Recipe advice - FWH v's late Hop

[Dara]

Thats because you used 100g of Citra  The most you used of any other hop was 25g.

Originally I had decided to do a Citra PA.  After reading on first wort hopping I also wanted to give this a go at some stage. Since I don't brew often and to cover two 'experiments' in one, the idea was to give a relatively large citra flavour. Then by putting in a FWH with a distinct flavour (for me Cascade or Centennial) and if I could detect it then I could conclude that there would be some benefit, in terms of taste, to first wort hopping.

Anyway, after 8 days in primary (lovely taste - apricot, peach, grapefuit) and 3 days dry hopping with Amarillo and Citra. I'm not sure what the thing tastes like anymore. I can't detect any cascadey or centennial flavours and the apricot and peach seems to have died. Not sure where it is going so fingers crossed at this stage.

So, whether FWH is the best thing since the slice pan or mere quackery (as stated above) - evidence to date for me is inconclusive.

Dar

[DEMPSEY]

Good honest response nice to hear your views. Did a brew recently which I used 100 grams of Amarillo at flame out and the aroma throughout the fermentation was lovely however a few weeks in and the aroma has faded.

[Dara]

Well, after two weeks in the bottle the stuff is tasting nice.  Not a huge amount of aroma but it is still pleasant, Citra being the dominent hop with a bit of Amarillo sweetness.

Not sure what the FWH hops have done. Their is a nice smooth bitterness to it which is not overpowering, my wife likes it and is not into bitter beers. I'm a bit surprised given the amount of hops that were boiled for 60 mins.  Feels like 50 IBU (although I'm crap at judging IBU's). So getting nowhere near IBU's (or percieved bitterness) for the equivalent hops if they were just boiled for 60 mins.

I think in future, if doing an IPA, I will skip First wort hops and just add them all in the last 20 mins. I'd imagine you'd get a similar bitterness and get more hop taste/aroma.

Dara