This is my wet hopped Belgian IPA that I make with my
homegrown Chinooks. If you don’t have access to fresh hops, you could
substitute the 6 ounces of wet Chinooks in the aroma addition with one ounce of
pellets. It might not be conventional to finish with Chinook, but I did it and
I like it.
Chin Music
Style: Belgian IPA
Water:
2 gallons in brew kettle, heated to 155 F to steep specialty
grains.
1 gallon in separate pot, heated to 155 F for sparging
specialty grains.
Grains:
1 lb. 10 L Cara-Hell
Extract and Sugar:
8 lbs. extra light DME
1 lb. of Belgian clear candi sugar
Hops:
1 ½ oz. Chinook pellets (bittering @ 60 min.)
½ oz. Chinook pellets (flavor @ 20 min.)
1 oz. Cascade pellets (flavor @ 20 min.)
6 oz. freshly picked wet Chinook hops (aroma @ 10 min.)
Yeast:
Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey (two packets pitched in the
primary)
Other Ingredients:
1 Whirlfloc tab or 1 tsp. or Irish moss (added 15 minutes
before flameout).
Water to add to the wort to achieve 5 ¼ gallons of total
volume in the primary fermenter.
¾ cup of corn sugar or 1 ¼ cups of ex light DME boiled in 2
cups of water for five minutes to prime beer before bottling.
Notes:
The original gravity should be around 1.080 and it should
finish around 1.015, which should make for an ABV of 8.5%.
I usually don’t rack my beer from the brew kettle to the
primary anymore. I typically just pour it in through a funnel and try to
reserve the trub. In this case, however, I would recommend racking because of
the volume of fresh whole cone hops. If you pour the wort through a funnel or a
strainer it will probably clog up.
If you’re worried about losing the fermentable sugars
clinging to the hops, you could put the hops in a strainer, sparge them with
water over a sanitized bucket, and then use this liquid to add to the primary
to achieve your total volume. I might try this next time to see if it helps
keep the original gravity where I want it. I imagine it may help draw some more
flavor off of the wet hops too.
