First Gold - hoppy enough?

[yashicamat]

OK, well I've plugged this figures into Graham's excellent beer engine, but I'm wondering if this will be hoppy/bitter enough? I like very hoppy and bitter beers and am still seeking to produce this at home.

For a 22 litre finished brew length (including trub losses etc., 25 litre finish length in boiler):

3344g Maris Otter Low Colour Pale Malt (95%)
176g Wheat Malt (5%)

29g First Gold 6.7% AA (MH) for 60 minutes - 22 IBUs
50g First Gold 6.7% AA (MH) for 15 minutes - 18 IBUs

83% efficiency and aiming for a 1040 OG, dropping to about 1010 with the HopBack yeast.

I'm aiming for close to a 1:1 IBU ratio on this one and the intention is to chuck an ounce or two into the corny when it's kegged (to preserve some aroma when it's force carbonated).

So my two quick questions please:

1) Will this produce a very hoppy beer? Think Bitter & Twisted, Pictish' single hop beers, Darkstar Hophead/American Pale Ale etc.
2) Does First Gold suffer from the same astringency that I encountered with dryhopped cascades recently? Just so I don't wreck another brew. If it does, I'll just throw them in for a steep instead.

Cheers.

[Gurgeh]

I'd say you can get away with that and more besides!

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12097&p=208507#p208507

[haz66]

I did this brew on 3 Jan and now drinking it

3.5kg MO
120g Crystal
200g Wheat
30g First Gold @60mins
20g First Gold @ 20mins
10g First Gold @ 0mins

31.31 IBU and BU:GU 0.87

Its not as hoppy as i would have liked so next time i`m going to add more at 20mins
and probably more at 0mins

Dont know if that helps you but its the only brew i`ve done using all First Gold

[yashicamat]

Cheers.

Ended up with an OG of 1043 so I was slightly more efficient than I expected. IBUs were set at 40 still though, but I dropped the hopping rates to 28g for 60 minutes and 48g for 15 minutes as they were 7.0% AA not 6.7%.

I didn't bother with a steep as I've read on here than it's a wasted effort if it goes into a cornie (and then force carbonated), so I'll just dryhop instead. Hopefully the antibacterial properties of the hops will come good though when I dry hop as with it being Morris Hanbury hops, they took a fair mauling about with my paws to break off the bits I needed.

[kevthebootboy]

nice work our kid, let us know how it turns out yeah,
cheers and beers

[yashicamat]

nice work our kid, let us know how it turns out yeah,
cheers and beers

Cheers matey. It's starting bubbling already and it was only pitched at about 2:30pm. It will need a blowoff tube before the end of the evening though I'm sure, as my trub/hop losses seemed lower than usual so I collected closer to 23 litres, hence buggar all space in the top of the better bottle!

[yashicamat]

Just drinking this now (it is a bit young tbh). Nice and hoppy, I dryhopped with a little of FG too. Reminds me of amarillo actually (maybe worth noting as a substitute hop, although much greater quantities of FG will be needed to get the same level of flavour intensity), but it's not quite as refined and has a slightly less smooth aftertaste than amarillo. Somewhere between amarillo and EKG I'd say, but lacking the refinement of both (might just be because it's a bit young). Doesn't have the same aroma though.