The third (and final) in my Southern Hemisphere cycle is a double IPA that I hopped with Galaxy. Galaxy is a variety that is supposed to provide a similar character to Citra's big tropical fruit. Hill Farmstead has gotten rave reviews for their use in Galaxy Imperial Single Hop IPA, which (even though I haven't tried it) was enough to convince me to try brewing this beer.At this point I've got my process for brewing DIPAs figured out::
1. Use moderate carbonate water (diluting with distilled/RO as needed) plus a gypsum added to boost the sulfate content to ~150-200 ppm. Carbonate keeps the pH up which causes mash/flavor issues in a pale beer. Sulfate helps with the impression of hop bitterness (you can go higher, but I'd avoid the massive levels in Burtonized water which taste minerally).
2. Produce a highly fermentable wort, mostly pale malt plus a small addition of cara/crystal for body, with a moderate mash temperature (148-151 F), and a small amount of refined sugar (either in the boil or added to primary). A crisp/dry beer accentuates hop bitterness, too much sweetness and you end up with a beer that tastes more like an American barleywine than a DIPA.3. I like Columbus hops to bitter because of their their slightly aggressive character. If you use a really clean hop like Warrior or Magnum the bitterness will taste lower than the IBUs suggest. If you want to use up "clean" low-cohumulone varieties then toss in a bit of Chinook to add sharpness.
4. I avoid mid-boil additions saving all of my hops for a big flameout addition. I stagger these hops over a few minutes post-boil and into chilling to capture a range of volatile compounds. I tend to use pellet hops in the boil because they absorb less wort and seem to impart their oils quickly, use the freshest best smelling hops you can (you can get away with lesser hops for bittering). Keep this addition to three hops or less unless you really know what you are doing, too many hops reduce complexity giving your beer a more generic hop aroma. If you are looking for a good combination then check the list I've been keeping at the bottom of this previous DIPA post of what great commercial (D)IPAs are hopped with.
5. Chill the wort as quickly as possible to prevent the dissipation of the hop aromatics. For me this means constantly stirring the wort to increase exposure to the immersion chiller, but a more advanced chilling rig could result in a better hop aroma.6. Ferment with a clean, attenuative American ale yeast strain (an attenuative English strain could work as well). Pitch the reccomended number of cells, but no more (hop compounds stick to yeast cell membranes and drop out of solution when they flocculate). Keep the temperature of the wort under 70 F during fermentation to minimize fusel alcohol production.
7. Double purge everything the fermented beer touches (keg, siphon etc...) with CO2. This is one of the big advantages of kegging, as it allows you to reduce oxygen exposure (the musty smell of oxidiazed American hops is one of my least favorite beer characters).
8. After fermentation is complete cold condition for a few days to remove most of the yeast before dry hopping, this prevents the yeast from stripping the dry hop aromatics from the wort. You could add gelatin to speed this up, but I haven't found that this to be necessary.
9. Warm the beer back up to cellar temperature while dry hopping to increase the rate of aromatic extraction. I like whole hops (usually the same varieties I used at flameout) because they are easier to contain in a weighted nylon bag/sock.10. Keg hop as the beer force carbonates at serving temperature to add more hop aroma and help to retain that hop aroma longer. Sometimes I just leave the dry hops in as the keg hops, but if I want it really hoppy I'll remove the dry hops add a second dose to the keg.
11. Serve as quickly as possible, if you are drinking your first glass of a hoppy beer more than five or six weeks after brewing then you are taking too long.
Excited to see if Galaxy is worth the hype (pre-dry hop sample was excellent), espeically since they are becoming easier to find (at the moment only $16.40/lb on HopsDirect - no affiliation).
Galaxy Big DIPA
Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 4.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 13.88
Anticipated OG: 1.082
Anticipated SRM: 6.1
Anticipated IBU: 131.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Grain/Sugar
------------
93.7% - 13.00 lbs. American Pale Malt (2-row)
3.6% - 0.50 lbs. Table Sugar
1.8% - 0.25 lbs. Crystal 10L
0.9% - 0.13 lbs. CaraMunich
Hops
------
3.00 oz. Columbus (Pellet, 11.20% AA) @ 75 min.
3.50 oz. Galaxy (Whole, 14.90% AA) @ 0 min.
3.50 oz. Galaxy (Whole, 14.90% AA) @ Dry Hop
Extras
------
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
Yeast
-----
WYeast 1056 American Ale/Chico
Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Pliny the Water
Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest 45 min @ 150
Notes
------
Brewed 8/18/11
Mash water 50/50 filtered DC tap water and distilled with 3 grams of gypsum added.
Fly sparged with 5 gallons (cut with 40% distilled, 4 g of gypsum, and 1/4 tsp of phosphoric acid),
Collected 7 gallons of 1.052 ruunings, brought to a boil and added the sugar.
Chilled to 65 F
12 oz of medium yeast slurry from Nelson Jr. which had been fermenting for 10 days and appeared finished. Shook to aerate. Left at 65 F ambient to ferment.
9/9/11 Racked to a CO2 flushed keg, left at 35 ambient to crash out some yeast before dry hopping. Down to 1.012.
9/19/11 Took out of keg and dry hopped with the remainder of the Galaxy before purging the head space again.
11/21/11 Took a bit longer than intended to get around to tasting this batch. Happy with the way the hops turned out, big pine and citrus, but it is a bit bigger than I tend to like. Great by the half pint, but working through 5 gallons will take some time.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFor a DIPA I'd say 100 calculated IBUs is about the minimum. I tend to be in the mid-100s (especially for higher gravity versions). The actual IBUs top out ~80-100, but it takes a lot of hops to get there.
ReplyDeleteYou could move some of that Columbus earlier for more bitterness, and then go with more of another hop to keep the varietal character. It would still be good as is though.
Out of curiousity, have you tried ringwood ale yeast in an IPA? I usually use US-05, but i recently tried ringwood and it has somewhat of a fruitier and unique ester profile. It was a nice change from the usual Cali yeast.
ReplyDeleteI know you mentioned you do a dispersed hop addition at flameout/chilling. Have you looked into hopstanding at all? It looks to be somewhere between flameout addition and using a hopback.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying it on a SMaSH to see if it makes any difference in terms of aroma.
Thanks for the reply Mike. Sorry I deleted the original comment, but I didn't realize my name was going to show up on there.
ReplyDeletehad the half acre galactic double daisy cutter which is a double ipa w/ all galaxy. it was pretty killer. definitely a unique hop. fruity, kinda citrusy, tropical. can't wait to brew a double ipa w/ the 8 oz i have.
ReplyDeleteAre you fermenting in the keg as well?
ReplyDeleteI'll have to try hopstanding the next time I do a hoppy beer. I usually give my flameout addition ~5 minutes before I start chilling and add a second dose (then sometimes a third a minute or two into chilling). It would certainly add a bit of time to brewday, and I could also see it causing DMS issues, but with pale malt and a 90 minute boil it shouldn’t be an issue.
ReplyDeleteNot fermenting in the keg (I use 6 gallon Better Bottles for the most part), cornys just aren’t big enough to ferment that much wort unless you are using anti-foam.
I do pretty much the same thing with two exceptions:
ReplyDelete- I will often swap out 25-50% of my bittering hops for a First Wort Hop, added to the kettle as soon as I start draining my mash.
- I often will do a keg to keg transfer from my conditioning/dry hopping keg, into a serving keg. This is a best practice for me if I think I will be moving the keg at all (taking to a picnic, taking on/off tap a lot, etc).
A lot of people are enamored with the 10-20 minute "flavor" additions but I found that they contribute a somewhat unpredictable bitterness.
is that a stocking that your using for keg hops?
ReplyDeleteYes it is, good choice in a pinch (like when I have three other beers already dry hopping and no more nylon hop bags). I also used two stainless steel spoons to weigh it down because all of my marbles are in other beers.
ReplyDeletesweet! I really like that, It seems like it distributes the hops between the bottom and top of the corny.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the first picture on this post (lighter, hops, aluminum foil) I thought you were free basing some galaxy hops. Glad to see you are just using them in beer.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of this pancake recipe.
ReplyDeleteIn your experince, does Whirlfloc affect hop compounds the same way that overpitching yeast does?
ReplyDeleteWhirlfloc helps to coagulating protein, so it shouldn't have as direct an affect like yeast will. The reason yeast has such an effect is that the hop compounds stick to them (reducing both bitterness and aromatics), which is part of way that hops provide preservative properties to the beer (and why many people suggest limiting hopping if you are planning to repitch yeast). However, I know some people claim that you should wait until after the hot break to start adding hops because the proteins can stick to the hops and reduce the utilization. You might have a similar issue with whirlfloc, but I'd guess it would impact bitterness rather than hop aromatics.
ReplyDeleteThis one sounds like it is right up my alley! It sounds sooooo good!
ReplyDeleteHow do you suspend your dry hops in the keg? I've used some sewing thread coming out the lid but it seems to result in my beers having trouble carbonating. I'm assuming it it effecting the lid getting a good seal. I really like leaving the keg hop in.
ReplyDeleteI tried unwaxed dental floss, but that seemed to be enough to let the pressure leak out. Now I just leave the hop bag unattached. Haven't had an issue with it jamming the dip tube or anything in the first ~10 batches. Even with this method I have noticed it takes longer to force carbonate, maybe just less surface area for the CO2 to enter with the top of the bag of hops floating on the surface.
ReplyDeleteCouple quick fermentation questions: Generally how long do you let your batch sit in the 60s for? 1 week, 2weeks?
ReplyDeleteWhat temp do you like to cold condition at before dry hopping?
What do you consider "cellar temperature" for the dryhopping process?
I currently have a very similar batch (galaxy and citra dipa) that's 4 days into primary and would like to follow your fermentation regiment. Thanks!
For primary fermentation? Until the yeast is done. Usually about two weeks, but I wouldn't crash cool without taking a taste and a gravity reading to confirm.
ReplyDeleteThe closer you get to freezing, the more effective cold crashing is. Recently I've been trying to speed production along and have been skipping this step. My results have been pretty good, but it takes a higher hopping rate to get the same aroma contribution.
55-65 F is a good general range for dry hopping, cool but not cold.
Hope it turns out well!
After cold conditioning, I like to rack to the keg onto both hops and priming sugar. I leave it at room temperature for a week and that way you can combine dry hopping and carbonating, so you save a bit time and get to drink the beer when its even fresher. After a week I put it in the kegerator and hook up to the co2 just to maintain carbonation.
ReplyDeleteMy opinions have changed a bit since this post. I still keg hop during force carbonation in addition to dry hopping after fermentation slows. Keg hopping provides a different hop character than dry hopping during fermentation. When the yeast is active, its enzymes interact with compounds from the hops (but the yeast also strip some hop character out as they flocculate). I like those altered flavors, but I like to layer them with the "clean" flavors from the hops infused into cold/clear beer. Every brewer needs to figure out what works for them!
ReplyDeleteCool, very interesting stuff! I'll have to experiment with keg hopping during force carbonation and see what it adds in terms of "cleaner" flavors.
ReplyDeleteThe best way I can describe it is more "nose in the hop bag." It's a character I like some of, but some highly touted IPAs have too much of it for my tastes.
ReplyDeleteVery informative and interesting article. Any advice on how to prevent oxidation, dry hop, and maintain hop aroma/flavor for those who bottle their IPAs and DIPAs?
ReplyDeleteCan you suggest a good way to weight your dry hop bag? I have used marbles before but they don't weigh enough
ReplyDeleteEven if you bottle, you could still get a CO2 tank and flush your bottles. If not, at least I'd dry hop during active fermentation so any oxygen introduced with the hops is used by the yeast.
ReplyDeleteYou likely just needed more weight! I use close to a pound of these glass marbles for a standard 3-4 oz dry hop with whole hops. You also need to tie the bag so that it can't rise to the surface while the weight is resting on the bottom.
I'm having issues finding whole galaxy hops, any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteI ordered these directly from Australia... pellets would be a fine substitute. Just smell each pack, I've had some bad luck with Galaxy! They should smell fresh, grassy, fruity etc.
ReplyDeleteIve always wanted to learn more about keg hopping and this is a great pievlce of writting. I've bookmarked the post and cant thank you enough. Ill be giving it a try too.
ReplyDelete