Need some Cosmic Punch ideas

[dotf]

I’m still a bucket brewer and I have completely given up on dry hopping hazy IPA’s because of bad results with oxidation. I’d say 3/10 NEIPA’s turn out great and the other 7 should be drain pours but I make myself finish the keg to punish myself.

I have a bag of Cosmic Punch I don’t want to go to waste and a pretty extensive collection of grains and hops. I want to make a no dry hop hazy pale ale. Any ideas as to what I should make?

 

[hotbeer]

Do the same recipes you already have done, but for the hops they call for dry hopping with, stuff them in at 0 - 5 minutes from flame out. You might be surprised how much hop flavor still comes through and your beer might be clearer and not have the oxidation. Though you may need more hops at that time to equal the very hoppy tastes you might have been going for. But you can experiment with that.

I only dry hopped a few batches of beer. And I quit dry hopping because I never had a dry hopped batch I was satisfied with.

 

[Bobby_M]

Throw your dry hops into the fermenter right when you pitch the yeast so that you don't have to open the bucket again. Evaluate your keg transfer technique.
How are you purging the oxygen out of your kegs prior to filling. How are you getting the beer in?

 

[dotf]

Throw your dry hops into the fermenter right when you pitch the yeast so that you don't have to open the bucket again. Evaluate your keg transfer technique.
How are you purging the oxygen out of your kegs prior to filling. How are you getting the beer in?

I’m not set up for closed transfers yet.
It’s not ideal. I just don’t understand how I’ve had some really amazing results and some vomit worthy ones using the same technique.

 

[Bobby_M]

Since you already have CO2, you are so close to an astounding improvement in your beer. Honestly, it's such a difference, I'd get that taken care of before you keg your next batch. Put a spigot on your bucket and connect a hose from that into a black keg connector. Then stick a hose in your airlock hole attached to the CO2 connector on the keg. That's AFTER filling the keg to the top with sanitizer and pushing it all out with CO2. Boom, non-oxidized hazies.

 

[dotf]

Since you already have CO2, you are so close to an astounding improvement in your beer. Honestly, it's such a difference, I'd get that taken care of before you keg your next batch. Put a spigot on your bucket and connect a hose from that into a black keg connector. Then stick a hose in your airlock hole attached to the CO2 connector on the keg. That's AFTER filling the keg to the top with sanitizer and pushing it all out with CO2. Boom, non-oxidized hazies.

Ok, so, I have a bucket with a spigot but wouldn’t that transfer all the yeast cake that sits on the bottom along with the beer?

 

[Bobby_M]

Ok, so, I have a bucket with a spigot but wouldn’t that transfer all the yeast cake that sits on the bottom along with the beer?

Not really. Spigots are generally installed about an inch off the bottom. If you find that your yeast cake and trub usually sits high enough to get drawn into the spigot, simply shove a 1" tall shim under the bucket right under the spigot for the length of the fermentation and it will slope most of that junk away from the spigot when it finally settles.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Just a +1 on the dry hop at pitch time.
I never brew super hoppy beers but some beers get a modest dry hop(~0.5-1g/L).
I throw it in with the yeast all the time and let them sit for the whole ferment, never gotten any grassy flavours...

 

[aceluby]

What I do for my regular IPAs, because I don’t like having any dry hop particles is my clear beers, is add my dry hops when the wort cools down to about 175F as a whirlpool addition. Then when transferring to my fermenter I strain them out.

For hazies though, I’d throw the hops in when pitching and then do a hard cold crash for a few days after fermentation completes to get them to drop so you don’t get hop burn

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I’m still a bucket brewer and I have completely given up on dry hopping hazy IPA’s because of bad results with oxidation.

That seems to be a general experience, you just can't control oxygen well enough in buckets.

I have a bag of Cosmic Punch I don’t want to go to waste and a pretty extensive collection of grains and hops. I want to make a no dry hop hazy pale ale. Any ideas as to what I should make?

Well the whole point of Cosmic Punch is that it's been engineered to release bound thiols, and the best way to take advantage of that is to mash hop with a variety with lots of bound thiols. Typical recommendations are for something in the range of 6-8g/l (so 4oz in 5 US gal) of Saaz or Cascade, and assume they contribute 30% of the IBUs that they would if the same amount was added at 60 minutes (Saaz is helpful in this regard as it's so low in alpha acid).

And there are arguments that dry-hopping is unhelpful if you want to maximise thiol content, as the dry hop material absorbs some of the thiols, but it does push the beer in a rather different direction if you're used to mega-dry-hopped beers.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I have a bag of Cosmic Punch I don’t want to go to waste and a pretty extensive collection of grains and hops. I want to make a no dry hop hazy pale ale. Any ideas as to what I should make?

Good luck! A few notes...

I have found I get a decent amount of hop aroma and flavor with a steep ("whirlpool") addition of say 2 oz at 180F to 170F for 20 minutes. I usually stir it a few times over the 20 minutes. It is not going to get you to NEIPA level of hops, but it works well for a Pale Ale level.

I tend to think that dry hopping techniques start to matter more when you get above the 4oz (per 5 gal batch) level. That is where I have occasionally gotten a lingering harshness or some "green hop" characters. With a 2 oz addition, I would not worry to much about when I added them.

I have my first batch in the fermenter now with Helio Gazer (which is a ramped up version of Cosmic Punch). I am brewing a 6%-ish Hazy (IPA? Pale Ale?). I was not sure my dry hop plan. I was thinking of using 3 oz of Citra. I would normally use 6 to 8 oz for a 7% NEIPA. A lower dry hop level is supposed to let the Thiols shine more, but people say the Thiols can be a bit overpowering. The smell from the fermenter has a strong New Zealand hops vibe. The beer has just got 2 oz each of Centennial and Citra in a 170F steep with 4 oz of Cascade as a mash hop. I split the 5 gallon batch in half and added 1 oz of Phantasm into one half.

 

[dotf]

Not really. Spigots are generally installed about an inch off the bottom. If you find that your yeast cake and trub usually sits high enough to get drawn into the spigot, simply shove a 1" tall shim under the bucket right under the spigot for the length of the fermentation and it will slope most of that junk away from the spigot when it finally settles.

Thank you. I really appreciate it.