Pale ale hops

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Ol' Grog

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Getting ready to brew up a microstyle pale ale and looking at the recipe. Wow, it calls for 1 1/2 ounces of Northern hops for bittering. I looked over my other brews and the most I've used was about 1/2 or maybe even one ounce. Is this going to peg the meter on hoppiness? I'm not a real hop lover and was thinking maybe I need to cut it back or just add some of the left over hops towards the end of the brewing for flavoring.
 
Don't confuse bittering hops with flavor and aroma. A primary purpose of the bittering hops is to balance the alcohol. When people think of hoppy ales, they are talking about aroma, mostly. If you want to reduce the hoppiness, cut the flavor & aroma hops, not bittering. If you have a an ABV typical of a pale ale, you need a high bitterness, or else the ale will taste sweet and alcoholic.

My Bent Rod Rye tastes as hoppy as most IPA's, but since its ABV is only 4.5% the IBU's are also low. It gets it's hoppiness from triple dry hopping.

[Spell checker suggests replacing hoppiness with happiness:rockin: ]
 
I like, what I call a "sweet" brew. I was under the impression that the "sweetness" is the malt itself. The malt is not fermentable and that is what gives a brew it's sweet factor, at least to me, and the body. Is that correct? Wow, so much to learn.....but it's fun. Not like biophysics in college.....had to take the professor out to the nudy bar and get him laid just to get a D......but that's another story...................
 
Ol' Grog said:
I like, what I call a "sweet" brew. I was under the impression that the "sweetness" is the malt itself. The malt is not fermentable and that is what gives a brew it's sweet factor, at least to me, and the body. Is that correct? Wow, so much to learn.....but it's fun. Not like biophysics in college.....had to take the professor out to the nudy bar and get him laid just to get a D......but that's another story...................
It's a bit more complicated than that, but you're on the right track. Malt (be it grain or extract) supplies the fermentable sugars for your beer. It also supplies flavor components and and non-fermentable sugars (mostly controlled by mash technique). Specialty grains often supply a large portion of these non-fermentable sugars, as the starches they contain are not as easily converted to fermentable sugars in the mash (or steeping for extract brewers).

Those non-fermentable sugars are the biggest component that lends sweetness and body to your beer. Fermentable sugars also have the ability to add sweetness and body to a high gravity brew where the yeast dies from alcohol toxicity before processing all of the fermentables.

In any case, the bittering hops are typically intended to balance the residual sweetness left after fermentation.
 
david_42 said:
[Spell checker suggests replacing hoppiness with happiness:rockin: ]
Almost Haiku (Senryu)...

With liberties and apologies.

Spell checker suggests
Replace hoppy with happy
Bang head and rock on
 
olllllo said:
Almost Haiku...

With liberties and apologies.

Spell checker suggests
Replace hoppy with happy
Bang head and rock on
You might only use
One ounce of Northern Brewer
Sweeter beer results

I dislike Haikus
They are exercises in
Pointless dumb word games ;)

[/HAIKU]
 
I read somewhere that when you are using LME that you should add a little extra hops. That includes all of the above Aroma, Bittering, Flavouring. If I remember correctly, the book said 25-40% extra hops for LME as comparred to what you would require for an AG brew. Does anyone know of this or have heard of such?
 
High boil gravities
Less isomerization
Reduced bitterness

Prose:

I havent heard of using more hops to compensate for DME. If you are doing a partial boil, though, your boil gravity is increased, and you get less usage out of the hops and may want to use more than what is called for in a recipe. The book Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels has some equations to estimate your hop usage.

- magno
 
It sounds like you (Ol' Grog) prefer more an English PA as opposed to an American PA (which is hoppier). Just shoot for a BU:GU of closer to 0.7-0.8 as opposed to a BU:GU of closer to 1.0 for an APA and you'll have a slightly maltier beverage.
Jason Halter said:
I read somewhere that when you are using LME that you should add a little extra hops. That includes all of the above Aroma, Bittering, Flavouring. If I remember correctly, the book said 25-40% extra hops for LME as comparred to what you would require for an AG brew. Does anyone know of this or have heard of such?
Close...it doesn't actually depend on whether or not you are using LME (or DME), it depends on whether or not you are doing a full wort boil or a concentrated wort boil (which many extract brewers do). You will get less hop utilization in a concentrated boil due to the higher gravity of the wort. The adjustment you want to make is to use 15-20% more bittering hops while leaving the flavor and aroma hops alone.
 
Baron von BeeGee said:
Close...it doesn't actually depend on whether or not you are using LME (or DME), it depends on whether or not you are doing a full wort boil or a concentrated wort boil (which many extract brewers do). You will get less hop utilization in a concentrated boil due to the higher gravity of the wort. The adjustment you want to make is to use 15-20% more bittering hops while leaving the flavor and aroma hops alone.

You forgot to say it in haiku form.
 
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