Weird question, but I will ask it anyway. I just had my first taste of a Chinook IPA I kegged a week ago. I had a question about the hop taste.
The recipe called for 4 hop additions. The first was 1oz for 60 minutes, second was 0.5oz for 10 minutes, third was 0.5oz for 1 minute and the last was a dry hop added after primary was complete for one week before kegging. All chinook additions. The beer taste good, but the hop taste does not feel complete. On initial taste, hops are mild and come through stronger in the after taste. I like IPAs that have more hop taste when drinking and less so in after taste.
How does hop taste come through when added to the boil at 60, 45, 30, 15, 5 minute boils. I know that early addittions are bittering, middle additions are flavoring and late addittions are finishing hops, can anyone describe the taste of each of these additions.
Thanks
15 and down will give you flavor. That seems light on hops for an ipa. If you want a lot of nice hop flavor I would bump up the hops to something like this
60= what ever amount you need to get correct amount ibu’s
10= 1-2 oz
5 = 1-2 oz
0 = 1-4 oz (whirlpool/steep 10 min or more before chilling)
Dry hop 2-4oz
Dry hops give a lot of flavor and aroma. You can mess with the times add hops 6min or 8 min, whatever just keep the late for a big Burst of hop flavor. Also some signal hop beers can seem one-dimensional so mix up the hops for layers of flavors.
You will get some flavor and aroma from all hop additions at any time, but you will get the most flavor and aroma from the latest boil additions and the dry hopping.
Regarding the amounts you specified above… was that for 5 gallons? If so, you didn’t use a lot of hops for 5 gallons of IPA. For a big hoppy IPA you would have wanted to use a couple of ounces in the last few minutes of the boil, then again maybe 3-4 ounces as a dry hop addition. This would result in a more “normal” American IPA character. If you were only making 1 or 2 gallons, then the amounts you used would have been okay. But 5 gallons, no, not really.
Thanks for the response. More hops. Is it too late to add hops to the keg?
How about the hop after taste. We have Sea Hag here in Connecticut. Decent IPA, good taste but a strong after taste. Other IPA’s, like Sam Adams Rebel IPA have a smoother hop taste while drinking, but not in the after taste. Any ideas what causes that?
Could it be a lingering bitterness that your perceiving as an after taste? Some bittering hops are harsher than others. Chinook is a very harsh bitterness where magnum is very smooth.
Isn’t Rebel IPA a lager? If so, that explains maybe why its smoother, and not harsh, since it was left to “age” a bit longer than and ale would have been…. Sneezles61 :blah:
[quote=“BruJudge”]Weird question, but I will ask it anyway. I just had my first taste of a Chinook IPA I kegged a week ago. I had a question about the hop taste.
The recipe called for 4 hop additions. The first was 1oz for 60 minutes, second was 0.5oz for 10 minutes, third was 0.5oz for 1 minute and the last was a dry hop added after primary was complete for one week before kegging. All chinook additions. The beer taste good, but the hop taste does not feel complete. On initial taste, hops are mild and come through stronger in the after taste. I like IPAs that have more hop taste when drinking and less so in after taste.
How does hop taste come through when added to the boil at 60, 45, 30, 15, 5 minute boils. I know that early addittions are bittering, middle additions are flavoring and late addittions are finishing hops, can anyone describe the taste of each of these additions.
Thanks[/quote]
The good news is that you have the right “vision” of what you want your IPA to taste like. At least in my opinion, a truly great IPA has massive amounts of hop flavor without too much bitterness.
The bad news is that chasing that vision is easier stated than accomplished, and many excellent, and even pro, brewers, have spent years trying to achieve that. It’s fleeting.
My best advice to you is to read as much as you can (the book IPA by Mitch Steele is a good one, so is Hops by Stan Hieronmyous, as is the mad fermentationist’s blog) and brew as much as you can, changing only one or two variables at a time.
Variables in this equation include, but aren’t limited to:
Water chemistry (if you are on municipal water in CT, you have a huge advantage here, our water is very soft)
Wort characteristics (how much crystal malt, type of base malt, mash temp)
Yeast strain (esters, attenuation)
Wort Chilling technique
Timing of hop additions
Amount of hop additions
pellet vs. leaf
hop variety
AA and oil content of the lot of hops you’re using
Dry hopping technique (VERY important!)
I could tell you what works for me and that might not work for you at all. So I think you just have to get to brewing.
In order to successfully use high coho hops like Chinook in IPAs like there are 2 keys:
Sulfate loading via gypsum to 300ppm+.
Proper preboil pH. Typically this means acidifying sparge as well as ensure mash pH is good.
Otherwise, you get the lingering course bitterness.
Some other random thoughts. I think the minimum hop bill for an IPA for 5.5G is around 8oz. Although you get more flavor with later additions, you also get some grassy-ness. Personally, I like this but some guys don’t. The hop “signature” of pro beers is best replicated with heavy hop standing and ditching early additions. My current IPA hop schedule is something like a 2oz 15m addition, a 4oz 30m hop stand (covered but stirred every 5m), and a 4oz dry hop at ferm temps a few days but after a cold crash/dropping yeast. I have been known to throw over a pound in 5G if the freezer is well stocked. I encourage all hopheads to at least try an IPA with ONLY a 30m hopstand at least once, that way they can tell what the effect is. Surprisingly good beer with such a simple technique but you do need to hit it hard (8oz min) :cheers:
Thanks for the great advivce. I think I will start by doing some suggested reading, then look for clone recipes of the IPA’s I like the best, and start making mild, measured adjustments in future batches.
The back of Mitch Steele’s IPA book is chock full of recipes from some of the best commercial examples out there. Most of them came directly from brewmaster of each particular beer.
[quote=“BruJudge”]Thanks for the response. More hops. Is it too late to add hops to the keg?
How about the hop after taste. We have Sea Hag here in Connecticut. Decent IPA, good taste but a strong after taste. Other IPA’s, like Sam Adams Rebel IPA have a smoother hop taste while drinking, but not in the after taste. Any ideas what causes that?[/quote]
Rebel has an IBU of 40 sea hag is 70 I think. So maybe you want to make your IPA with the lower bitterness.
It’s never too late to add hops to the keg! One thing to watch for is a carbonation volcano when you add the hops. Shouldn’t be a problem with leaf but could be an issue with pellets.
Just make sure to note your temps, and time. I find that dry hopping at warmer temps is preferable. There’s nothing wrong with taking your beer off tap, adding hops, and keeping it at room temp for 3-6 days and then putting it back on tap.
