Cold Fusion Double Amarillo IPA
After reading Matt Brynildson’s article entitled “The Eternal Quest for the Ultimate Hop Impact,” published in New Brewer, I was inspired!  Thoughts of hop goodness raced through my mind.  Understanding hops that contain 0.5 – 3.0 percent essential oils, which are fragile and highly volatile made me rethink the ideas of late hop additions and also post fermentation dry hopping.  How can you get the optimum hop oil extraction without any degradation?  What about taking the finished wort and recirculating it over whole leaf hops?  The wort is chilled, so the essential hops should stay in tact.  If the system was closed to outside air exposure, it could almost act as aeration with any oxygen in between the leaves (mostly nitrogen).  The absence of alcohol would not extract any vegetal flavors.  What is a pound of hops for five gallons on my system?  This is the result of those ideas, with help from a few pumps, some tri-clamp fittings and re-thinking how hops are used in the brewing process.     
Brewer: Sean Paxton
Style: Imperial or Double India Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications:

Batch Size: 6.00 gal     
Boil Size: 7.23 gal
OG: 1.080
FG: 1.008
ABV: 9.7%
Color: 7.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 102.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes


Ingredients:

AmountItemType         % or IBU     
14 lbs    Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)Grain       90.3 %      
1 lbs      Aromatic Malt (Dingemans) (19.0 SRM)    Grain         6.5 %       
1.00 tspGypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash]      Misc
8.0 oz    Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM)Sugar         3.2 %       
1.00 oz Amarillo - Plugs [9.90%]  (60 min)      Hops        22.6 IBU    
1.00 oz  Amarillo - Plugs [9.90%]  (30 min)      Hops        17.4 IBU    
4.50 oz  Amarillo - Leaf [9.00%]  (15 min)Hops         45.9 IBU    
1.50 oz  Amarillo - Plugs [9.90%]  (15 min)      Hops        16.8 IBU    
2.00 items   Servomyces Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 mi  Misc                    
1.50 oz  Amarillo [9.00%]  (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep*]   Hops                  
6.00 oz  Amarillo [9.90%]  (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep*]   Hops                 
0.50 oz  Amarillo [9.90%]  [Dry Hopped for 21 days] Hops
1 Pkgs   Pacman  (Wyeast Labs #1764)    Yeast1000ml Starter           


Mash Schedule:

NameDescription                          Step Temp        Step Time    
Step                 Add 22.50 qt of water at 97.8 F     95.0 F 15 min       
Step                 Add 0.00 qt of water at 122.0 F     122.0 F       15 min       
Step                 Add 0.00 qt of water at 152.0 F     152.0 F       60 min       
Step                 Add 0.00 qt of water at 170.0 F     170.0 F15 min       



Notes:

In conceptualizing this recipe, I wanted to showcase the Amarillo hop, adding most of the hops (75% of the 8 ounces added to the boil) near the end of the boil (15 minutes), minimizing any degradation.  Then, I filtered the wort, chilled it onto its journey to a conical.  At this point, I took all my sanitized hoses with tri-clamps and re-hooked up a reverse pump system using both valves on the conical to re-circulate the wort over another 7.5 ounces of hops, in a closed system.  I did this for two hours, then pitched the yeast.  Then, after fermentation was complete, I dry hop with just 0.5 ounces of Amarillo.

The results were amazing.  The finished beer has a wonderful malt backbone that supports the final brew.  The sensory levels of the hop are outstanding.  Just enough bitterness, amazing aroma and a wonderful flavor without a hint of vegetal flavors. 

Amarillo hops are relatively new hops.  They are in between 9 – 11% alpha acids and very low in co-humulone; making this hop great for bitterness and also aroma in a brew.  I get a lot of dried apricot flavors in Amarillo and some orange citrus, similar to a Centennial hop.