Hey all, My brother, who himself doesn't brew, planted some Nugget hops a few years ago just for the fun of it. He now has a ton of hops that are about ready to be used. This coming weekend, I'm planning to haul my equipment over to his place to brew with them. I've never brewed with wet hops, so I need a little guidance here. We'll probably do a 100% Nugget IPA. Since I don't know the AA content of the hops, my plan is to buy some pellet Nugget hops for bittering, then staggering all of the fresh hops towards the end of the boil (something like 10min, 5min, and flameout additions). I'm assuming the fresh hops have about the same AA content as the pellet hops, then I'll add about 5x the weight of fresh hops as a would pellet hops for those late additions. Does that sound about right? Anything else I should know about brewing with fresh hops? Any suggestions are welcome.
In addition, if anyone has any recipe suggestions for an all-Nugget IPA, let me know. I'm planning to do a simple 2-row and C-40 malt bill with a neutral ale yeast unless something more interesting comes along.
Most of the award winning fresh hop beer recipes I’ve seen pretty much only use the fresh hops in a Hopback of sorts. On the commercial scale everyone seems to turn their mash tun into a Hopback as no one has a true Hopback big enough for the sheer volume of wet hops. Personally I wouldn’t bother putting them in the boil. If you have a device you could use as some sort of hopback that’s what I would recommend. Lower the temp a bit and send the wort into a second vessel that’s full of hops. I’ve personally never brewed one but have been thinking of doing one in the next few weeks. There are tons of wild hops near my house that are probably pretty ready to harvest. One thing I’ve always wondered is the affect that the sheer volume of wet hops would have on pH. Dried Whole Leaf hops tend to raise the pH a lot more than pellets. I’d imagine wet hops would have an ever bigger effect. Prolly take a bunch of acid to keep pH in check going into the fermenter but I’m not sure. Anyone ever measured?
I have a hop plant in my backyard, originally just grown for ornamental purposes over an arched trellis. A few years ago I communicated with Stan Hieronymus and he provide some suggestions to me: Solely add them at the end of boil and conduct a 20 minute hopstand Harvest the hops when they have about 30% browning to the cone. I first brewed this batch (I brand it as Harvest Ale) in 2013 and I have been brewing it every year since. I typically add something like 15 ounces of freshly picked wet hops which are harvested as the kettle is boiling. Cheers!
I brew a few fresh hop beers every year since growing them. I agree with keeping them for the end of the boil, but have used them threw out. These days I like using 10 oz at 5 and another 10 at flameout. In addition I'll dry another 5 oz to dryhopping with. If you have a dehydrator pick the DH hops the night before and they will b dry for the beer. Never made a all nugget brew but it's a good choice.
Late to the party but here goes. I like to use munich and vienna and pilsner malts for my IPA. I usually pull a 5 gallon bucket worth of hops and use a brew in a bag set up to plunge them in at flameout. I usually whirlpool for an hour this time of year as my ground water is warmer. It's good stuff.
@SFACRKnight I remember years ago when u said you'd use a whole lb of centenial in a batch. 5 gal of hops would b more, wet weight wise
I've never cared enough to measure. Them plants get bigger every year. And I have two chinooks now as well.
