The Wet Cardinal - brewday

The Brew

2 weeks prior to harvest

A few years ago I was introduced to the idea of a "wet hopped" beer. That is a beer brewed with fresh from the field hops as opposed to dried/cured/processed hops typically used. The commercial example that introduced this to me was Last Splash from Boulevard. That beer was a pretty typical American Pale Ale that was brewed with fresh (wet) Nugget hops. The wet hops added something different to the beer that I really dug. Flash forward a couple of years and an email from my LHBS with information about a local grower who would sell wet hops by the pound to homebrewers and I knew I had to take a stab. A couple of emails later and I was meeting up with the grower after work on a Friday to buy some hops he had harvested that afternoon. Big thanks to Andy Andersen of Homestead Divide LLC for the opportunity to brew with some high quality, affordable and very fresh wet hops. These hops were professionally tested by a lab to show they are perfectly in the description and specs of Cascade hops. Here is the hop report.

I decided for this brew I would go with an American Pale Ale. For quite some time I've had in my "recipes to try" folder the 'Can You Brew It' recipe for Nebraska Brewing Company's Cardinal Pale Ale. This seemed like a great opportunity to take a great recipe and play with some fresh hops!

For dealing with the wet hops I had to do a little research on the interwebs. The most common references state usage should be between a 6:1 and 4:1 ration wet to 'standard' brewers hops. Other recomendations was to use them primarily late in the boil, at flameout/whirlpool or for dry-hopping. The main reasons provided for this was the tendency for wet hops to add a grassy character, especially if used as bittering hops and present for the full boil. 

The Recipe

Grain/Sugars:

8.00 lbs. 2-Row (US)

14 oz Crystal 20L (US)

14 oz Crystal 10L (US)

10 oz Munich I (DE)

Hops:

0.50 oz. Galena @60

2.00 oz. Cascade (Fresh Wet Hops) @15

6.00 oz. Cascade (Fresh Wet Hops) @ flame out.

?? oz. Cascade (8 oz dried fresh hops) @dry hop 4 days.

Yeast:

US-05

Extras:

1.0 Whirfloc @10m

0.5 tsp Wyeast nutrient @10m

Brewday

The grower and I arranged to meet up at the LHBS on a Friday evening. I purchased all the ingredients, met Andy and secured the hops. After some convincing of my spouse that these fresh product needed to be used immediately, I set to brewing just after dinner. 

Typical solo brewday for me. Used the 15 gallon kettle to get the 4 1/2 gallons of strike water up to 160°F. Mashed in the grains and water into the trusty cooler mash/lauter tun. Hit the target mash temp of 150°F spot on. While that sat for it's hour long mash I heated the remaining 5 gallons of sparge water. Collected first runnings, sparged and collected a total of 8 gallons of 1.041 pre-boil wort. 

Brought the wort to a boil, added the 1/2 oz of Galena hop pellets and let it go for 45 minutes. At that point, added the first 2 ounces of the fresh Cascades. At first the hops just floated at the top and no real aroma resulted. Then after a couple of minutes the smell was very strong of grassy hoppy goodness. Finished off the remainder of the boil and added the big lot of 6 ounces at flame-out. 

Chilled down the wort, strained out the hops by pouring through a hop bag and collected about 5 1/2 gallons of 1.054 wort. Put the carboy in the fermentation chamber to drop the temp down further before pitching the rehydrated yeast. Fermentation temp will be held around 58°F for the first couple days then at 63°F until close to target FG with a couple of days at 68°F at the end before dropping it back to 58°F for the 4 days of dry hopping.

For that dry hopping I took the remaining 8 ounces of wet cascades and dried them overnight in my food dehydrator. Another thing I've never done, so we'll see how this turns out as well. I am guessing I will loose quite a bit of volume of beer to the hops, but what the heck!

 Brew detail sheet