60 minute hop addition, all bitterness no flavor?

It's a simple question with hopefully a simple answer.

Does the hop addition at the beginning of the boil add any discernible amount of hop flavor to the finished beer or is it's only purpose to add bitterness.

If I was to replace the chinook bittering hops with magnum at the 60 minute point, will there be a flavor change? This assumes that the amounts are adjusted to keep the IBUs unchanged.

Yes and no

The 60 minute addition does not really add flavor although the two hops listed have very different bittering characteristics. Some do not like Chinook( I love it) as a sole bittering hop because it leaves a somewhat harsher bitterness while Magnum is much softer

So there will be a difference, but more in mouthfeel than purely in taste

Also the amount needed to equal the same IBU's could really affect it, say to sub Saaz for Chinook. The amount of Saaz needed to equal the same IBU's may leave a grassy flavor

If the two hops have about the same alpha acid, it is arguable that one wouldn't really be able to tell the difference. Even if one could sense a difference in a blind tasting, I doubt anyone would be able to pick out which was which.

I'm with Bobby on this one. I'm not going to say that there are *no* flavors contributed by a 60 minute addition, but they're certainly minimal, if even discernable at all.

Unless I'm brewing something that I think I might sumbit to a competition, I use whatever high aa% hop I have to get 90+% of my IBU's at 60 min then go with flavor/aroma additions appropriate for the style.

I always notice some flavor with a single hopping, but I'll agree that it's far from being a standout characteristic of the beer.

This page, Hop reference, Trystan's Brewery
explains what I meant on my post

ohiobrewtus said:

I'm with Bobby on this one. I'm not going to say that there are *no* flavors contributed by a 60 minute addition, but they're certainly minimal, if even discernable at all.

Unless I'm brewing something that I think I might sumbit to a competition, I use whatever high aa% hop I have to get 90+% of my IBU's at 60 min then go with flavor/aroma additions appropriate for the style.

Click to expand...

Excellent, this is just the kind of info that I am looking for. It is all starting to make sense now

I dunno, I can definitely tell when Nugget has been used for bittering instead of, say, Columbus or Centennial.

i think that using magnum instead of chinook would be fine 100% of the time, but im not sure the opposite is true

chinook is a hop with a much talked-about flavor and bitterness that can be much too distinctive if used as a replacement for german-originated magnum

if you are really worried about it, increase the pre-boil volume and boil the bittering hops for 90 minutes- that way you'll be sure no out-of-place aroma or flavor compounds are left

I'm in the process of reading "Brew Your Own British Real Ale" by Wheeler, Graham & Protz, Roger.

In the section on hops he says that, while it's cheaper to use a high alpha acid in smaller amounts, you get a better, less harsh, beer by using a larger amount of low to medium AA hops.

Edit: I just noticed that this thread is almost a year old. As you were.