Hop Harvest Day & Wet Hop Cascadian Dark Ale

It was time to harvest my hops in Western NY. Most of the small hop farms in the area had already harvested theirs even though I couldn't imagine how it was possible the hops were ready. Mine while papery, weren't easily coming apart in my hands and I made the mistake of harvesting too early last year and wasn't about to do that again.

This weekend would have to be it because much of the hops were browning and they were the most dry I had felt them. The weather was also about the change pretty drastically from 60's overnight to 40's.

I planned the harvest on day where I could also brew. Planning to make my typical Wet Hop Cascadian Dark Ale recipe which hides vegetal wet hop character quite well while also showcasing the citrus and resiny notes from my backyard  Chinook, Cascade and Centennial hops. I also threw in a handful of Norther Brewer because that's all I got from the 1 bine I have. NB doesn't seem to like the climate or soil here in WNY like Cascade, Chinook, Centennial and Mt. Hood do. I also recently found out that Liberty grows quite well here while Perle does not. This could be the placement in my tiny hop yard but I doubt it considering they're in the same 16x4 foot patch as everything but the Chinook.

Came home from work Friday and this poor guy was down!

Centennial harvest, only about a half pound from 2 bines. I don't think they liked the string of 90+ degree days and no rain this year. Even though I have then irrigated.

You can see the large percentage that were turning brown although even the worst of them had good lupulin content.

I've brewed the Wet Hop CDA before, I only tweaked it for this years available harvest. The rye gives it a nice body without taking away from the strong hop presence.

Wet Hop Cascadian Dark Ale:

Fermentables

Amount	Name	Diastatic Power	Color	Notes
13 lbs	Pilsner (2 Row) Bel	105.0000000	2.0 SRM	Belgian base malt for Continental lagers
3 lbs	Rye Malt	75.0000000	4.7 SRM	Adds a dry, crisp character to the beer. Yields a deep red color, and a distinctive rye flavor Must limit to 10-15% fo the mash as it tends to produce "stuck" mashes.
1 lbs 8.0 oz	Crystal 40, 2-Row, (Great Western)	0.0000000	40.0 SRM	Crystal 40 (35-45°L) A fully modified and saccharified two-row crystal malt roasted to a target color of 40° ASBC. A versatile malt providing moderate color and caramel flavor.
1 lbs 4.0 oz	Carafa II (Weyermann)	0.0000000	415.0 SRM	Chocolate malt. Dark beers, Alts, Bockbiers. Adds color and aroma.

Hops

Amount	Name	Alpha Acids	Time	Notes
2.50 oz	Cascade	5.5000000	30.0 min	A hops with Northern Brewers Heritage Used for: American ales and lagers Aroma: Strong spicy, floral, grapefruit character Substitutes: Centennial Examples: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Anchor Liberty Ale
2.00 oz	Centennial	10.0000000	60.0 min	Used for: General purpose bittering, aroma in American ales and Wheats Aroma: Floral, citrus aroma, spicy, clean bittering flavor Substitutes: Galena, Eroica, Nugget, Bullion Examples: Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
1.00 oz	Chinook	13.0000000	30.0 min	Strong versatile bittering hop Used for: Ales, porters, stouts Aroma: Heavy and spicy aroma Substitutes: Galena, Eroica, Nugget, Bullion Examples: Sierra Nevada Stout, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
1.00 oz	Northern Brewer	8.5000000	60.0 min	Also called Hallertauer Northern Brewers Used for: Bittering and finishing both ales and lagers of all kinds Aroma: Fine, dry, clean bittering hop. Unique flavor. Substitutes: Hallertauer Mittelfrueh, Hallertauer Examples: Anchor Steam, Old Peculiar,
1.00 oz	Cascade	5.5000000	60.0 min	A hops with Northern Brewers Heritage Used for: American ales and lagers Aroma: Strong spicy, floral, grapefruit character Substitutes: Centennial Examples: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Anchor Liberty Ale
1.00 oz	Centennial	10.0000000	60.0 min	Used for: General purpose bittering, aroma in American ales and Wheats Aroma: Floral, citrus aroma, spicy, clean bittering flavor Substitutes: Galena, Eroica, Nugget, Bullion Examples: Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot

Yeast

Amount	Name	Attenuation	Notes
50.28 ml	Safale American	76.5000000	American ale yeast that produces well balanced beers with low diacetyl and a very clean, crisp end palate.

Mash Steps

Amount	Type	Name	Ratio	Temp	Time	Description
24.44 qt	Infusion	Mash In	1.250 qt/lb	64.4444444	75.0000000	Add 24.44 qt of water at 158.6 F

The brew day went quite well considering I harvesting hops and mowed my lawn during the mashing and boiling.

Here is the 1.75lbs  bag of wet hops that went into the whirlpool!

First Wort Hop :)

Had to mash them down into the chiller, Haha

 The following day I harvested my Mt. Hood and Liberty hops. I pulled as much weight in hops from my two Mt. Hood bines as I did the 7 bines I harvested the day before, 3.5lbs. The remaining Chinook, Cascade and Mt. Hood are currently drying out in my home made box-fan oast.

I love this hobby. Even though the hops cost me about an extra $60 in my water bill for the summer and they take hours to harvest for very little yield I have good time watching them grow and utilizing what I can from them. $60 would buy me about 2-3lbs of already dried and harvested hops and that's literally all I got from my harvest once you calculate the difference between wet and dry hops. I could have save myself the time and money but there's just something about utilizing your own home grown ingredients that is ultimately satisfying. Besides this is a hobby, you're going to spend some money on your hobbies, right?

NY Pils Hydrometer Reading and Sample Notes

This is a quick note on the Pilsner I've written in the last two posts here and here.

I used a new Fermentis yeast I haven't used before to ferment this beer Saflager S-189. I'm using my standard quick lagering method which I stole from Tasty McDole and Brulosphy and which I've found to work great. I started the beer fermenting at 53F for three days then started ramping the temp up about 4F every 12 hours until the temp hit 68F to perform a diacetyl rest and clean up any off flavors. I've found this step can take 4-6 days depending on the lager yeast and original fermentation temperature. I prefer to ferment lagers at 50F but the package said min was 53 for this yeast.

After a day of sitting at 68F I checked gravity. To my surprise the beer had already fermented completely after only 5 days. While this isn't uncommon for an ale I've had different results with lagers. Usually when I use this method the beer is about half fermented or less after 3 days. I'm not sure if this is a result of fermenting a few degrees higher than I normally would or if its the S-189 yeast. I guess I'll have to brew with this yeast a few more times and try my standard German lager yeast at 54 to find out.

I also tasted the samples at this point expecting diacetyl and maybe sulfur but I had another surprise. The beer was as clean as could be already. I had my wife double check this and she couldn't find any off flavors either. I plan on double checking this tonight and if it's still clean I'll be crashing to 32 for 7 days then packaging.

There are a couple other things that surprised me with this beer. On is that the grain bill is about 25% Munich but it was not overly caramel-y or biscuit-y. It was very smooth without any flavor smacking you in the face, nice for a Pilsner. The other is that even though I had a lot of late hop additions in this beer the hops are barely noticeable. The beer is balanced but not hoppy. In fact I'm consider dry hopping it just to get some more hop presence in the beer.

I guess this is making a good point for trying new things like dumping Munich into a Pilsner and using a yeasts you haven't used before. It's all about data collection and experience :). I'll post tasting notes in a couple of weeks.

On another note the hops are coming along. Cascade, Mt. Hood, Chinook, Liberty, Perle, Centennial.

Cheers!