I had really great results with my last IPA hop schedule, but was looking to add a bit of spiciness/floral flavor/aroma to this next one as its a rye.
this beer already has columbus (FWH and late hop), then 20, 15, 10, 5, flamout additions of caliente (stone/red fruit), centennial (citrus/pine), and probably some late leaf cascades I have as well.
Would a flameout/dry hop addition of saaz just be waste of low alpha hops with all these high alphas crowding the drinker’s nostrils?
I don’t think so, but I also wouldn’t be afraid to use a good bit of Saaz there. I brew a Belgian IPA thats bittered with Magnum followed by a mix of Cascade and Saaz from 15min down to 1min. I then dry hop with Cascade and Perle. I’m a fan of mixing citrus and spice hops together in certain beers. I think it makes a lot of sense in a Rye IPA.
cool thanks brutha. Will work some into the recipe tonight.
The schedule I use for my Belgian IPA. I very much enjoyed the results.
FWH 1oz Cascade
60min 1oz Magnum
15min 1.5oz Cascade
1min 1.5oz Saaz
DH 1.5oz Cascade & 1oz Perle (both whole leaf, just my preference)
You could use sterlings instead. It is a lot like saaz, but with higher AA%. I haven’t brewed it yet, but I recently formulated a black IPA using sterlings.
Several years ago I combined the grains from a schwarz beer with the hops and yeast of my czech pils that turned out pretty good.
This beer turned out great. I’m not sure if the Saaz helped in achieving this, but it has a really well-developed, ‘unified’ (I guess?) hop character…the spiciness, pine, and some really great floral/grassy notes in the background. Going to enter in a few comps to get some additional feedback.
I don’t think the %AA has much to do with the flavor/aroma contribution of a hop variety. So I figure you’re getting as much out of it as you would get from any other late addition. I wouldn’t consider it a waste at all because flavor and aroma are exactly what those low alpha hops are bred for.
I don’t doubt the saaz contributed to the finished character of the beer, of course the only way to know for sure is brew it again without it.
