Hop Schedule Question

Hi Everyone - I have question about hop schedules. When I brew IPA's I generally put in a generous amount of hops at distinct points in the boil, usually at 60, 30 & 15 minutes. I have noticed that alot of commercial brewers tend to hop at a more regular interval with smaller additions.

I recently brewed an Imperial IPA using the following hop schedule:

2.0 oz Chinook @ 60 min
1.0 oz Cascade @ 25 min
0.5 oz Citra @ 15 min
0.5 oz Cascade @ 10 min
0.5 oz Centennial @ 1 min

This yielded a theoretical bitternes if 119 IBU's (Tinseth scale).

If I used the same amount & types of hops but broke out the hop schedule differently, could I expect a different hop flavor in the beer?

I was thinking of the following schedule, which yields almost the same amount of IBUs ~120

2.0 oz Chinook @ 60 min
.25 oz Cascade @ 35 min
.25 oz Cascade @ 30 min
.25 oz Cascade @ 25 min
.25 oz Cascade @ 20 min
.25 oz Citra @ 20 min
.25 oz Citra @ 15 min
.50 oz Cascade @ 10 min
.50 oz Centennial @ 1 min

Thanks in advance for your input.

WildHopHunter said:

This yielded a theoretical bitternes if 119 IBU's (Tinseth scale).

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Well IMO, you won't tell too much difference with perceived bitterness. Examples like this are an indicator over how different IBU scales are *somewhat* irrelevant. They're good for making sure a beer will be hoppy for hop heads, but they mean nothing about the overall bitterness/hop character. I've tried some beers that have a high IBU rating, but they don't taste that hoppy (whether it being their choice in hops or they didn't have enough aroma).

It is claimed that Dogfish keeps continually hopping during boil. I have tried continually adding hops all throughout boil, but I can't honestly tell the difference (especially with Dogfish's choices in recipe since their IPAs are pretty sweet). For my own preference, I go for a high AA hop for bittering/ then add what particular hops I want during aroma (for a good hoppy IPA, that's a 15,10,5,0 minute addition).

Thanks for the response. I think the question that I am trying to ask is not if the overall bitterness will change but by changing the hop schedule can I achieve a more 3-dimensional hop characteristic? That is can I achieve a hop profile that seems to change and have different hop flavors that come out between the front end & back end of a taste sampling.

The hop schedule that I used produces a very 1 dimensional hop profile that is constant front to back end. I'm sure the malt profile plays into this as well and the IIPA I brewed is extremely dry which is part of the reason the hop profile seems to linger around so long.

I am just trying to come up with some different ideas to refine my recipe.

WildHopHunter said:

Hi Everyone - I have question about hop schedules. When I brew IPA's I generally put in a generous amount of hops at distinct points in the boil, usually at 60, 30 & 15 minutes. I have noticed that alot of commercial brewers tend to hop at a more regular interval with smaller additions. I recently brewed an Imperial IPA using the following hop schedule: 2.0 oz Chinook @ 60 min 1.0 oz Cascade @ 25 min 0.5 oz Citra @ 15 min 0.5 oz Cascade @ 10 min 0.5 oz Centennial @ 1 min This yielded a theoretical bitternes if 119 IBU's (Tinseth scale). If I used the same amount & types of hops but broke out the hop schedule differently, could I expect a different hop flavor in the beer? I was thinking of the following schedule, which yields almost the same amount of IBUs ~120 2.0 oz Chinook @ 60 min .25 oz Cascade @ 35 min .25 oz Cascade @ 30 min .25 oz Cascade @ 25 min .25 oz Cascade @ 20 min .25 oz Citra @ 20 min .25 oz Citra @ 15 min .50 oz Cascade @ 10 min .50 oz Centennial @ 1 min Thanks in advance for your input.

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2 oz of Chinook at 60?!? Holy moley, that's a sharp bitterness! I think most of us, including craft brewers, tend to generously hop toward the end of the boil. For example, I might do something like this for a 5 gallon batch:

.5 oz Chinook at 60
.75 oz US Fuggles at 30
1 oz Amarillo at 20
.75 oz EACH Amarillo and Centennial at 10
1 oz Centennial at 5
1 oz EACH Simcoe and Centennial at flameout
1 oz EACH Simcoe and Amarillo dry hop (3-5 days)

I guess this is considered "West Coast," but it makes a damn tasty IPA!

Brulosopher said:

2 oz of Chinook at 60?!? Holy moley, that's a sharp bitterness!

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You can say that again!!! It's a real hop slap in the face but that is the way I like it. I have used 2 oz of Chinook in a lot of my IPA's, I was initially going for a Stone Ruination type of bitterness. It never turned out quite like Ruination but I liked it anyway so that has been my bittering IPA hopping for the last couple of years.

I like a bittering charge at 60 and the remainder placed at under 20 minutes (15, 10, 5, flameout). Flavor generally comes from the longer minutes (15 and some 10) while the aroma generally comes from the later hops (5 and flameout). Save your 25minute cascades for 15 or under.

You could use some of your chinook in the later minutes as well to get some strong flavor/aroma from them. As you start to get in the 80+ IBU range you start having to kind of play it by ear. I've read that folks mostly can't tell a difference between 90 and 100 IBU. Additionally, I've read something about a limit around to 100 IBU range.

Lastly, don't forget to dry hop your IPAs to finish rounding out your hop profile.

Edit: I guess you should also be considering your water profile if you're really trying to nail a beer style.

lately i've been "hop blasting".

the DIPA i just drew up with centennial, chinook and amarillo is going something like

.5oz chinook @ 60
1oz chinook @ 15
1.5oz centennial @ 15
1oz amarillo @ 15
.5oz chinook @ 5
1.5oz centennial @ 5

i don't like flame out additions as it just seems to make fermentation smell nice. i stick left overs in the fridge and dry hop with them. i skip the 10min mark and just do 15 and 5 or 15 and 10. 15 and 10 gives an intense hop flavor. this is where IBU numbers go through the roof. i've done a few batches with hop additions only at 15 and 5. every time i say "that could be more bitter" even though i'm around 50 IBU and bu:gu is .67 - .78 it's a super smooth bitterness that hardly gets it's head out from the rest of what's going on. it almost needs that bitterness charge at the begining of the boil in order to give a bracing flavor.