Recipe for Prima Donna Hops

[sjw_23]

Hello everybody. I'm quite new to all grain brewing and new to forums ! So, not completely sure how this works ! I have a prima donna hop growing in my garden that is thriving. I would like to harvest the hops and make beer with them. Does anybody have a good recipe to use green prima donna in ?

Thanks in advance

[seymour]

Perhaps you already know this, but Prima Donna hops are the same as First Gold hops. One is the brand name of the botanical plant, the other is the trade name of the commercial brewing hops, but they're the exact same thing. No idea why they chose to do it that way.

In any case, those are excellent English-style hops with good bitterness, flavour and aroma. Strong orange marmalade notes with subtly earthy, grassy, peppery. Yum.

You'll see lots of recipes around here for First Gold hops, but in reality, you could brew any favourite English bitter or golden ale recipe.

Last year I made an American Cream Ale with my green homegrown Cascade. It was absolutely delicious. I brewed it again, changing the grainbill a little and fermenting with 100% brett. That one won a contest, part of the prize involved me brewing it commercially, and it finally goes on tap this upcoming weekend! Needless to say, I highly recommend this recipe: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=66112

Seymour Cream Ale

Grainbill:
75% Pale Malt (I used US Six-Row, but whatever)
15% Vienna Malt
2.5% Crystal Malt (I used 40L)
2.5% Aciduated/Enzymatic/Sauermalt
5% Flaked Maize (which can be added directly to mash) or Yellow Popcorn Kernels (which must be ground, then pre-boiled before adding to mash)
don't skip the corn, it serves to lighten the body in a cool way, thus further emphasizing your hops

Mash @ 148°F/64.4°C for 60 minutes, then 158°F/70°C for 30 minutes.
Sparge @ 172°F/77.8°C
Boil for 60 minutes, add the immersion chiller at 15 minutes remaining.

HOPS: take your huge quantity of green hops (First Gold/Prima Donna in your case) and split into 3 piles, not an exact science
20%, Cascade, First Wort Hops plus full 60 minutes
20%, Cascade, 15 minutes
60%, Cascade, 5 minutes then steep until cooled

YEAST: Safale S-33/Edme, an historic English not Belgian strain, fermented at 68°F/20°C, I strongly recommend a Ditch-style drill-powered paint-stirrer aeration before pitching.

STATS:
OG: 1044
FG: 1008
ABV: 4.7%
IBU: 36
COLOUR: 5°SRM/10°EBC, slightly hazy golden

[sjw_23]

Thanks for your reply and advice, your recipe looks great and congratulations on winning the contest, hope you got to sample it on tap this weekend

[seymour]

...your recipe looks great and congratulations on winning the contest, hope you got to sample it on tap this weekend

Thanks, yes I did and it was tasty. When I arrived at Alpha to pick-up a growler to go, the owner invited me to stay and drink one with him. He handed me this huge glass stein--like a 1L Oktoberfest kinda thing--with "First Place" etched on the side, full of my own beer. Very cool. Except I'd been working in the heat and hadn't eaten much all day. Despite a modest 4.7% abv, I still got fairly buzzed.

A quick story: there were these two old Harley Davidson type guys sitting there with gray goatees, American flag bandanas on their heads, the works...anyway, they saw what I ordered and one of them said, "Woah, a Cream Ale?! I ain't drunk Cream Ale in years, we'll take some of that too." They said it was great, even before they knew I was the brewer. I'm sure the ego-trip wears off for commercial brewers, but it was pretty fun watching total strangers enjoy my beer at a bar.

Anyway, happy brewing. I can't wait to hear what you do with your green Prima Donnas.

[CestrIan]

I grow first gold hops (aka prima donna) in my back garden, because they are a dwarf variety so I can grow them over the top of the shed. Last year was the first year with them and I got about 500g of green hops off one plant. This year looks a bumper crop with almost double the harvest. I used some of them straight away and dried the rest by putting them in the airing cupboard in big envelopes made of newspaper. After about a week or two I put them in zip lock bags in the freezer and they can last up to 12 months if they are dried properly.

I agree with Seymour they are very orangey and go nice in an English style bitter or pale ale.
A couple of tips; first off don’t waste the green hops on the bittering addition. Just use them for late additions. This also solves the problem of not knowing what the AA value is. Use another English hop like challenger or EKG for the kettle addition. Second thing is wet hops contain a lot of water so use three times the amount of hops you would normally use.
I like to keep the recipe simple with these. This is a recipe that turned out well last year.

4Kg Marris Otter
200g crystal
200g wheat

30g Challenger - 90 mins
100g Green First Gold - 10 minutes
100g Green First Gold – flame out

[seymour]

4Kg Marris Otter
200g crystal
200g wheat

30g Challenger - 90 mins
100g Green First Gold - 10 minutes
100g Green First Gold – flame out

I love the look of this straightforward recipe, Cestrian. Out of curiosity, what was your OG or ABV, and which yeast did you use? I'm always interested to hear how green hops stand up to different strength beers, and how different yeasts interact with the fresh hop aromas...