Furlough Friday: Indoor or Outdoor? (Indoor wins)

[hikerduane]

I don't drink much beer, plus, I am gone during the week to work, so my place either gets warm in the summer or stays at 50 in the winter weekdays. I have winter rye growing which I just use as a cover crop, but I could grow barley and more hops.

[giantbrookie]

How much hops? I am very much in the West Coast tradition of extreme hop amounts. For anything but Belgian ales and lower gravity British bitters, my wife and I have a motto "triple digits or die" (ie 100 IBU plus), for we like things well bottom loaded (ie bittered) as well as the massive amounts of late boil flavor hops and the avalanche of aroma from the dry hop charge. I do tend to put a lot of effort into the malt end of things, though. For all but the highest gravity brews, I brew all grain, and my base malt of choice is Maris Otter 2 row which is much richer and aromatic than N. American grain. On some occasions I will use German or Moravian pilsner malt because I liked the honeyed aromatics of that malt, although this is more work because in spite of claims that these malt are modified enough for a single step infusion mash, they tend to work out better with the two step mash (ie protein rest, then saccharification rest). For hop varietals, I do like the over the top Pacific NW strains, but I will mix it up and do the more European flavor profile hops, too (including those that are grown here).

Regarding Nugget, it was one the first of the ultra alpha hops developed here (issued sometime in the early 80's, I think). It was also two decades ahead of its time because it had spectacularly low cohumulone (meaning that its bitterness is very clean). I just used Nugget as the bittering hop for my latest "Belgian IPA" (following the likes of Houblon, Le Freak, or perhaps closer, De Ranke XX Bitter). The new ones they have now are not only low cohumulone but their aroma characteristics are amazing. Simcoe is my favorite West Coast hop , although I've never taken advantage of its high alpha (usually in the 12 plus percent range) and super low co-humulone (below 20 percent of alpha acids), because the aroma is so fine. I use it almost exclusively for dry hopping. Amarillo, which for many has surpassed old standbys such as Cascade, Centennial, etc. as the West Coast signature citrusy hop, takes second place, to me to Simcoe which mixes the tangerine citrus with spectacular evergreen-pine and basil notes.

Just got back, by the way, from the last family Sierra trip of the year (see fishing section).