How to decide what hops and what hop schedule

[Cozzyb]

So I want to make IPA's mostly,

And i have a bunch of hops in bulk at the min, Nelson Sauvin, Amarillo, Citra. So how do I decide what hops go together, also has anyone tried any single hop IPA's?
Also hop schedule, does 60 min addition and then 15 min and then a big flameout for 30 mins, additions provide plenty of flavor? I want the IPA type taste like Jaipur, Punk IPA etc.

[far9410]

Don't know about combinations of these, but NS and Amarillo make excellent single hop brews, not used citra

[seymour]

There is a lot of great advice throughout this forum, but to be honest, you're going to gain the most from personal experimentation. With matters of personal taste, take everything you read but haven't personally experienced with a grain of salt.

Yes, single-hop recipes are an excellent way to refine your palate, but it's a pretty time-consuming, labor-intensive, expensive way too. That said, we all hope you do so and share your findings so we can fine-tune our own experiments.

Here's a decent single-hop-trial recipe described in For the Love of Hops, but you needn't split the pale malt his way:

Russian River "Hop 2 It"
Grainbill: 74% American 2-row Pale, 13% Maris Otter, 10% Crystal 120L, 3% Aciduated Malt
Single hop of your choice: 90 min = 5-10 IBU, 30 min = 20 IBU, 0 min = 10 IBU, dry hop 1 week
neutral, high-attenuating yeast
OG: 1052-1056
IBU: 30-40
COLOUR: 9/18

Another popular and extreme way to go: a hop-bursted Imperial IPA, wherein you can substitute the varieties at will:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documenta ... hDream.pdf

Simultaneously, you should try to find commercial beers which name their hops varieties, so you can decide for yourself what works and what doesn't. Seek out all the craft beer and attend all the beer festivals you can, and try to learn as much as you can before you're drunk. When you find a beer you especially enjoy, research the brewery's website and sites such as Ratebeer and Beer Advocate to see if you can figure out what you liked about it.

For instance, last week a brewer friend of mine asked me to curate a quick-and-dirty side-by-side hops training session, so here's what we did:

I wanted to teach him a few easily distinguished American hops, and how to differentiate them from traditional English hops.
I know these beers are not identical grainbills, ABV, IBU, etc, so it wasn't apples-to-apples, but it was nonetheless eduational:

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to show-off Cascades
Founders Centennial IPA to show-off Centennial, thought of as "super-Cascades"
Stone Arrogant Bastard to show-off Chinook, containing much of that plus several more layers
+ a few more American IPA type things he provided
I sliced up a grapefruit, and we ate some with the beer, including the rind and zest, in order to recognize the similarities, also discussing pine resin, black currants, etc.

Then we had:
J.W. Lee's Moonraker to show-off Goldings
St. Peters Organic English Ale to show-off First Gold (which I confirmed with the brewery, though some old websites indicate Target, I'm sure it's more difficult for certified organic brewers to consistently source their ingredients)
+ my recent Mild containing Challenger and Progress.
We discussed how these were very citrusy and resiny as well, but in different, more balanced ways. Within this context, he found the English ales just as tasty, but more harmonious, without the need to kick you in the side of the head (his words, I promise.) Of course you know by now, that's a major point I've been trying to make.

[soupdragon]

NS and Amarillo make excellent single hop brews, not used citra

+1 to that.

I must admit that I really do like Citra, can be an acquired taste though......

Regarding the actual question of best hop schedule. Personally I've not done enough Smash trial brews to comment yet. However, when I changed the 2nd hop addition in my 2nd Bombay IPA from 45 mins to 20 mins my taste buds told me that I'd lost some hop flavour. The recipe I used was identical apart from that and I used 1 sachet of yeast rather than 2 in the 1st brew. Next time I'll revert to the original additions to confirm my results.....

Cheers Tom

[Martin G]

What about;
1. Make a brew with no late hops, possibly split to get a couple of malt profiles.
2. Boil or heat some water (2-300ml) and one hop (say 10-15g) for desired duration, filter and collect the hop tea.
3. Repeat step 2 for a range of hops or durations / temps.
4. Buy a packet of crackers
5. Pour the beer into a selection of small glasses and add different combinations of the hop tea to the beer using a syringe
6. Taste and smell the beers, taking a sip of water and a bite of the cracker between tastings.

Realise it won't be exactly the same as a proper brew, but may give a sense.