Changing up the hops in my IPA

I have been making an IPA for years that stuck with Centennial, Cascade, and Chinook on this schedule (all pellets):

60 min - 1 Chinook (12%)
.75 Centennial (9%)
15 min - .5 Cascade (6.2%)
.25 Centennial (9%)
1 min - .5 Cascade
.5 Centennial

Dry hop - 1 Cascade
1 Centennial

I'm in the mood to change things up a bit and branch out with some different hops. Mainly my IPAs have lacked a decent aroma when coming out of the keg. I'd like to boost that some if I could.

I've picked out a few that I've seen various combinations of in different beers I've liked. What is a good schedule for the following hops? Should I expand to additions at 30 min?

Amarillo 8.2
Simcoe 11.8
Warrior 16
Centennial 8.8

I appreciate everyone's thoughts on this. I may not post here often but I'm always impressed by the help an input folks have.

Thanks in advance.

If you are after more aroma and flavour, the simple answer is to use more hops and shift additions towards the end of boil!

For a suggested schedule maybe try something like this:
60 min Warrior
30 min Centennial
15-0 min Centennial, Simcoe, Amarillo
Dry hop: Centennial, Simcoe, Amarillo

I'd leave the usually more expensive Simcoe and Amarillo until later in the boil to preserve more of their flavour. Warrior is a great clean and efficient bittering hop due to its high AA%. 30 min addition isn't really necessary. Can't really recommend amounts since I don't know your recipe's OG or style/IBU. Use a recipe calculator.

Word on the street is some 2013 hops have a grassy flavour (Amarillo?) so maybe smell them first or use sparingly, especially for a dry hop. I haven't used any of this year's crop so can't comment.


If your primary objective is to up the hop aroma (and blow your budget on hops ) you might try 'hop burst' additions, which basically is adding a huge amount of hops late in the boil (15, 10-0 min ish). This really kicks up the flavour and aroma and keeps the IBU manageable since you won't be boiling long enough to get high utilization of alpha acids.

Use hops that are high(er) in beta acids rather than alpha for best results doing a hop burst. If you try this you should reduce or even eliminate the Warrior/bittering addition. Use a good recipe calculator to help you figure out the IBUs contributed by late hop additions.

You could also increase your dry hopping, for an IPA you could double your use and throw in up to 4oz for 5-10 days without getting adverse flavours.

i was thinking a similar hop schedule but put simcoe in the back at 30 mins and make it more amarillo/centennial dominant.

For 5 gallons of IPA you need to use no less than 6 total ounces of hops and at least 2/3 of those hops should be whirlpool (<180F wort temp) and dry hop. I just tasted my red IPA which is my most aromatic hopped beer to date! I used 7 ounces total pellet hops per 5 gallons.

I used Super Galena @ 60 for half of the IBU's and the rest of the hops @ 10 min and 2 full ounces in whirlpool from 180F - 65F as it cooled. Then 2.5 ounces in dry hop (Amarillo, Citra, Cascade) Citra + Amarillo makes something magical for the nose!