and a bit more flavour. A damn nice pint for what was using some ingredients I had for a clone recipe.

Was that the recipe I suggested, with all the hops going in early? If so, I was pleased when I did this brew, I always thought you needed late hops but this was a nice surprise.

 

[Greg167]

Was that the recipe I suggested, with all the hops going in early? If so, I was pleased when I did this brew, I always thought you needed late hops but this was a nice surprise.

Hi, I added all of the them bar about 30-40 grams that went in for the last 15 mins. Just wanted to smell some of them and there's the faintest aroma. Love it so far, just a shame I put it all in a 5 gallon barrel with little confidence. I've poured some into a 2 gallon barrel, keeping it for in a couple of weeks time.