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Fresh Hop Ale

Well, finally got around to bottling the fresh hop IPA. I was originally going to rack it to a secondary about a week after brewing, but that didn’t happen.  I still had the hops, so I made a hop tea out of them and added that to my bottling bucket before I transferred the beer.

The beer?  Well, it had a different odor to it.  Not like bad- just like…. green.  Like grass.  Or something.

Final gravity came out to 1.014, for about 7.8% alcohol by volume.  I tasted it too, not sure how I’m going to like this.  I’ll be sad if this doesn’t turn out.

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Fresh Hops

So, my friend Rob Morrison got a ton of fresh hops from a friend.  Naturally, we had to brew.  So, we did a fresh hop IPA based on my God is Good beer recipe.

Here is the modified recipe:

3 gallons water
1 pound 60L Crystal malt
2 pounds 2 row malt
7 pounds pale liquid malt extract
1 oz Cascade hops (pre-boil)
2.5 oz Cascade hops (bittering) (60 min)
1 oz Cascade hops (30 minute)
1 oz Cascade hops (20 minute)
1 oz Cascade hops (10 minute)
1 oz Cascade hops (aroma) (2 min)
Yeast: White Labs WLP051 California Ale V Yeast

Pre-Boil Tea

So, we steeped the grains in 145 degree water for 40 minutes along with an ounce of hops.  After straining the hops and grains added more water and brought the whole thing to a boil.  We added the malt extract when we had a good boil, then pitched in the 2.5oz of hops.

At 30 minutes added another ounce of hops.  Then again at 20 minutes.  Then again at 10.  Then at 2 minutes left.  Think we used enough hops?

Hops to add

We strained the hops out and threw it into our fermenter and topped it off to 5 gallons.  The hop aroma coming from this was beautiful.  I think I may have to be stingy with this one.

We also bottled the peach wheat beer tonight.  Guess what I’m naming it?

Isn’t That A Peach?

Final gravity was 1.006.  So, with a start of 1.050, then to 1.012, then to 1.014 after the peaches, the total change of 0.046, times 105 is 4.83, times 1.25 is 6.04 percent alcohol by volume.  My other wheat is 5.5%.  Not bad.

Edit: 8/31 I aerated my IPA and pitched the yeast.  Initial gravity was 1.064.  Same as the last time I brewed this.