Anybody else ever used over a pound of hops in a 5 gallon batch?

[HopHoarder]

Sure it's overkill but if you gots da hops...
I brewed a 5 gallon batch today which I call "HopSidious" and used 16 ounces of hops as follows:

3oz First Wort Hop a Simcoe/ Super Galena/ Calypso blend
2oz Same blend at 15 min
2oz same blend at 10 min
2oz same blend at 5 min
2oz Amarillo at 5 min
5oz Cascade at flameout and let sit for 45 min before transferring to the cooling kettle.

Needless to say, there was alot of hop sludge at the bottom of the kettle. The bazooka tube worked like a charm though. I'll be adding 5oz of Falconers Flight for dryhop in secondary.

Anybody else use a pound or more of hops in a 5 gallon batch?

 

[Chipster27]

Sure it's overkill but if you gots da hops...

Wow, what's the anticipated IBU?

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

Um, no. I think 8 or 9 ounces is the most I've done in 5 gallons and that seemed like a ridiculous experiment at the time. Care to share your malt bill/mash temps/yeast and reasoning for switching from your hop blend at the end of the boil?

 

[slamram99]

well it depends on your alpha acids, a pound of hops does not = a certain bitterness. now if you are using a 13% alpha i want to try it. haha

 

[daksin]

I've got 9oz in the boil of my most recent IIPA, and 5.5oz in the dry hop. That's as close as I've gotten, but there's just no need to go more than that. Honestly, you're way over what anything commercial can even touch at that poing and just throwing vegetable matter into your beer.

 

[BeastMaster]

I'm interested in the outcome. Have you made anything like this before?

 

[highgravitybacon]

You're asking the wrong question. You asked have I ever put a pound of hops in a 5 gallon batch. What you should have asked is "Have you ever put 5 gallons of beer in your hops?"

 

[brewtas]

I stumbled across this episode of Basic Brewing Radio the other day. They brewed a beer with 1kg of hops, 900g @ 5 minutes and 100g dry hopped, and tested the IBUs.

 

[basilchef]

Just put 18oz in a 5 gallon batch total. All cascade. All after 20 mins. 9 oz boil, 4 steep and rest dry hopped. Had the resin i wanted but a tad bit more bitter then i like. My main problem was my grain bill. I used the one from the zombie dust clone on this site. It was too complex even with all the hops. If i brewed it again, it would be no more then three grains and would start the hop at 15. Good luck.

 

[derbycitybrewer]

I make YouTube videos with a whole bunch if other guys. Funny you should post this bc I'm doing a hop challenge this fall requiring 16oz of hops.

 

[billl]

In terms of IBU, you reach saturation pretty quickly. Even if your program calculated 2,000 IBU, the most you can actually have is 100.

In terms of flavoring hops, knock yourself out. I think you get diminishing returns there as well, but your taste buds may vary. I have a hard time believing that anyone could tell the difference between 15oz of hops and 16oz though.

" Honestly, you're way over what anything commercial can even touch at that poing and just throwing vegetable matter into your beer."

I think Pliny the younger is about a lb. Elder is about 3/4 lb.

 

[Brewrifle]

Most I've done was 14oz for a Pliny the Elder clone, but I consistently use 9oz for the Zombie Dust clone.

 

[HopHoarder]

Okay this was my recipe:

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.50 tsp Gypsum (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 1 -
8 lbs 8.0 oz Superior Pale Malt (3.1 SRM) Grain 2 63.0 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 11.1 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4 11.1 %
1 lbs Carastan (35.0 SRM) Grain 5 7.4 %
8.0 oz Vienna Malt (Weyermann) (3.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.7 %
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 7 3.7 %
3.00 oz Simcoe/SuperGalena/Calypso blend [12.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 8 124.3 IBUs
2.00 oz Simcoe/SuperGalena/Calypso blend [12.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 9 37.4 IBUs
1.00 Items Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 10 -
2.00 oz Simcoe/SuperGalena/Calypso blend [12.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 11 27.3 IBUs
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 12 10.6 IBUs
2.00 oz Simcoe/SuperGalena/Calypso blend [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 13 15.0 IBUs
5.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Wyeast #1764 Pacman (Wyeast #) (1.2 litre starter)
5.00 oz Falconers Flight [10.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.062 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.6 %
Bitterness: 214.6 IBUs Calories: 427.1 kcal/l
Est Color: 8.6 SRM
Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out Total Grain Weight: 13 lbs 8.0 oz


Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 19.5 l of water at 170 F 152.0 F 75 min

Sparge Step: Fly sparge with 19.50 l water at 168.0 F
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).

My blend was 4oz Simcoe, 3oz Super Galena and 2oz Calypso
Half of my IBU's comes from the single FWH addition, everything else is late addition. Some of the grain I used I happened to have that much left, (like the wheat) and just wanted to use it up. I added more specialty malts than usual in order to get a bit more body out of this beer to help balance the hops.
Alot of these hops are 2011 and likely have lost some of their bittering properties. Ultimately, I just needed to get rid of some older hops.

 

[daksin]

Yea, but you're not actually getting those IBU, you're just wasting simcoe. There's a hard limit to how soluble isomerized alpha acid is in the low pH environment of the beer/wort, and on top of that humans can only perceive bitterness up to about 90-110 IBU. Your 214 IBU beer is going to taste just as bitter as my 95 IBU IIPA, or a Stone Ruination.

 

[cuda6pak]

How many gallons did you get out of the BK after accounting for all the hop debris?

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

Yeah, I admire the ambition, but I wonder about the utilization rate. How would you calculate that for this? (And I guess how much is dependent on your particular setup as well?)

 

[elkshadow]

I'll just reiterate what brewtas said that this episode about a guy using two pounds of hops in a 5 gallon beer and having the IBUs tested in a lab was very interesting.

I'm becoming more and more interested in the measuring of IBUs. It kind of seems like for homebrewers, our IBUs are a best guess type of thing. The guy in the show says that the standard formulas are flawed because they don't account for different types of hops having different rates of solubility. He also talks about some resin and oils being lost in the process due to soaking into hop matter or unintentionally being filtered somewhere in the process.

There is much debate but my opinion is that for homebrewers IBUs are a guess. A slightly educated guess but that's about it.

I'd love to hear from some people who have had their beer tested for IBUs and the difference between what they thought they had and what they actually had. Also, The guy in that episode added almost all of it at T-5 minutes.

The new episode is about a guy who made two beers. One with a bittering charge and the other with FWH, flameout and dry hop. The second technically had no IBUs. I find all this very interesting. Science hasn't been applied to hop utilization like it has been to grain.

When I started brewing in 94, there was a lot of BAD info going around. I'm glad to see how far this hobby has come.

 

[dstranger99]

It would just be such a shame for that whole pound of hops to go to waste, They cost about 2.15 per ounce.

 

[HopHoarder]

I ended up with just under 5 gallons (18 litres) in primary. I wasnt going for hop utilization efficiency on this batch, I had hops to burn that were mostly 2011 and I figured what the heck, dump in a bunch of hops.
I would imagine though I should still get alot of flavour and aroma from the late additions.

 

[tgmartin000]

I've used a pound including dry hops for about 50 ibu

 

[rgarry]

427 calories. My god, will have to spend an hour on the treadmill!

 

[LowNotes]

I put 10 oz during the boil and 4 oz dry hop for a 3.5g batch...it is still aging though so I can't tell you if it will actually be good or not.

 

[shivalotus]

I am finalizing a recipe with 12 oz of hops. Only 1.5 oz FWH and the rest are 15 min, 5 min, and after flame out.

Hope to brew this weekend.