Brewing With Fresh Hops - Chinook IPA

Just in time for the arrival of my freshly picked pound bag of Chinook hops at Mountain Homebrew & Wine, I found a reasonable sounding recipe in the iBrewMaster App for a single  hop Chinook IPA.

Each Chinook cone was about the size of one of my thumbs. The bag wafted intense piney/resiny aromas. 

The product description for the beer comes from a Northern Brewer kit:

"This American IPA has a relatively modest gravity and an immodest hop character derived entirely from a single hop variety. Chinook hops have long been used by US brewers for bittering additions, but their intense aroma and flavor have caught on only recently. This kit is a bit lower in gravity and lighter in body than our other IPA recipes, which enhances the perceived bitterness and reduces the aging requirements. It shows up in the glass with a reddish-gold color and a thick, resinous Chinook aroma that lingers after the glass is emptied."

In order to have the freshest possible ingredients for this special seasonal brew, I gathered and milled the grains at the shop as I picked up the fresh hop order. I also had a left over half-pound of flaked rye from my HOTD Blue Dot clone, so I thought, might as well add that to the mix to balance out some extra IBUs I plan to introduce.

The general guideline for fresh hops is to use 5X the amount called for from a dried hop recipe. Remembering Black Raven's fresh hop IPA from last year, the beer should end up with a more subtle hop character than if dried hops had been used.

60 minute bittering hop addition.

I also snipped off my dozen or so home grown Cascade hop cones and threw them in as a first wort addition. Not much of a bitterness addition, but they are ready to harvest.

Total weight of my Cascade Hop crop: .5 oz.

The fresh hop cones held together really well through the boil. Racking to the fermenter was a much faster and easier task than with dried hops. The cones also seemed to absorb less water than I expected. After a 60 minute boil that started with 6 gallons, I was only about a quart off from a 5 gallon final wort.

Rainbow sheen of fresh hop lupulin oils at cold break.

My altered recipe for Chinook IPA:

10 lbs Organic 2 - row Briess Malt 1.8L

.75 lb Carapils malt 1.3L

.25 lb Crystal 120 deg L Briess Malt

.50 lb Flaked organic rye

Mash: 16.5 quarts water @ 152 ºF for 60 minutes.

2 tsp's Burton Water Salts in mash water
2 tsp's Gypsum in mash water

Mashout: Heat to 170 ºF over 2 minutes, rest 10 minutes.

Sparge 6 gallons from 170 ºF Hot Liquor.

Hops

.50 oz Cascade First Wort Boil

3.75 oz  35.02 IBU's Chinook fresh hops 60 mins

2.50 oz  8.47 IBU's Chinook fresh hops 20 mins

2.50 oz  8.47 IBU's Chinook fresh hops 10 mins

2.50 oz  1.01 IBU's Chinook fresh hops 1 mins

5.00 oz  0.00 IBUs Chinook fresh hop tea

1.0 oz      0.00 IBUs Chinook whole dry hop 7 days during secondary

Fermentation Steps
Primary 14 days @ 66.0°F
Secondary 14 days @ 72.0°F
Bottle/Keg 14 days @ 74.0°F