which hops are suitable for english bitter?

I want to clean up the dregs of my grain/malt cooler, and have the ingredients to make a batch of bitter (english pale)....I really like the grassy, earthy type hoppage in a bitter (ever had Summit ESB?...mmmm), so help me out, what will give me that type of aroma-hoppage from this list?

In my freezer:
Fuggle - I know this is an english style hop, but what about.....
Perle
Liberty
Saaz
williamette

or should I go all-fuggle?

what say you, my hop-knowledgeable comrads?

English hops, all the way: Challenger, Fuggles, EKG (or US Golding), Willamette.

An all-Fuggle bitter would be rather tasty, but I'm undeniably biased toward the English styles.

Jason

Maybe all fuggle would be a good way to burn the flavor characteristics on Fuggle into my head, so I can have a baseline for other english hop flavors....

I just looked at the summit site, and they list Fuggle (likely for bittering) and Northdown as a dry-hop, so maybe I should get some for a little dry-hop.....

Fuggle would be ideal for you if you like earthy. The other most commonly used in bitter is EKG, which has a more floral aroma.

I just made a bitter yesterday with fuggle @ 60 and EKG @ 30. I had on hand an old package of Mt Hood that I threw in at the end. That hop is not typical for the style, but I used it in my first ever batch because it was all I could get at my LHBS. It turned out very well, so I had no qualms about adding it again. The wort going into the fermenter tastes promising, it has a lillte bit of spicey bite from the Mt Hood. Like I mentioned though, not really in style, but what the hell.

From the hops you have, I'd go with Fuggles. You could also go with some Willamette for aroma as they're supposedly derived from Fuggles - it wouldn't be strictly English as AFAIK few (if any) brewers over here use them, but I think that'd be a lame reason not to throw them in if you wanted to.

From my own palate, I think Challenger is hard to beat in English ales, though someone on here was talking about Brambling Cross hops recently, and they sounded pretty good too.

I've used Target for bittering English-style beers, but I tend to stick to Fuggles and EKG in general.

I love the fact that there are so many hops styles. I also hate that fact. Know what I mean?

Right now I have over 3 1/2 lbs of hops in a very full freezer that is going to start pissing the wife off soon. I read this thread and I'm like hmmm I haven't done a nice Irish or English in a while I should do one. Well now I need to pick up some Challenger, maybe some Target.

dontman said:

I love the fact that there are so many hops styles. I also hate that fact. Know what I mean?

Right now I have over 3 1/2 lbs of hops in a very full freezer that is going to start pissing the wife off soon. I read this thread and I'm like hmmm I haven't done a nice Irish or English in a while I should do one. Well now I need to pick up some Challenger, maybe some Target.

Click to expand...

Same here. I have nearly 8 pounds of mixed variety and I always end up making a beer out of the 1 friggin hop I don't have.

I have done a few "bitters" with Willamette and they have turned out excellent. I have started using willamette for a lot of my beers.

I love willamette hops.

I love them a lot.

Willamette are awesome

Ooops! I was so fired up about getting to brew yesterday that I forgot to mention something relevant... Wednesday I bottled two SMaSH batches. Grain was MO, hops were all EKG in one batch, Fuggles in the other.

Tasting flat and green on bottling I get the impression that I will be liking the EKG one more. Although I like Fuggles, I think that it is going to turn out too much of one strong characteristic. (remember though, these are still green) The EKG tasted much more balanced, and the floral aroma was backed up by a light bitterness, so the floral was not all alone as the earthy fuggles taste was.

Based on how they tasted at this stage I'm guessing that in the future I would probably brew a mix of the two, or all EKG. I think it is probably unlikely that I would do all fuggles again. Of course, I might change my mind when they are aged properly!! :cross:

+1 for Challenger. I think it adds a good funky bite to an English combo. However, the pellets smell like straight manure in the boil.

For me, whenever I am brewing English I pull out the EKG. I have also thrown in some Willamette. I love EKG. Properly balanced between good floral aspects like bergamot and bitterness, with no funk or grass to it.

thanks guys. for the record, I loveEKG too, and have used it more than any other english style hop, but the idea is to use what I've got on hand......I too seem to always pick a brew that I have to run and get different hops for...so as I said, I'm trying to clean up the dregs and use up some stuff that's been sitting around....

...I think I'll bitter with fuggle, and aroma with williamette (and maybe dry-hop with williamette, too)....

snailsongs said:

thanks guys. for the record, I loveEKG too, and have used it more than any other english style hop, but the idea is to use what I've got on hand......I too seem to always pick a brew that I have to run and get different hops for...so as I said, I'm trying to clean up the dregs and use up some stuff that's been sitting around....

...I think I'll bitter with fuggle, and aroma with williamette (and maybe dry-hop with williamette, too)....

Click to expand...

I always do this to. The 'buy new hops for a specific recipe/style/idea type' thing.

What I tend to do to clean up dregs is do a Kitchen-Sink IPA. Forget style and just go with whatever small quantity hops I have left. On the last one I mixed 5 oz of various pellets in a bowl and did a continuous hop thing during the boil. I did dry hop with EKG.

I just got done kegging that one a few minutes ago.