House Bittering Hop?

So I just discovered hopsdirect.com and their ridiculously low bulk prices. I was wondering how many of you just pick one or two bittering hops and use them for all your beers? I figure the bittering hop doesn't effect the flavor too much (am I wrong?) and I should be able to use the same hop across most styles. I was thinking of getting a couple pounds each of American and English bittering hops and then just getting my flavor/aroma hops from the LHBS.

Any suggestions on which ones I should go with?

I have used Columbus as my house bittering, but lately I have started using med to low alpha hops early in the boil like Cenntenial and Simcoe and then using Columbus later in the boil for more of a earth spicy flavor. Even in the dry hop, I like to use a 3 hop combo with high and low aplha hops.

Gotta love Hops!!!


Eastside

I tend to do this with Magnum. I think it's one of the cleanest smoothest bittering hop around.

I tend to use Magnum for bittering and Cascade for aroma a lot, so I got them both in bulk from this site. You might reconsider also buying your aroma hops in bulk, as I use a LOT more Cascade than I do Magnum.

munche said:

I tend to use Magnum for bittering and Cascade for aroma a lot, so I got them both in bulk from this site. You might reconsider also buying your aroma hops in bulk, as I use a LOT more Cascade than I do Magnum.

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I've thought about it but since I'm pretty new to brewing, I want to experiment with different hops so I can get to know which ones I really like.

I've used Warrior hops to bitter lots of styles, including an Oktoberfest, ESB, stouts, triples, and a cherry Brett beer. Even a dunkelweizen. The jury's still out on the cherry beer as it's been giving me some problems fermenting out, but it's very clean, adds hardly any detectable flavor at all, and has AAs in the 15+ range. The pound I just bought in December is 16.5%. I rarely have to use a full ounce to bitter anything.

indigi said:

I've used Warrior hops to bitter lots of styles, including an Oktoberfest, ESB, stouts, triples, and a cherry Brett beer. Even a dunkelweizen. The jury's still out on the cherry beer as it's been giving me some problems fermenting out, but it's very clean, adds hardly any detectable flavor at all, and has AAs in the 15+ range. The pound I just bought in December is 16.5%. I rarely have to use a full ounce to bitter anything.

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I've been using Warrior, I like it so far

wonderbread23 said:

I tend to do this with Magnum. I think it's one of the cleanest smoothest bittering hop around.

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Me too! I use it for stout, IPAs, APAs, etc. A pound of magnum didn't last me nearly as long as I thought it would!

I always keep some Northern Brewer around as it's a pleasant, relatively nonspecific medium AA hop that you can use to bitter or finish practically any style if you need a backup. It's a tad out of place in lagers, but not as much as something like Cascade or Amarillo would be.

Aren't Warrior and Magnum closely related?