Chinook help

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

time01

Well-Known Member
Joined
22/7/09
Messages
396
Reaction score
23
Brewing an apa on the weekend with some chinook for the first time and hoping for some advice. I've read it's a clean bittering hop and good for aroma? I was going to combine it with some mosaic but realised I only have 13 g left so probably only enough for a dry hop or cube hop. I also have plenty of simcoe and galaxy.
 
Chinook and simcoe are both great for bittering - nice and dank.

If that was me, I would use a heap of chinook late (like around 10-20 mins) for bittering and you'll get plenty of flavour and some aroma, then simcoe and a small amount of galaxy at flameout, dry hop with mosaic for that amazing aroma. That would be a heavenly mix of flavours and arms for me. I always balance things like citra and mosaic with simcoe, colombus, chinook etc to get a mix of the really sweet smelling hops with the dank hops. I'm not much of a galaxy fan, but with the 'less is more' approach I think it plays well with others.
 
...(and your question was?)...

It depends what you want to try to achieve.

If you're looking to feature the Chinook (~solely) then it'll be tricky with only 13g - you could try cube hopping with it (calc as a 20min addition) and do any other bittering using simcoe (a smooth bitterer). Minor problem is simcoe has a strong flavour and aroma so if it's in the boil for 20mins or less it'll compete w the chinook. Then again, just using it for bittering it a little bit of a waste of an awesome hop. Luckily it's high AA% so that won't be too bad - I've certainly used it for bittering additions before. Also you'd really need to dry hop w chinook (as well as cube hop it) to get it to shine through strongly. And you don't have enough for that. Unless you can buy some more while the APA is fermenting out...

If you just want to make a tasty APA, I'd do a little bittering w Simcoe and then cube hop with simcoe and chinook. Later dry hop with whatever's left over. Galaxy you could use at any of those points but it depends how you perceive galaxy. So people find it grassy if it dry hops for too long or can find it a harsh bitter. I don't, so I'd be tempted to cube hop w it also. With using both simcoe and galaxy you may struggle to pick out the chinook specifically, though it should definitely help blend the other two nicely.

Hope that helps

Edit: or do what Lecterfan says.
 
Thanks for the reply guys.
Just to clarify I have 13g of mosaic and 90g of chinook.
Hoping to create a beer where chinook is noticeable but not over the top.
 
It is not a clean/neutral bittering hop in th slightest. It is deep, dank piney resin with a hint of citrus if used later.

I love using a small amount for bittering when using fruity us type hops for apa styles as the dank resin provides a perfect counter balance to the fruit salad.
 
All nice hops.

Early in the boil I rarely ever use those hops. There are exceptions.

They're better later. Can you get some Magnum or Super Alpha for the first addition(s)?
 
manticle said:
...
I love using a small amount for bittering ...
At what time would you add chinook into the boil, Mants? 20, 40 or 60 mins?
The reason I ask is the last few APAs I've done I've just done 20mins and flameouts, so 20mins is effectively the bittering (& flavour) addition. Seems to work well but maybe I'm missing out on smoother bittering etc?

@op - depending on how manticle answers my question i'd go chinook at 20min and flameout, with the 13g of mosaic at flameout, then dry hop with some more chinook. Maybe 15g, 20g and 20-30g chinook at each stage respectively. How's that sound?
 
My bittering addition is always 60 but I have used chinook at all stages (45, 20, 15, 10, 5, f/o and dry). All work - main thing from my taste perspective is not to be heavyhanded with it and I prefer a lighter, fruitier hop with it for balance. Different palates may vary.
Apa thing on the weekend was about 10g chinook @60 with 10 each amarillo, citra and cascade.
Then further additions of all bar the chinook at 10 and whirlpool plus a touch of whirlpool styrians. Tiny bit of chinook in comparison but it will make its presence known.
 
All good. Thanks mants! Yep , looks like a good blend and balance.
I've just done an APA type thing with homegrown dried flowers I picked last week - 10g at 20mins then 35g cube hopped, in what should end up at 26L. Calculated to come out at 30 IBU.
I'll be curious to see how it turns out given your comments. I really like dank resinous hoppy flavour so I'd love it to front with that, but it smelt very piney and fruity going in. Probably a few weeks before it hits the FV so it's currently a mystery. I'll report later as to how it goes.
Apologies to OP for slightly subverting the thread.
 
Thanks for all the replies, I ended up going with the following:
Chinook 14ibu at 30 mins
Galaxy 11 ibu in the cube, no chill
Simcoe 17 ibu in the cube, no chill
And will dry hop 13g mosaic and 17g of galaxy.
43 ibu in total with 1056 og, will report back once it's ready
 
Had a taste of this when bottling, was quite nice, loved the aroma. Will be ready to drink in a few weeks
 

Latest posts

Back
Top