Wet Hopped

A while ago Laura and I had bought a red ale kit in anticipation of turning it into a red IPA with our homegrown cascade hops. Today we went and checked on the hops, and with the aid of many youtube videos, decided it was harvest time. This was going to be our first attempt to "wet hop" a beer - adding fresh, undried hops directly to the brew during the boil. We also added an extra pound of corn sugar to bump the alcohol content a bit. We both love a good red IPA(Oscar Blues makes a great Imperial Red and Ithaca has their Cascazilla) so hopefully this turns out well...

Laura harvesting the hops. Hops in their natural habitat. "The Haul"
This is actually only about half of them - we are deciding whether we should brew another beer with the rest of them or to dry hop this beer. "Notes" "Brewmaster" "Grain Steeping" "Waiting for the Boil" "Wet Hopped"
We used all the hops that came with the kit near the beginning of the boil for bittering - our cascade additions were at 20 minutes left, 15 minutes, 10, 5, and finally at 2 minutes - hopefully adding lots of aroma and flavor. "Hop Addition #3" Cooling the wort with our homemade wort chiller. We poured the beer through a strainer into the fermenter to get all the hop residue out ....and in a few weeks - beer!