Polar night

First observation: Replace the amber malt extract with light and use your steeping grains for color and caramel flavor. Reason: You don't know what's in the amber malt extract and you have better control over the final product if you choose your character and color malts yourself. As to partial mashing, just replace that amber malt extract with pale ale and mash with your character/color malts, assuming you have some kind of a mash/lauter setup. You can do it in a grain bag with your kettle - heat the water in the kettle to strike temperature, put the bag with the grains in and keep the temperature where you want it for an hour, stirring the mash occasionally. Lift the bag out when the mash is done, rinse the grains with 168° water and voile! Partial mashing.

Only other thing: Don't waste good Cascade on the boil (the 60-minute additions). Use the same BUs of the 14% AA Nugget - you'll just boil off all the Cascade's goodness and all you get is bitterness anyway.

Cheers!
 
olywrestle said:
Want a Dark, Hoppy Bear with a Strong Hop Aroma

Be careful with any bear, not just the dark, hoppy kind. Bears are dangerous.
 
...and from what I saw in Summit County last weekend, they do s*** in the woods!
 
A hoppy bear would be a sight to see!

Nosy, changed it up. I have magnums also, would you recommend those or the nuggets for bittering?

how does it look now?
 
Magnum is good, clean bitterness - I'm just finishing a brew day where it's the only hop I'm using (of course, the brew has cocoa, annatto, honey and chili peppers in it. I tend to use Magnum when I'm going to layer something on the beer so I don't have to fight with its flavor. Either should work - early hops don't contribute much flavor.
 
I love Magnum my self. good clean bitterness . Starting to use it more and more even with pale ales in small amounts
 
Hard to argue with the efficiency and cleanness of Magnum, but for a darker beer, that you are going to hop, I would go with Columbus. Close to the same IBU, but will give you that american hop profile that might be more appropriate for a hopped up dark beer. I guess I just don't think of Magnum for the "American Hybrid, lets see what happens if we add hops to this" beer.
 
Interested to hear how this works out for you. I know that Snow Day uses Styrian Goldings, Centennial, and Cascade. I know you're not necessarily trying to clone Snow Day, but given that Magnum is more of a bittering hop and doesn't do a great deal in terms of flavor or aroma, you might consider substituting that late addition out in favor of a lower AA hop. Again, that's all on you and your tastes, but I know that what struck me about Snow Day was that it had a much stronger hop aroma and flavor than I would expect from a darker beer. If that's what you're going for, perhaps Goldings or something on the back end would be good, even as a dry hop.
 
EvanAltman36 said:
..... given that Magnum is more of a bittering hop and doesn't do a great deal in terms of flavor or aroma, you might consider substituting that late addition out in favor of a lower AA hop.....
I agree. I have been tweaking it with all the feedback, and just been using what I got in the freezer as far as hops go. I do have some williamette maybe I could work in???? Still have a couple weeks before I brew it so plenty of time to refine.
 
kinda off topic

don't try this at home for an occasion lol but I've done plenty of experimenting with late hop additions, especially in the keg

I've found out that you can take the original hop bill even the bitters, cut down the amounts and add to the keg ... you would be surprised how the flavor pops out at ya and the bittering hops do bitter some and seem to revive a dull beer almost instantly

"with the correct bag and before carbing "
 
I would think Willamette would yield pretty good results, as it is a US-grown Fuggle cousin while the Styrian Goldings in Snow Day are a Slovenian-grown Fuggle. Styrian Goldings are "resiny, candy-like, sweet, and slightly floral," and Willametter hops are "earthy, woody, slightly woody, and slightly floral." So I would think that you'd get a pretty good result from them, one that's closer to the spirit of the beer you're imitating.
 
Quality Home Brew said:
kinda off topic

don't try this at home for an occasion lol but I've done plenty of experimenting with late hop additions, especially in the keg

I've found out that you can take the original hop bill even the bitters, cut down the amounts and add to the keg ... you would be surprised how the flavor pops out at ya and the bittering hops do bitter some and seem to revive a dull beer almost instantly

"with the correct bag and before carbing "

So, are you using leaf hops in a nylon bag? Weighing it down with the glass marbles? I'm interested doing this; sorry to hi-jack the thread further.
 
I use pellets only

I've done this several ways and found out that I like to take a 5 gallon paint strainer bag put the hops in, leave enough room to swell, usually double, then turn the bag around upside down creating a double layer, then just sink the bag letting it hydrate, then let it float, it will sink on its own. This will give you the least amount of change in flavor or milkiness

another way is to tie the bag to the elbow side of a racking cane, it fits perfect under the top lip of the keg, keeps the hops right next to the dip tube "gives you the most hop flavor " clouds up the beer too

had a beer come out too sweet, added magnum and one finishing hop already in the recipe, worked sweet

if you double it you can leave it in the entire time, if you don't double it you will need to take it out in 3 or 4 days or the oil-resin, cloudiness will be too much
 

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