Mixing And Matching Hops

[kocken42]

Hey guys,

Just wondering, when designing your own recipes, is there any particular way to formulate hop additions?

As in, do you keep the hops to a particular style (e.g fruity), or can you do some fruity with some spicy hops?

Are there any big no-no's?

I know it's all about experimentation, but I can imagine the combination of certain hops would probably result in a pretty ugly beer most of the time.

Thanks in advance.

 

[newguy]

When I started brewing I kept to single hop recipes most of the time. I eventually tried a beer that a friend made and it was fantastic with a hop character that I had never been able to replicate (it was an american pale ale and I had made a lot of them before). Turns out the late hops were a mix of cascade and centennial and I tried mixing the same varieties in my next APA. The result was way better than the single hop APAs I had made prior to that.

Since then I've experimented quite a bit. Some hops just naturally mix well, some don't, and there are some combinations that you swear shouldn't work but do. For instance, European noble hops and some of the classic american "C" varieties go very well together. The same can be said of the classic British varieties and the "C" americans.

It's really all up to your personal taste. You might find some combinations that you find disgusting but others love and vice-versa. Don't be afraid to experiment, though.

 

[dgilks]

I've heard great things about combining American hops with EKG and noble hops. My next bitter is going to be a combination of EKG and Cascade.

 

[manticle]

There are plenty of descriptions of various hops out there. You need to use your own judgement as to whether a combo sounds good or revolting (mandarin and passionfruit? Earthy mushrooms and grapefruit?) then give it a go.

Probably the best thing you can do to start is to take classic combos that are tried and tested and get a taste for what each hop brings and how it works. Every so often go out on a limb and mess it up with something you're curious about but a lot of the work has been done for you already.

Different hops work in different ways too - some will give lovely flavours but if overused might give harshness, bitterness or unpleasant characters. Some work better early in the boil or later or mid way through.

I have found amarillo can be overdone, saaz can be grassy as a dry hop and tettnanger definitely doesn't work when dry hopped into a PoR ale.

I'm also not sold on the idea that you can use any hop you like for bittering. Some are clean and might work (northern brewer is good for example) and it is also beer dependent to a degree but most single addition beers I've made still have a discernible hop flavour. I'm a fan of using ingredients that are in keeping with your idea of how you want the beer to be. There's no such thing as an invisible ingredient to my mind.

 

[BrenosBrews]

As others have said, a lot of it is experimenting to work out what you like.

Craftbrewer website has descriptions of most hops which is useful.
One main thing to note is hops refered to having a clean bitterness, as Manticle mentioned it's not a good idea to use ANY hop for bittering.

Noble hops can certainly be used with US hops. Alpine in San Diego who are pretty well known for hoppy as hell beers use a lot of New Zealand grown noble varieties.

 

[manticle]

I asked a similar question back at the beginning of last year (seems ages ago now). Some good and useful links found within

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry417285

 

[kocken42]

Thanks for the replies guys!

 

[Nick JD]

Get yourself a longneck or two of a suitably unflavoured beer like Toohey's New or one of those flavourless "dry" beers.

Make up some combinations of hops in a few coffee cups - about 0.5g or less in total and pour in about 10ml of around 75C water. Let it steep for about 2 minutes and then pour it through a coffee filter into the bottom of a glass and leave it to cool to room temp.

Pour a middy of your bland beer over the top of the 10ml of hop tea and taste it.

Do the same for the other combos you want to test. It works pretty well to help you decide on flavour mixes and it makes those shit beers taste awesome.

 

[newguy]

Forgot to mention this earlier but very rarely do I mix my hops 50/50. The more aggressive ones like cascade should get a smaller portion of the mix to allow the delicate one(s) to shine through.

And a big +1 to Nick JD's suggestion. I've done something similar but I dry hopped several bottles of coors light with a few pellets of different hops with great success. It really helps you to get a feel for a hop's finer qualities.

 

[kocken42]

Get yourself a longneck or two of a suitably unflavoured beer like Toohey's New or one of those flavourless "dry" beers.

Make up some combinations of hops in a few coffee cups - about 0.5g or less in total and pour in about 10ml of around 75C water. Let it steep for about 2 minutes and then pour it through a coffee filter into the bottom of a glass and leave it to cool to room temp.

Pour a middy of your bland beer over the top of the 10ml of hop tea and taste it.

Do the same for the other combos you want to test. It works pretty well to help you decide on flavour mixes and it makes those shit beers taste awesome.

Top idea! I'll definitly give it a go.
Also, the main reason for asking about how to mix up hops is because I recently got some Summit, Bravo and Citra hops, which are relatively new and therefore there isn't many recipes around using these hops. So my aim is to experiment using these newer hops and create the most kick-ass beer ever.
I've found that Citra is an all-rounder hop and one which is extremely fruity (in particular citrus) and is said to have "grapefruit, lime, melon, gooseberry, lychee fruit" characters (http://www.brew365.com/hops_citra.php). In regards to Summit, it's also said to be very citrus focused with orange and tangerine notes, and mainly used as a bittering hop.

So I was thinking of doing an APA

Batch 11 litres

1.5 kg Coopers LME Light
300g Caramalt

10g Summit @ 60 mins
10g Citra @ 10 mins
5g Summit @ 10 mins
5g Citra @ Flameout
5g Citra @ Dryhop

Total IBU: 39.6
EBC: 10.4

I think I'll also put another APA using the Bravo today by itself (said to be earthy, herbal and a bit spicy) and maybe freshen it up with a late addition of Cascade or similar.

Thanks again lads.

 

[Nick JD]

A big thing with hop combos is one man's yum is another's yuck, so for most of these things it's more a matter of personal taste and what-you're-used-to than any hard and fast rule.

You can use the "wrong" hop for a style - and a purist might clip your ear for it - but it's difficult to wreck a beer with hop combos if those hops are quality and you've an open mind.

I know people that if they can tastes hops they're unhappy. You won't impress an Aussie lager drinker no matter how you try to mix n match the fruitbowl floral bouquet.