learning the varieties of hops

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nootay

nootay

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So, i would like to really figure out what hops i enjoy. I figure the best way to do this would be to make small batches of a basic pale ale, and use only one type of hop and compare them all. Has anyone gone through the trouble of doing this? Anyone have a good base recipe and suggestions on this?
 
nootay said:
So, i would like to really figure out what hops i enjoy. I figure the best way to do this would be to make small batches of a basic pale ale, and use only one type of hop and compare them all. Has anyone gone through the trouble of doing this? Anyone have a good base recipe and suggestions on this?
Click to expand...

It sounds like you would be doing a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop)

I just brewed a Belgium Brown Ale with Saaz as the only hop. Very delicious even green!

Read this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/what-does-term-smash-mean-138096/

Basically, you could use a simple pale malt recipe and just try out different hops. How small of a batch is totally up to you. If you are looking for small fermenters go to a local bakery and ask them what they do with their empty icing buckets. I have several that are 3gal and couple that are 2gal. They seem to seal well (gasketted), but even if they don't you are still OK (research open fermentation for confidence)
 
I have brewed several batches of the Midwest SN Pale Ale clone. It's great! I also think it's significantly better than the real deal. I have been using this recipe as my standard. Every time I make this batch, I change a single variable. For example, my most recent batch I used water filtered in a Britta filter as apposed to using bottled water (My tap water smells and tastes look pool water). The next batch I will experiment with finings.
After all of that I plan on focusing on the hops, using a single style of hops.

I really like the idea behind SMaSH.
 
I like the idea of a doing the smash to get an idea of the taste profile of a specific hop you are interested in. I never seem to get around to doing smash's and there are so many hop varities that it would take a lot of smash's to hit them all.

From what I have found columbus, centennial, & cascade all have similar profiles.

Amarillo & Simcoe are pretty disctinct.

If you do the SMASH make sure to use a good amount of hops (I would 5 ounces or so) and load up the back end (20 mins and later) to really draw out the flavor.

If you do a 2-row smash and go light on the hops (basic 60 minute addition + a few quarter ounces throughout the rest of the boil) you will end up with something BMC'ish tasting and I don't think you will really accomplish what you set out to do which is taste the flavor that particular hop contributes.
 
Every time I make this batch, I change a single variable
Click to expand...

I do this as well and it is a great way to learn what different ingredients add to a beer. I have a basic pale ale recipe that I bitter with chinook and then use a single hop for flavoring and aroma, so far I have made this recipe using Amarillo only, cascade only and the latest batch has a combination of amarilo and cascade :)
 
yeast_infection said:
I like the idea of a doing the smash to get an idea of the taste profile of a specific hop you are interested in. I never seem to get around to doing smash's and there are so many hop varities that it would take a lot of smash's to hit them all.

From what I have found columbus, centennial, & cascade all have similar profiles.

Amarillo & Simcoe are pretty disctinct.

If you do the SMASH make sure to use a good amount of hops (I would 5 ounces or so) and load up the back end (20 mins and later) to really draw out the flavor.

If you do a 2-row smash and go light on the hops (basic 60 minute addition + a few quarter ounces throughout the rest of the boil) you will end up with something BMC'ish tasting and I don't think you will really accomplish what you set out to do which is taste the flavor that particular hop contributes.
Click to expand...

5 ounces for a five gallon batch, but if you're going to go with a larger number of small batches, 5 ounces would be painful. Do a search on a 2 row SmaSh recipe, scale it down to your batch size and give it a 15-20% increase in the hops. do one for every hop variety you want to test and it should give you a good idea of their flavors.

Since not every variety of hop goes well with a pale recipe, you might want to try and make some hop teas, and taste those, but i'm not real sure how that goes.
 
so im just getting in to all grain brewing. I have a 50lb back of american 2 row, would this now be good to do this with? From what ive found most SMaSH recipes use a different malt.
 
2-row is a great base to use for this. maltier base grains will balance out more of the hop flavor/aroma that you are trying to explore.
 
yeah the 2-row will work great since you specified that you want to taste the hop flavor. It will be pretty neutral and the hops will shine.
 
You could also do smaller "batches" with a large batch. Say take 5 gallons of wort, then instead of boiling it all at once, mix it up real well then seperate it out to smaller batches. You could boil a couple at one time on the stove if you wanted. Enough for a couple of bottles of each.
 
I would also suggest using the same yeast for all, and probably a clean style that doesn't impact the malt or hops flavor too much. (Maybe an american ale yeast, as opposed to something like a hefeweizen yeast, which gives off enough flavor and aroma to impact your hops impressions).
 
I've put up 8 or so now, 5.5 gallon batches using my own hops. I get a big hop flavor and the most i've used so far is 3oz. Most of them are only 1oz.

5oz seems really high to me. I'm using Brewing Classic Styles - book - recipes.

IPA's use a good bit of hops.
 
i like the idea of making about 6 gallons of wort, and making about 6 different batches from it. Ill have to head down to the local bakery and see if i can get some icing buckets from them to ferment all this in.

How should i hop the beer? if i do one gallon boils, what should my hop schedule be?

Thanks

Adam
 
nootay said:
i like the idea of making about 6 gallons of wort, and making about 6 different batches from it. Ill have to head down to the local bakery and see if i can get some icing buckets from them to ferment all this in.

How should i hop the beer? if i do one gallon boils, what should my hop schedule be?

Thanks

Adam
Click to expand...

Check with grocery store bakeries as well. that is where I found all of mine.
 

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