Homegrown Mt Hood Pils - Brewday 07.November.2010

[bosium]

This is the second in my homegrown hop series. This time I'm using Mt Hood hops to make a German Pilsner of sorts. From what I've read, Mt Hood is a hybrid of Hallertau, originally bred for the US climate. It was the most beautiful of all my plants, with purple stems and big, plump cones. It also grew like stink, probably from the breeding program it went through.

Once again, I am using some of my never-ending bag of Magnum to bitter with as it's clean, and will allow the true flavour and aroma of my homegrown hops to shine through in the beer.

I did this on the stovetop in a grain bag again to save time and effort. No sparge (saves an hour) and a 10 minute lauter, as well as having no MLT to clean and 80% efficiency are pretty big benefits if you ask me. This batch really pushed the volume limits of my BIAB system, any larger and I'll use the 3-vessel system.

OG 1.051
FG 1.0xx
IBU 39.4
EBC 6

Recipe
99% Weyermann Premium Pilsner Malt
1% Melanoidin Malt (50 EBC)

22g - 36.7 IBU - German Magnum 15.7% @ 80 min
16g - 2.5 IBU - Homegrown Mt Hood 3% @ 15 min
10g - 0.1 IBU - Homegrown Mt Hood 3% @ 1 min

Mash at 65.5C (150F). Small additons of Calcium Chloride and Gypsum.
3 vials of WLP833 (Ayinger) in a 3L starter, decanted and pitched at 7C.
Ferment at 10C.

[bosium]

Homegrown Mt Hood on the bine, and when picked



BIAB setup in my tiny kitchen


Mash in a Bag, dropped 1.5C over 1 hour wrapped in blanket



76.5C Mashout, then BIAB Lauter



Weighing out the dried + frozen Mt Hood hops. Yellow lupulin left in the bag!




Boil


I lost interest in photography at this point as the mrs was busting my nuts to get out of the kitchen, but I chilled to 14C, then let it drop to 7C in the fridge before pitching the WLP833 slurry. It rose to 10C over 24 hours and I had fermentation within those 24 hours.

I'll leave it well alone for a few weeks and then keg it, before lagering. Fingers are crossed.

[monkeyboy]

wow, that's a very full pan. Those fresh hops look fantastic. I'm looking to plant some more hop plants this year - there's something fantastic about using homegrown hops.

[WishboneBrewery]

wow, that's a very full pan.

WOW!! too, If I was your Mrs (though I'm not!) I'd be busting your nads about that boiling over and making a mess!!!

[bosium]

I gotta say, I've never really had any problem with boilovers. What I do is position the pot so it's off-centre of the burner, so it creates a circular current in the pot. Having the pot directly on the burner can cause it to bubble and splash over.

[WishboneBrewery]

My boiling ring is set closer to the pot at one side, burner at a slight angle, and has the same effect.

[yashicamat]

wow, that's a very full pan.

WOW!! too, If I was your Mrs (though I'm not!) I'd be busting your nads about that boiling over and making a mess!!!

That was my first thought! I like the idea of the off-centre heat ring. My electric boiler has the same setup in effect as the element is always on the side, but when I used to use a stockpot it could get dangerously close to a boilover!

BTW - nice recipe and those hops look amazing!

[bosium]

@yashicamat - thanks! Yep, lager recipes seem to work best when they're really simple-like. I find fermentation is by far the most important thing. Next is probably the use of top-quality ingredients, as they really shine when the fermentation is clean.

I sampled this yesterday, 1.010 so 80.4% attenuated and nicely dry and lightly hoppy. I'll probably get it in the keg this weekend, and then lager it until it drops clear.

Can't wait to see how it turns out, hopefully well but I guess that's the risk with homegrown ingredients!