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Saturday, November 9, 2013

Hop Harvest Ale: Brewday & Recipe

Seems that just a few weeks ago (as it happens this time of year), with the advent of the hop harvest, fresh hopped beers were all the rage. This is not to say that they are not and would not be all the rage if there were still fresh hops to be had. In my neck of the woods, however, there are no longer any fresh hops to be had. The changing of the seasons ushers us from the Marzen-Vienna-Oktoberfests, pale ales, and lagers of Summer and early Fall into the stouts, porters, DIPAs, and barleywines of impending Winter. Enter the Harvest Ale, a beer of autumnal tradition that has historically used freshly harvested ingredients. This traditional style does not have to be particularly hoppy, though most commercial fresh hop beers seem to be more hop forward.

I wanted to create a beer along these same lines with my fresh Chinook and Nugget hops, a low-gravity, session pale ale. Because I had to travel 3 hours one-way to harvest my hops, I had no desire to deal with the time and logistics required for an all-grain brew. Instead, I opted for extract. Originally, I had it in mind to make a double IPA, but decided even that would be too involved. A very simple recipe resulted.

Before I get into the recipe, I want to give credit to my friends, Galen & Archie Strole, who took care of my hops after I moved from Illinois to Michigan this Summer. I also got their help with harvesting the hops for this beer, as well as the use of some of their equipment for the brewing of this beer. I got to Illinois late afternoon on brewday and met Galen & Archie. Apparently a storm was brewing to the north, so we got right to work harvesting the hops. Here are some pics of the storm and our harvesting efforts. The pics don't really do justice to the weather, but notice how dark some of the pics are as well as how blurry. We were really trying to work quickly and dodge lightning bolts as we picked hop cones next to 18 ft. vertical steel poles.






For this recipe, my goal was to use a small bittering charge, and throw in a whole bunch of fresh hops at the end for a hop stand. I picked half a 5-gallon bucket full of cones, mostly Chinook and a few Nuggets.


Here is a nice pic of my hop stand:

We had a few homebrews during the boil. Here's one of my Pilsners:

And one of their cranberry wheat beers (I think. I know it was some kind of fruit. Like I said, we had a few homebrews.):

After the hop stand, it was time to chill down the wort.

Here is the recipe:

Hop Harvest Ale:

5 gallon batch; OG: 1.045; ABV: 3.9%; BU: 45 (not including isomerization of hop oils during hop stand)

Extract:

3.3# Light LME
3.3# Amber LME

Hops:

1.00 oz. Simcoe (13.2%) FWH (first wort hop) @ 60 min.
approx. a 1/2 full 5-gallon bucket fresh picked Chinook and Nugget hop cones
0.50 oz. Citra (14.1%) Dry-hop 7 days

Yeast:

Fermentis US-05

Procedures:

Add one can LME as water comes to a boil. Add second can LME with 15 min. remaining (to get better hop utilization). Add first wort hops right away. Boil 60 minutes. Add fresh hops at flameout. Let steep covered for 30 minutes. Chill wort to pitching temperature. Ferment in the low-to-mid 60sF. Add dry hop charge in secondary or when primary fermentation is complete.

I'll save the boring tasting notes for another beer. You've sucked on a fresh C-hop cone, right? It tastes kinda like that. Citrus, pine, mango, bitter, spice, low-carbed cool, soft refreshment. Until next time, Be Fermentive!

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