Hopsploitation

Disclaimer: No hops were harmed during the writing of this post.

A few weeks back I placed a sizable (for me at least) hop order from the good people at http://www.freshops.com/. I purchased approximately 24 oz. of hops in variety of types. I've been itching to use them, so that's how it went down this afternoon. After brewing strange concoctions for the past couple of months like tripels with agave syrup, cherried belgain browns, cider, and wooded wild yeast beer, I decided to get back to my roots. What's that? Aggressively hopped west coast styles.

Enter the HolzBrew Hopsploitation. My main inspiration for this recipe was Nugget Nectar, the Imperial Amber Ale brewed by Troegs. I was at Norm's last weekend browsing the shelves and wishing I'd come across some Nectar. Unfortunately it is a seasonal and doesn't come out until February.

I decided to shoot for something close. I started with a split of approximately 50/50 pilsner and munich malt, which I think is fairly on point. I threw in about 6oz. of 120L crystal malt. My OG ended up at 1.064, probably a little lighter that I was shooting for, but that should put me around an ABV of 7% which is close to NN. Now for the hops. According to the Troegs website they use: Nugget, Warrior, Palisades, Tomahawk, and Simcoe. I did mine a little different: Nugget, Simcoe, Centennial, and Amarillo. The IBU calculator at rooftop brew, put this batch well past 120 IBU, but I think that's probably somewhat overstated. I'm fermenting with straight up California ale yeast from white labs, 'ole faithful.

I've got an empty keg that is begging to be filled with this IPA/Imperial Amber (What's the difference? Seriously, if someone can explain the difference to me I'd appreciate it.)

Life's better when it's bitter,

HolzBrew