I am struggling on which hop to use for bittering in my first attempt at a double IPA. I want this beer to give me a sharp jab of bitter, assist and compliment the citrus tones of the other hops I am using and give a nice clean finish.
Most of the forums I have read there is a battle going on between Magnum and Warrior, both have been described as high alpha hops that have a crisp finish so I was thinking about just going half and half or should I do this first batch with Magnum and then the next with Warrior and see which one I prefer?
I think you are better off splitting them to learn the flavor of each and which you prefer. Magnum is going to be a cleaner bitterness as opposed to Warrior which will have a little more bite.
[quote=“tony269”]I am struggling on which hop to use for bittering in my first attempt at a double IPA. I want this beer to give me a sharp jab of bitter, assist and compliment the citrus tones of the other hops I am using and give a nice clean finish.
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[quote=“Rookie L A”][quote=“tony269”]I am struggling on which hop to use for bittering in my first attempt at a double IPA. I want this beer to give me a sharp jab of bitter, assist and compliment the citrus tones of the other hops I am using and give a nice clean finish.
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What other hops?[/quote]
Based on the responses I am leaning more towards Magnum because I am going to use a good amount to bitter, the main hop is Simcoe, with smaller additions of Columbus, Amarillo and Centennial.
I have not been happy with Magnum for bittering in my IPA’s. I’m pretty much done with them, and going to stick with columbus and chinook. I would also like to give warrior a try in the future. When I take that first sip I want to know it’s an IPA, not be thinking to myself is this a highly bittered pale ale.
+1 one on the Columbus/Chinook combo.
I’ve done that when I didn’t have my favorites on hand. It was definitely a different brew in the end, but I must say that I was mighty happy with the results.
Chinook is my favorite hop to use for bittering when brewing a simcoe-focused beer. It can be a little harsh, so a 50/50 mix of magnum and chinook would work well.
I personally do not like Columbus either as a bittering or as a flavor hop. I do use it at flameout and as a dry hop, but earlier in the process I find it to be like sandpaper.
