A Galaxy Hop Trial

[Skittlebrau]

I've put this together and would appreciate feedback. It'll be the first time I've brewed a beer this weak. When I do these, I normally brew to somewhere between 4% and 4.5% ABV. The crystal is there to boost malt flavour, which this will obviously need. Also, I usually hop burst these, but Seymour advised against due to Galaxy's harsh bitterness.

So, what do we think? The yeast I will be using is second generation reclaimed St Austell yeast.

New Recipe
Custom Pale Ale

Recipe Specs
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Batch Size (L): 25.0
Total Grain (kg): 3.294
Total Hops (g): 115.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.032 (°P): 8.0
Final Gravity (FG): 1.007 (°P): 1.8
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 3.27 %
Colour (SRM): 5.9 (EBC): 11.7
Bitterness (IBU): 25.1 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 77
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
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3.129 kg Maris Otter Malt (95%)
0.165 kg Crystal 60 (5%)

Hop Bill
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15.0 g Warrior Leaf (17% Alpha) @ 44 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
100.0 g Galaxy Leaf (15.1% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (4 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 90 Minutes.
Fermented at 18°C with Ale yeast


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

[seymour]

...Also, I usually hop burst these, but Seymour advised against due to Galaxy's harsh bitterness...

Well, wait a minute, perhaps I was unclear. It depends what you mean by "hop bursting." Most people mean using no bittering hops (or perhaps a small quantity of a super-alpha neutral bittering hop such as Warrior, Magnum, etc) and then adding tons of distinctive flavour/aroma hops at the very end of the boil. If so, Galaxy is PERFECT for that. It's just my personal opinion that Galaxy produces an unpleasant bitterness when used in a lengthy boil.

Your recipe looks really nice, by the way.

[Skittlebrau]

I thought "hop bursting" referred to adding a buttload of high-alpha hops late in the boil and deriving all the bitterness from those additions, like the ones I've done recently with Citra and Simcoe.

[seymour]

I thought "hop bursting" referred to adding a buttload of high-alpha hops late in the boil and deriving all the bitterness from those additions, like the ones I've done recently with Citra and Simcoe.

You're right, that's a good description of hop bursting as I understand it too. I didn't mean that Galaxy would produce a harsh bitterness used thus. It's my opinion Galaxy produces a harsh bitterness when used in a lengthy boil.

[Skittlebrau]

Aha. So if I did a sort of 15m/5m/0m type hop schedule like with the others then I'd be laughing?

[seymour]

Aha. So if I did a sort of 15m/5m/0m type hop schedule like with the others then I'd be laughing?

I don't know. Therein lies the value of your experiment. Another thing to consider is the duration of hot "steeping" before the wort is chilled, because as far as I'm concerned, some bitterness is extracted as long as it remains hot, thus it should be counted in your countdown times.

For instance: if you add hops with 15 minutes remaining in the boil, but after flame-out you let everything steep for another 30 minutes at near-boiling temp before chilling, I theorize the amount of bitterness extracted is more like a 45 minutes addition (since the bitter alpha acids isomerize into solution at hot temperatures but not in cooled wort or when added dry to the fermentor), and could extract some undesireable harshness. The best way to find out is to give it a try and observe your own results. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think.

[killer]

I think your idea of 15/5/0 is a winner.
I'd even split it four ways and do 25g each at 15/5/0 and 60 or 80° hop steep.
Personally I think between these additions you get the full complexity and flavour of the hop you are experimenting with.
I'd also mash slightly higher just to bring up the FG of the beer.

[Skittlebrau]

Think I might limit the boil additions to one at 5m only, don't want to risk undrinkable beer.

[Lugsy]

I've been playing around with late additions recently following this post but Simple One and I'm really getting into the 5 minute addition rather than the 80 degree steep. You get to shave 30 minutes off your brewday but more importantly I think I'm getting better beer out of it. I'm not carrying out controlled experiments but my results have been good so far, maybe you should have a go at it

[Skittlebrau]

See I would do that with something I know like Citra or Amarillo, or Simcoe, but I'm wary of doing it with Galaxy. I think I need to brew with it using my usual process first and see what I think.