Beer Forum

So I was able to get into a local brewery's homebrew comp in which the public will be able to pick a homebrew to be brewed by the brewery. The theme of the comp is hoppy ales and I signed up to enter an American Amber. I'm trying to decide between two of Jamil's recipes; his Evil Twin recipe and his West Coast Blaster recipe. It appears that the two recipes have essentially the same malt bill just different hop bills. Evil Twin is all late hopping for a total of about 24 IBUs and West Coast Blaster has a decent amount of late hopping but with some horizon up front to get a total of about 65 IBUs.

I looking for opinions as to which recipe I should brew for the comp. I’m in Nebraska, so part of me thinks a less bitter beer with a ton of hop flavor and aroma would be good for this midwest audience, but then again the theme is hoppy beers so people will be expecting bitter so I’m not real sure which way to go.

I’d love to hear from anyone who’s tasted both recipes!

Brew and enter both

Wish I could. Only one entry is allowed.

I've brewed them both and strongly preferred the Evil Twin. Much more flavorful and has that "wow"-factor you're looking for in competitions. JMO

Brew three beers:

1 - West Coast Blaster
2 - Evil Twin
3 - Evil twin with 10 ibu bittering @ 60 minutes.

Jamil discussed commercial examples using the hop bursting technique also use a small early bittering charge (either to be practical and spend less on hops, or providing a little firm bitterness). I think he discussed in on the last Brewstrong Q&A.

See which you think is best, then bottle and send me what's left over.



The Fool

bikefoolery wrote:Jamil discussed commercial examples using the hop bursting technique also use a small early bittering charge (either to be practical and spend less on hops, or providing a little firm bitterness). I think he discussed in on the last Brewstrong Q&A.

I actually just listened that episode. I'd love to brew all three beers, but the budget doesn't allow for that. I like the small bittering with evil twin idea though, so I might just go for that.

bikefoolery wrote:3 - Evil twin with 10 ibu bittering @ 60 minutes.

The recipe calls for 2.5 oz each of Centennial and Amarillo. I always buy hops in 1 oz increments and wondered what to do with the extra half oz of each. I suppose a 60 min addition would be in order. Would that be around 10 IBU though?

Use a free trial progam to gauge the 5-10 ibus for the 60 minute addition. It won't be much. Consider moving some of the 20 minute addition a little later. Otherwise there may be too much bitterness. I use beertools, put my recipe in, and then adjust the hop amounts. It will do the calculations for you. The free version allows you to work on one recipe at a time. It's a simple interface and pretty basic, which is why I like it.

Beertools.com

Dry hop with whats left over.

The Fool