# How Much Hops Do You Use For A Hoppy Pale Ale ?



## maxymoo (29/7/12)

For people who like their beers hoppy, how much hops goes into an average APA recipe ? In argon's Little Fellas Pale Ale recipe, there's 180g of hops for the 23l batch. Is this a usual of amount for a 'hophead' house APA?

I used to do AG but don't have the time/space anymore, so I've decided to try some extract brews. 

I've just brewed a Brewcraft "Sierra Nevada Pale Ale" LME kit, which came with 125g of hops for a 23 litre batch ... the hops flavour is good, but not incredible. So for my next one I'm thinking about increasing the hops, or moving some to FWH? Or maybe using a higher AA hop for bittering ... their recipe used perle when i think it should have used Magnum?

Anyway mostly just wanted to get a straw poll on people's average APA hop amounts ... closer to 100g or 200g or even higher?

Cheers


----------



## Bats (29/7/12)

Depends on the volume and your target IBU. Also what hop varieties. Some will be more overpowering than others.

If you brewed AG you may have used Brew software to develop your brews.

I use Brewmate and add hop quantities in and out comes the IBU's.

If you like a beer that has certain hoppy flavours, just research the beer (hop variety, IBU etc). Then try and replicate it using brewers software to achieve similar IBU's.


----------



## troopa (29/7/12)

Depends on the IBU you want in the finished product
I class Hoppy different from Bitterness though

Magnum is a nice clean flavor and makes it easy to use in most US style brews 

Again if you want hoppy add it later say from 20 mins down to flame out
20g of magnum at 60 
then 100g of pearle at 5 would be hoppy in my mind 

most of my reciepes tend not to go over 100g in most cases


----------



## cam89brewer (29/7/12)

I think that there is no real limit on how much hops you use as aroma and flavour additions, It really comes down to personal preference. But it also depends on which hops you are using to dry hop and which hops you bitter with.... etc If you use a high AA bittering hop then surely that is going to bring your hop amounts down as well as if you were going dry hop with say Citra or Amarillo if you leave it nice and late in secondary you can actually get away with using only 10 - 20g and is still get a good whack of hop arome/flavour.


----------



## Wolfy (29/7/12)

The last three American-type Ales I made: 151g, 85g, 230g
As others have said, it depends on your IBU target and how many hops you want to use for flavour/aroma, and when you add them.


----------

