Choosing hops

[Mjr6313]

Hey,
How do you pick from the ever growing choice of hops
I'm looking at making a single hop ale similar to the Greg hughes one but with different hops,
I was liking the sound of admiral but from the description on malt miller the flavours seem a bit low now I'm changing my mind but to what.

[Jocky]

Stick to a few varieties and gradually try them and read other people's recipes and tasting notes. Find a beer you like then try and find out what hops are in it - someone will usually have tried to make a clone of most mainstream beers.

Like all UK hops, Admiral is quite muted compared to nearly all the US, Australian or New Zealand hops.

If you want a modern hoppy craft ale like Brewdog Punk IPA or Beavertown Gamma Ray/Neck Oil then I'd look at the US hops like Citra and Amarillo.

[Rookie]

Like all UK hops, Admiral is quite muted compared to nearly all the US, Australian or New Zealand hops.

I like admiral, sometimes muted is the way to go.

[Mjr6313]

I've spoken to a couple of brewers near me the have done some brews with admiral and I think its like all things personal preference il give them a go im doing it biab no chill, so if i late addition I should capture some aroma judge from there.

[Mjr6313]

Also I'm a yorkshire man so muted is all we know.

[Meatymc]

As has already been said, if you have a (commercial) beer you particularly like it's not difficult to find out what hops they use although less likely you'll get to know how much and when it's added. I particularly like Rooster's Baby Faced Assassin and know it was originally a home-brew recipe with a shed load of Citra hops hence purchased a load off here and loving the beers I've made with it so far.

However I've also gone the other way and bought a load of chinook just because it was cheap. Done 2 brews with it so far - although both clones new to me and with malt variations I've not used before, and frankly haven't liked either. Didn't help, as I've reported on here before, that I cocked up on my calculations and am way over the perceived human threshold for bittering!!

By the way mjr, as a fellow Yorkshireman (though perhaps not as muted!), BIABer and no chiller, one really useful tip I was given on here to retain hop flavour/aroma, was to no chill then re-boil a gallon of wort and add the late addition hops (that don't work as late additions with no chill) and boil for 10 minutes. As it's only a gallon I'm able to then rapid cool in the sink with the aid of a bag of ice cubes, combine the 2 sets of wort and pitch.

It really works very well.

[Mjr6313]

I read that post about the over bittering and saw it as a challenge.
Next time I go see the in laws in leeming im going to come try some.
Finally biab, no chill was supposed to be the easy no fuss all grain adding a step to boil and cool just seems counter intuitive, wouldn't dry hopping be easier? Or is there some science I have yet to discover.

[Robwalkeragain]

Get down to your local bottle shop, literally loads of single hops to try, find what you lokethe taste of!
Admiral is nice, gotta watch the late addition though as it’s very high alpha. Works great as a dry hop.

[Meatymc]

wouldn't dry hopping be easier?

After various trials (and a lot of errors!) I now do both.

[Mjr6313]

Trial and error it is, just another reason to make beer I love learning by doing. thanks for the heads up about the A.A I noted them when looking them up but didn't quite take into the affect they could have.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Finally biab, no chill was supposed to be the easy no fuss all grain adding a step to boil and cool just seems counter intuitive, wouldn't dry hopping be easier? Or is there some science I have yet to discover.

I BIAB and No-Chill. Its a challenge to make hop forward beers. And its the No chill part that adds the challenges.

Once you have corrected your recipes for the extended isomerisation in the cube, you have a second problem, which is how to stop the extended high heat from destroying your flavour/aroma compounds in the cube itself. There isn't any solution for this that comes close to the experience of a hop stand/whirlpool in an actively cooled wort (i.e. with an IC, counterflow, plate chiller etc.).

You can get decent hop forward beers in this way, but its serious work, and frustratingly difficult to reproduce. As I brew outside now, and have access to garden hoses, I will be chilling for the hoppy stuff in future.

But if your goal here is to try out lots of hops to get the essence of them in a beer, you need to pulling every trick to get that hop goodness into your beer. And you cant really get it all from the dry hop.

BIAB/No Chill is meant to be easy and it is. What it is not, is a complete alternative to orthodox processes like active chilling of the wort. By dispensing with these processes, you introduce compromises into your beer, that impact different recipes unequally. Unfortunately pale hoppy beers are the most impacted.

[Mjr6313]

Unfortunately without running a 25ft hose through the house from kitchen to brewing area then another 10 ft to the garden without the dog's eating the rabbits its just not practical unfortunately,
One day when I escape this house for a better one a nice shiney 3 tier, IC, whirlpool, fermenting fridge and bar. Hops will just have to be a see what happens and adjust as needed till I'm happy ipa's will have to come later.

[guypettigrew]

Unfortunately without running a 25ft hose through the house from kitchen to brewing area then another 10 ft to the garden without the dog's eating the rabbits its just not practical unfortunately.

What? Non comprende!!!

I run a hose 30 metres from an outside tap to the brewery for the immersion chiller, then another hose 30 metres back again to the nearest drain.

Guy

[Mjr6313]

We have a rescue greyhound who wants to eat my wife's rabbits and my only outlet for drainage while brewing would give the dog open access to the rabbit hutch the dog got out there last month for 20 secs and a show winner is no more.

[guypettigrew]

Yuk! That's a bit horrid.

Guy