Hop Additions How Many And When?

[hupnupnee]

Hi everyone,

I have noticed that a lot of you make many small hop additions at small time intervals through the boil. Additions such as 10g at 30min, 10g at 20 mins, 10g at 10 mins etc. However many others make only two or three hop additions such as 20g at 60 min then 10g at 30 min and then 15g at 10 mins or similar etc.

My questions of course is "What's the difference?" Is it all about style, personal preference or production of different sorts of flavour and aroma profiles?

Thanks

Tim

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

In my not-quite-qualified opinion I'd say "all of the above", but mostly style and flavour/aroma/bitterness...although I guess personal preference also comes in with all of those, so yeah AOTA

PZ.

*spelling edit*

 

[hupnupnee]

In my not-quite-qualified opinion I'd say "all of the above", but mostly style and flavour/aroma/bitterness...although I guess personal preference also comes in with all of those, so yeah AOTA

PZ.

*spelling edit*

AOTA ??????

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

"all of the above"

AOTA ??????

:chug:

 

[Doc]

AOTA ??????

(AOTA) All Of The Above.

But you did nail it in your question. For me it is all about the style of beer you are trying to make.
If you are doing a Triple IPA, you'd maybe add hops in the Mash, First Wort, Bittering, Flavour, Aroma and Dry Hops. You can also get a great result adding all the hops (more than normal) in the last twenty minutes.

Depending on style I've got beers that have a 60 or 45 minute addition only, whereas others are hopped continuely.

Doc

 

[matti]

AOTA!!!!
just don't forget to keep a record......

 

[Stuster]

But you did nail it in your question. For me it is all about the style of beer you are trying to make.
If you are doing a Triple IPA, you'd maybe add hops in the Mash, First Wort, Bittering, Flavour, Aroma and Dry Hops. You can also get a great result adding all the hops (more than normal) in the last twenty minutes.

Depending on style I've got beers that have a 60 or 45 minute addition only, whereas others are hopped continuely.

My last beer was an alt so it had only a 60 minute addition of Spalt. The one before was an APA and had some First Wort Hops, then 15, 5 and Flame Out.

Doc, you forgot to hop the mash and sparge water. :lol:

 

[Doc]

Doc, you forgot to hop the mash and sparge water. :lol:

The Mash was in there, but I didn't mention the sparge water.
I'm still to do that. One change at a time

Doc

 

[MHB]

I am not a fan, the idea for multiple or even continuous additions is very American.
They seem to work on the principal that if it is worth doing it is worth overdoing.

Every text book on brewing gives as one of the major reasons for wort boiling, the ejection of undesirable hop volatiles.

You can't eject them if you keep adding them.

I have yet to get a clear explanation of why late kettle additions dont cause problems; a couple of suggestions have been put forward.

That the late additions arent in the kettle long enough to extract the undesirable fractions

The late additions are largely made with low alpha hops that tend to have less of the stuff we dont want

Late additions are small in relation to bittering additions.

This may be a method that works when you hide any the undesirable flavours behind 100 IBU's but until I get more information I think I would suggest the traditional hoping regimes.

I have only tasted a couple of beers that used multi/continuous additions, they all had a slight cheesy character to the back pallet I found disagreeable. I could be wrong but I would have to be convinced.

Any arguments can be sent to
Marks Home Brew
18 Maitland Rd
Islington 2296
Please use lots of bubble wrap as the Postie complains about broken bottles

MHB

 

[Weizguy]

One of my finest beers - a weizen that has been a multi-prize winner, and which I love dearly, has a single 60 min addition of some low alpha hops. Occasionally, it gets a 10 min addition of some Noble German hop.

My latest American wheat had a 60 min addition of Cascade, a 20 min addition of Cascade, and a flameout addition of some other fruity US hop pellets. Has been fermenting 4 days at room temp (about 20 C), and tasted "special" tonite when I sampled it from the tap (in a glass!) for Quality Assurance purposes.

Get the basic hop additions right and U prob won't wanna stray into hop frenzy territory. A nice, but scary place to visit, but U wouldn't want to live there. However, it might be a way to get rid of the beer scabs, who come around to see what U been brewin' and "oh, just a small sample, of about 10 schooners".

Seth