In my craft brew madness, that has taken me to many places, including my backyard, I've finally taken my first dry hopping experiment. I had grown some rhizomes last summer, and managed to find a harvest of about 4 ounces of cascades. Watching these things grow was a great delight and addition to my summer horticultural obsessions. After making two separate pickings, I packaged the hops in air tight ziplock bags and placed them in the freezer, with no real time table for use.
In the last month or so I've made three batches. A Sam Smith Winter Welcome clone, a Guinness clone, and a first attempt at a Breckenridge Pale Ale clone. When brewing the Pale Ale clone, I spent a good amount of time on the malt and hop quantities and additions. On brew day, I had a frustrating boil agenda. I had a couple boil overs, and messed up the timing of my hop additions, thus only boiling for 45 minutes. Hoping to still achieve a reputable clone, I cut the flame and decided to chill....the wort that is.
This past weekend, I bottled everything and decided to split the Pale Ale between dry hopping three gallons and bottling the rest. The cascades were still airtight in the freezer and came out to weigh 2.5 ounces. they had some freezer ice built up on one side, but still smelled great. I have no idea how much AAU's they hold from being fresh, to being frozen, and then being used. 2.5 ounces is a lot of hops for only three gallons, but I figured I have nothing to loose. The brew day had some mistakes, I still have a case of that, I had no planned use for the hops and have never dry hopped. So I threw it all in the carboy, filled it up and have let it sit in the basement for three days now, with bottling in mind for tomorrow or Tuesday.
I can't wait to compare the two side by side to see the difference of the two bottles.
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