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Hopping advice please

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  • Hopping advice please

    OK guys. As many of you are probably aware, I have posted a fair bit over the years - but generally in response to technical questions other than recipes. I am helping with a start up (in Europe, not UK) and they want a good West Coast style American IPA as one of their beers. I don't have a problem with ABV, PG etc, and thus the grain recipe, but having a big brewery background and not being a regular micro brewer, my past attempts at getting a good aroma have not been very successful.

    10 hl brewkit. Any suggestions for hop varieties and addition rates and times would be much appreciated - via a PM if you prefer to keep your recipes away from general circulation.

    Thanks in advance

    Cheers
    dick

  • #2
    Well I see no one has commented on here yet so I'll give it a go. Maybe you've had some PM's by now as well.

    Lets start with addition rates and times - I usually add about 1 lb/bbl late in the boil. Usually about 30% of that with 10 min left and the rest once the flame is out, right at the start of the whirlpool. I usually also dry hop with about 1 lb/bbl - added as pellets through the top of the FV once fermentation is more or less finished. Depending on aroma I'll let the beer sit on the hops for 2-4 days. I've found that sitting on hops any longer than 4 to 5 days starts to bring out too many grassy/chlorophyll flavors as is detrimental to the beer.

    As for hop varieties that will depend a lot on what you can source, what flavor profile you're looking for. Citra, Amarillo, Calypso, Mosaic, Simcoe, Mandarina, Hull Melon, Hall Sauv, Cascade, the list goes on and on...
    I always blend 2 or 3 varieties together. Single hop IPA's can be a very fun side project, but batch variation makes it hard to use as a core beer. I've had a lot of luck with Mosaic, Hall. Sauv, Calypso and El Dorado recently.

    Cheers and thank you for all your advice over the years.
    Manuel

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    • #3
      Thanks for the comments / PMs so far.

      What a great community

      Cheers
      dick

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      • #4
        We do about 2.5-3 lb per barrel combined dry hopping and late kettle. At Day 7 Crash fermenter to 18 degrees celcius, drop out as much yeast as you can. Dry hop 1.5-1.75 lb per bbl. rouse cone with co2 the next day. Leave on hops 4 days, ***no filtering or fining, which I think is very important. Crash it, keg it, get it out to the consumers mouths very quickly

        Hop varieties- can't go wrong with simcoe, citra, mosaic, Galaxy, falconers flight, el dorado
        We recently used some of the new HBC 291-Loral hops in a dry hopped session that took on a very delicious sweet Pineapple aroma.

        Also, keep the malt bill light, too much cara malts really cover up hoppy aromas IMO
        Last edited by Junkyard; 08-28-2016, 07:02 AM.

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        • #5
          Thanks again - no wonder I didn't get the character we were looking for when we wanted more aroma. Too used to Brit levels of dry hopping, which are generally much more subtle, so we simply didn't ramp up hop rates anywhere near that high.

          Cheers
          dick

          Comment


          • #6
            I generally like to do around 2.5-3.0lb/bbl, split with 40% at FO, 40% at 10 minutes, and 20% at 20 minutes. This doesn't include the bittering hops at 90 minutes. I find that the 20/10/0 gives me the best balance of intense, developed hop flavor, as well as aroma.

            As far as varieties go, the 3-Cs are all good choices (thought I'm only a fan of Columbus as a bittering hop), and I personally don't enjoy Centennial as an aroma addition (for flavor or bittering, however, I love it). For aroma, I like the Cascade, Amarillo, Simco, and Citra. I haven't gotten too into using a lot of the newer hops beyond the early releases from New Zealand in 2010-12 because I took several years off from being head brewer at a brewpub to go back to working as a chef. But, if you really are looking for the true "West Coast" smell and taste you'll still do no better IMO than Cascade and Amarillo.

            I have a side question for people on this thread. At the brewpub I used to work at we had a German system with a dedicated whirlpool. I loved that system, and have found it somewhat limiting to now be working with a more traditional (at least for the US) English system. It used to be that I never really had to dry hop my beers in order to have incredible aroma. I don't know if that was because my flameout hops were coming into contact with the hot wort at a slower rate, or if the wort was chilled just a little in its move from boil kettle to whirlpool, or because it is more enclosed than the system I'm using now where I use the side port of the boil kettle to create the whirlpool, but I do not get the same results, and have had to start dry-hopping, which, aside from making fresh hop beers, is completely new to me. Is it as simple as the dedicated whirlpool that I no longer have that is making my beer so much less aromatic? I can't think of what else it might be.

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            • #7
              I am a big fan of Hop Blasting, almost all aromatic additions. Mitch Steele gave a great presentation on HOp Blasting at an MBAA meeting last year. I get fantastic aromas around 2 lbs/ bbl with nice stinky hops. I shoot for around a third of the total dry. Cheers
              Joel Halbleib
              Partner / Zymurgist
              Hive and Barrel Meadery
              6302 Old La Grange Rd
              Crestwood, KY
              www.hiveandbarrel.com

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              • #8
                Originally posted by BrewinLou View Post
                I am a big fan of Hop Blasting, almost all aromatic additions. Mitch Steele gave a great presentation on HOp Blasting at an MBAA meeting last year. I get fantastic aromas around 2 lbs/ bbl with nice stinky hops. I shoot for around a third of the total dry. Cheers
                Do you have a link to the presentation? I can't find it on the MBAA site, I am also not a member yet, brewery in planning.

                thanks
                Jason

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                • #9
                  I am almost certain you have to be a member of the MBAA to access the past presentations. It was 2014 Summit in Chitown. I do not see the presentation online either. It was a Special Presentation so who knows. Mitch shared an amazing amount of work that was done at Stone on hop utilization and aromatic research. Worth seeking out if it is out there.

                  Brewing Fundamentals: Hops I

                  Thursday, June 5 - 2:00 p.m.-3:45 p.m.
                  Level 4, Grand Ballroom

                  John Paul Maye, S.S. Steiner; Daniel Sharp, Oregon State University; Mitch Steele, Stone Brewing Co.
                  Joel Halbleib
                  Partner / Zymurgist
                  Hive and Barrel Meadery
                  6302 Old La Grange Rd
                  Crestwood, KY
                  www.hiveandbarrel.com

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                  • #10
                    First wort hops add another level of flavor/aroma and in our experience extends the perceived freshness of heavily hopped beers. We have also found through lots of trials that 24hrs of recirculation for dry hopping is the optimal technique for huge hop aroma and flavor.

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                    • #11
                      For anyone who is interested, the brewery that I wanted this help for has been put on ice for a few months, if you'll excuse the slight pun, until the ski season is over and he has time to get the brewery up and running after what he hopes is a busy season just getting the bar going. Thanks again for the helpful comments / advice. Hopefully the bar will be successful enough to ensure the brewery goes ahead. Cheers.
                      dick

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