discussion on hops

I love a hoppier beer. I just did a Fuggles IPA (I used 3oz of fuggle hops; bittering, flavoring and aroma) and bottled this weekend. (First batch ever) I tasted the beer as I bottled and it did not have a super hoppy taste. Will it get hoppier as it conditions in the bottle? Also, what is the general rule as far as getting a really hoppy beer in 5 gallons. Should I use more hops than I did on this beer or add more at certain stages of the boil? I really want to brew a nice hoppy IPA or Pale ale next.

jeffrideal said:

I love a hoppier beer. I just did a Fuggles IPA (I used 3oz of fuggle hops; bittering, flavoring and aroma) and bottled this weekend. (First batch ever) I tasted the beer as I bottled and it did not have a super hoppy taste. Will it get hoppier as it conditions in the bottle? Also, what is the general rule as far as getting a really hoppy beer in 5 gallons. Should I use more hops than I did on this beer or add more at certain stages of the boil? I really want to brew a nice hoppy IPA or Pale ale next.

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I've noticed that the flavors really mellow out as it ages. I brewed up a stout that had a lot of bittering hops in it. I wasn't impressed right off, but after a couple weeks, it tasted much nicer.

Without the recipe, it's hard to tell why the beer wasn't as hoppy as you'd hoped. But here are some thoughts...

1. Different people have different ideas of 'hoppy'. There's a good chance that whoever designed the recipe felt it was a hoppy beer. He just had different tastes than you.

2. IPAs have evolved over time and place. The original IPAs were hoppy, and high gravity. Over the years, tastes have changed, and recipes have changed with them. IPAs typically brewed in the UK are not nearly as hoppy of high grav as they once were. Lately though in the US (mostly , but not exclusively in Pacific NW 'hop country') people have been bringing back the hops and the gravity. Of course, using hops and water of the region, and yeast strains, and malting techniques having changed with time as well, they still probably don't taste much like the original India Pale Ales.

3. Fuggles are a low alpha-acid hop (between 4% and 5% if I remember). Alpha acids are what gives beer it's bitterness. If the recipe used exclusively fuggles, then you'd have to use quite a bit to get good bitterness. They do add a nice aroma and flavor, but not much bitterness. I like to use a nice citrusy, high-alpha hop like chinook for bittering. Then add the fuggles later in the boil.

Hope some of this helped...

do a little hop research to see which type of hop character is what your looking for in flavor. try www.hopunion.com. also try dry hopping in the secondary for more hop aroma. if you dry hop in the primary, you may lose alot of the aroma w/ blow-off. i just kegged a Imperial Rye Pale Ale that I dry hopped w/ 0.5 oz of hops in the secondary. But, a friend of mine who's a "hop-head" cloned Dogfish Head's 90 Minute IPA and had a total of 6 oz of hops in his brew. (3 oz for dry hoping in secondary). I think the total IBU's for his beer was 90? now that's hoppy!

DeRoux's Broux

Thanks all! Uncle Fat, here is the recipe I used.

6 Ibs. gold malt extract,
1 lb. caravienne malt,
1 oz Fuggles bittering hops,
1 oz Fuggles flavoring hops,
1 oz Fuggles aroma hops
w/ Thames Valley Ale WYeast

Again, the only tasting I had was at bottling w/ the priming sugar added. Please explain the dry hopping and when to do it.

jeffrideal said:

Again, the only tasting I had was at bottling w/ the priming sugar added. Please explain the dry hopping and when to do it.

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you can dry hop several ways:
1: in the primary when you close it up (least prefered due to losing alot of the aroma from the co2 working out during fermentation)
2. rack your beer onto the dry hops in the secondary.
3. use a large metal mesh tea ball in your keg. just add hops, close it up, and rack beer into your keg w/ the tea ball in there (works very well).
4. add 0.5 to 1 oz hops to your water and boil before you do your priming sugar, and boil (not really dry hop, but you get a little aroma).

you usually will have additional hops for dry hoping (or you may halve the finishing/aroma hops at the ned of the boil, and use the other half for dry hoping)

Hope my 2 cents helps!
DeRoux's Broux

Fuggles aren't a particularly bitter hop as has been said. I'd never use them in an IPA. Go get some Columbus for bittering and Amarillo for flavor/aroma (or Centennial or Cascade), and I think you'll get hoppier results.

Generally, hoppiness does not increase with aging unless there is some sweetness remaining that needs to ferment out, thus making the hops more apparent.

Janx said:

Fuggles aren't a particularly bitter hop as has been said. I'd never use them in an IPA. Go get some Columbus for bittering and Amarillo for flavor/aroma (or Centennial or Cascade), and I think you'll get hoppier results.

Generally, hoppiness does not increase with aging unless there is some sweetness remaining that needs to ferment out, thus making the hops more apparent.

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You can bring up the bitterness with fuggles just use more. 1 ounce of columbus with a alpha of 16.9 (H.B.U.) is pretty much the same as 4 ounces of fuggles. So you would use 4 ounces of Fuggles in the boil With a hop with a 8 alpha use 2 ounces. They added all those hops in britain to preserve the beer on the long boat ride to India. They used alot of dry hop in the barrels and all that sloshing from the 2 month trip made for some very oxidize but hoppy beers. mmmmmmmm

If you want hoppy, go get some high alpha hops like Columbus (man, does a little go a long way there ) Using more Fuggles is kind of a waste. Fuggles are so perfect in a lot of things. But if you want a big, brawny IPA, you need to get some of the newer high alpha hops. Cheers!

jeffrideal said:

I love a hoppier beer. I just did a Fuggles IPA (I used 3oz of fuggle hops; bittering, flavoring and aroma) and bottled this weekend. (First batch ever) I tasted the beer as I bottled and it did not have a super hoppy taste. Will it get hoppier as it conditions in the bottle? Also, what is the general rule as far as getting a really hoppy beer in 5 gallons. Should I use more hops than I did on this beer or add more at certain stages of the boil? I really want to brew a nice hoppy IPA or Pale ale next.

Click to expand...

Well, what did you have in mind when you decided to make a hoppy beer? If it was a Brit beer, then something along the lines of Target or Phoenix or Challenger hops would get you closer and then finish with Fuggles. But, if your thinking of a hoppy domestic brew, Ruination, Victory or something, then as has been suggested already would be called for. Columbus is a great hop as are Amarillo, Centennial or some of the other high alpha hops. I like to add the hops at different times, then it's not just bitter but hoppy flavor too.

Another thing that affects final bitterness quite a bit is the gravity of your boil. In all the extract brews I have done, I only boiled 3 or so gallons of wort, which were much more concentrated than a full volume boil would have been. Apparently, the alpha acids in hops disolve best in a low gravity wort, so if you want to get the maixumum bitterness out of hops when doing extract (and a smaller volume boil) you might want to boil the bittering hops with a thinner wort, only part of the total malt extract, for 15-20 minutes. Once you can smell (and taste) that the wort is getting bitter, throw in the rest of the malt, and continue with your boil like normal.