IPA Hops...Best/Worst???

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TRIPLEMSU

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i love IPA's and Red Ale's...mostly will be brewing these the 1st few kits i get...

quick question:

what hops make the best ipa's??? and what are the worst??? i know lots of factors can alter taste/etc easily...just wondering what people like

also what hops would be best for me since i really like "two hearted" & "dog fish 60 minute"
 
Look up the recipes . You can usually find out what hops are used in some of your favorite beers also via website or recipe sharing.Use the hops that are in your favorite ipa,red ales. I can tell you 2 hearted is all centennial,and dogfish is warrior,amarillo,simco.
 
It's not so much about what's best as it is about your tastes. Check out brewery's websites for hops used in beers you enjoy. I've found that helps with developing hop profiles in my own beers. I think about what sort of flavor profile I'm looking for and get info on beers that have similar flavors.
 
My favorites for IPAs..

Amarillo
Citra
Centennial
Cascde
Simcoe
Zythos
 
Exactly what johnmoho said! Two-Hearted is all centennial hops. There is a good clone recipe posted in the database, so take a look and see. It's really quite good, and I've made it several times.

DFH has flavor hops of simcoe/amarillo. That's my absolute favorite combo, but those hops may be hard to come by right now.

As far as "best" hops, it really depends on your taste. Centennial hops are citrusy and floral, while amarillo hops are citrusy like a grapefruit. Simcoe is citrusy/piney. Those are my favorite hops in IPAs, but some people like "earthy" hops (fuggles and willamette) while others may like citrusy like cascade hops.

Stone APA has ahtanum hops, which I like. Sierra Nevada Torpedo has a subdued citra (tropical fruit) hop aroma and flavor.

If you know what IPAs/APAs you like we can help you get the right hops. I've never met a hop I didn't like, until I met fuggles. They taste like dirt to me, while others really enjoy the "earthiness" they have. It's all a matter of taste.

Most American IPAs have the citrusy hops at the forefront.
 
I don't think you can go wrong with centennial, I love it. I also like the earthy willamette notes.
Probably the best thing I did was split a batch into 1 gallon secondaries with different dry hops. Doing that will tell you more than any written description.
 
pelipen said:
Probably the best thing I did was split a batch into 1 gallon secondaries with different dry hops. Doing that will tell you more than any written description.

this x 10!
 
Yooper nailed it.... It really depends on your taste. Try some beers with known hops to find what you like.


I love the Simco/Amarilo combo. Centenial is great. Cascade plays well with others. Citra is good ,but only in combo with other hops.

Unlike Yooper I actually like Fuggles when used un combo with something else. To me a Cascade Fuggles combo work.

It is like food... some people like certain foods and other hate them. It is all aout what you like.... That is the beauty of brewing your own. You can make something the YOU like.
 
I like readily available cheaper American citrus hops for ipas-


Chinook - piney grApefruit
Cascade - floral grapefruit
Centennial - cascade on steroids IMO
Columbus - citrus semi dank

I use these all the time with a warrior as a great and cheaper bittering hop..... Now all that said, my favorite hop ever is Simcoe, but it can be tough to get. My lb won't last much longer.
 
My favorite is Simcoe/Amarillo. As Yooper said, Centennial hops are fantastic as well. I LOVE Bell's Two Hearted! I wish we could get i in California! I also like Cascade which are readily available and cheap. Nelson Sauvin is a wonderful hop from New Zealand that has almost a grape like flavor. Sam Adams did a single hop 12-pack combo with their Lattitude 48 that had bottles of their finished beer with all the hops, as well as the same beer with the individual hops. Hermitage Brewing Company has a line of single hop beers available at BevMo. Pick up a few of those and see what you like.
 
duckmanco said:
I like readily available cheaper American citrus hops for ipas-

Chinook - piney grApefruit
Cascade - floral grapefruit
Centennial - cascade on steroids IMO
Columbus - citrus semi dank

I use these all the time with a warrior as a great and cheaper bittering hop..... Now all that said, my favorite hop ever is Simcoe, but it can be tough to get. My lb won't last much longer.

All four of those are good together! I like Simcoe, Amarillo, and Citra too.
 
Chinook and Columbus in even amounts all the way through the additions. More is better too. Thats my favorite way.
 
Exactly what johnmoho said! T

As far as "best" hops, it really depends on your taste. Centennial hops are citrusy and floral, while amarillo hops are citrusy like a grapefruit. Simcoe is citrusy/piney. Those are my favorite hops in IPAs, but some people like "earthy" hops (fuggles and willamette) while others may like citrusy like cascade hops.

If one were to leave the recipe book behind just for fun, would mixing hops that have different profiles, like say Cascade with Chinook give and interesting flavor combo, or make a muddy, bitter mess?
 
+1 to all of the above.

One of the best parts about homebrewing for me is discovering new hop combinations. Some of my best beers (in terms of aroma) have come from playing around with two or three different varieties while dry hopping. I love amarillo with chinook combined with a lesser amount of citra or summit. Nelson sauvin is becoming a favorite, too.

Worst? I would never do an all summit.
 
TRIPLEMSU I feel the same way, so I will be doing 5 gallon single hop IPAs: Simcoe, Amarillo, Centennial, Cascade, Nelson Sauvin, Zythos, Falconers Flight, Galaxy. Same everything except for the hop, 10 oz, figure this will give me a good idea on hop characteristics. Sam Adams Lattitude 48 Deconstructed was a great idea so I want to expand on that.
 
So for the idea of learning hop flavors/aromas by dividing it up among 1-gallon secondaries with different hop varieties, would you use ONLY bittering hops during the boil and then dry-hopping in the secondary?
 
You can dry hop in primary when it's done & clearing. The "C" hops are all good,as are amarillo,& ahtanum,which I like. Citra,simco,even nugget can give a bit of an orange flavor when combined with cascade & columbus.
 
Yeah, but if you're looking to divide it up to learn the characteristics of various hops, wouldn't dry-hopping in primary defeat the purpose?
 
That's really what I'm asking, I guess. Assuming I have a large carboy I use for primary fermentation and decide to get 5 1-gallon fermenters, what's the best way to go about this? Use bittering hops only in the boil, and then dry-hop (i.e., don't add any flavor or aroma hops to the boil)? After that, would it be better to split it up amongst the smaller containers and do primary fermentation (and dry-hopping) in them, or ferment it in my standard primary and do a secondary dry-hop in the smaller containers?
 
Either way would work. but it might be worthwhile to use 5 seperate fermenters with flavor addition of the same one as being dry hopped. Might give you a better idea of what a particular hop can do.
 
Did a SMaSH with Cascade and it turned out friggin awesome. It was about as easy as you can get and Cascade isn't hard to find. I stumbled on a few oz of Centennial about a month ago and immediately threw it in the freezer. I'll have to use them sparingly since they said it was dumb luck they even got them. I'll usually use Cascade with the Centennial to make it stretch a little further.
 
I've seen the term "SMaSH" a lot--what does that mean?

My main question with this thread is: if I only use bittering hops in the boil and the only other hop addition is a dry hop, will that turn out a decent beer, or is this only worth doing to experiment with hops?
 
I've seen the term "SMaSH" a lot--what does that mean?

My main question with this thread is: if I only use bittering hops in the boil and the only other hop addition is a dry hop, will that turn out a decent beer, or is this only worth doing to experiment with hops?

Single Malt and Single Hop (SMaSH). Cheap and easy all-grain brewing. I would imagine if you did only a bittering addition (60min) and dry hopping you would have a hard time dialing in the balance of bitter/aroma. Remember, you taste first with your nose. I would suggest doing at least one aroma addition in your boil. Say 5 min before flame out. How much and what kind were you planning on adding at 60?
 
Hadn't decided that yet. I've only brewed one beer so far (start my second tomorrow), but I'm interested in the concept in order to learn more about the various hop varieties.
 
Hadn't decided that yet. I've only brewed one beer so far (start my second tomorrow), but I'm interested in the concept in order to learn more about the various hop varieties.

Just my $.02, but I would suggest using Cascade since you're new to the hobby. It's a solid hop variety that is pretty consistent when you use it across the board (bittering and aroma). If I'm at a loss of what to use and I know what kind of general profile I want, I'll always lean towards Cascade. Centennial is an amazing hop for APAs and IPAs, but it's not an easy variety to get your hands on right now. At least not for me. If you're looking for a hop assault, there's always Simcoe, Warrior, Amarillo, etc. but sometimes those can be a little tricky to balance. I'm not a huge hophead, so if you're looking for something that really showcases a high hop profile, I'll let the others with more experience guide you.

FWIW, I'll also use Fuggles and East Kent Goldings in more than average quantities if I'm looking for something on the earthy side. I'm also a fan of Northern Brewer and Hallertau.
 
My current batch of IPA used Warrior hops for bittering and Citra for the aroma. My wife says she could drink my IPA every day of the week...
 
Single hops,may be the best way to learn hop characteristics.Some breweries make these single hop beers,and that helps learn them also. Region and freshness can vary with the same hops though.Ive had different type cascade hops like Belgian Cascade and/or NZ cascades(I think) for instance, and I dont think any of them were very similar really.
 
Enoch52 said:
I've seen the term "SMaSH" a lot--what does that mean?

My main question with this thread is: if I only use bittering hops in the boil and the only other hop addition is a dry hop, will that turn out a decent beer, or is this only worth doing to experiment with hops?

Should work fine - I'd recommend using a warrior or a magnum for bittering if you go that route. They're cheap, high alpha, and have relatively low flavor profiles. They won't mask the flavor of your dry hopping at all. IMO this approach is much easier than doing multiple small boils (I'm trying doing the small boil thing with NZ hops and it's a pain in the arse).

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is yeast - if you're looking to really taste the hop character you'll want a clean fermenting strain like wlp001 - California Ale from white labs. However, this will give you a different flavor than what you'd find in the two-hearted ale or dogfish 60.
 
Awesome, thanks. I hadn't considered the yeast yet, but if the primary purpose of the beer(s) is to profile a particular hop a yeast that ferments without contributing much to the flavor profile. Any thoughts on hop quantity (or anything else relating to the recipe, really)? Although the goal is to feature a particular hop variety I'd still like to make it enjoyable to drink.
 
Most of the dual purpose American bred high alpha hops are great for IPAs. Some of the New Zealand varietals can also work quite well.

Hop quantity for a 5 gallon batch of IPA = 6-9 oz. total hops (heavy on the late additions and dryhop).
 
Most of the dual purpose American bred high alpha hops are great for IPAs. Some of the New Zealand varietals can also work quite well.

Hop quantity for a 5 gallon batch of IPA = 6-9 oz. total hops (heavy on the late additions and dryhop).

At least in my case (and I've completely hijacked the thread--I'm sorry!), I'm thinking no late additions, since I want to make five mini-batches so I can learn what the different hops varieties taste/smell like. Will it still work decently if all the late additions/dryhop are dryhop (i.e., no late boil additions, lots of dryhopped)?
 
If one were to leave the recipe book behind just for fun, would mixing hops that have different profiles, like say Cascade with Chinook give and interesting flavor combo, or make a muddy, bitter mess?

That is my goto combo since they are easy to come by and I love it. I've even swapped them ( cascade for bitter, chinook for aroma/flavor) and it came out spectacular.
 
So how much and when?

Thats quite a general question, it really depends on what you're looking for.

I prefer my IBU/SG ratio around 0.9 for my IPAs, for a 10 gal batch I'll drop in 2oz chinook at 60, and do a 15/5/0 (2oz/2oz/2oz) cascade. Should hit around 55 IBUs. There is also the traditional 30/15/5 which can bring you up a few notches to ~60 IBUs, but personally I find the distinction better with the later additions of cascade, even though the IBUs are a tad lower, I like the flavor.
 
Amarillo, Citra, Motueka, plus all the others mentioned. My Badfish IPA uses Amarillo, Citra, Centennial, and Simcoe and it is hella tasty. I also made a blonde using a Citra and Motueka combo that's delicious. Obviously it's not an IPA but its a great combo that could be used in one. I've also become a fan of making all my hop additions with 30 minutes or less in the boil. Hop bursting is where it's at!!!
 
Thats quite a general question, it really depends on what you're looking for.

I prefer my IBU/SG ratio around 0.9 for my IPAs, for a 10 gal batch I'll drop in 2oz chinook at 60, and do a 15/5/0 (2oz/2oz/2oz) cascade. Should hit around 55 IBUs. There is also the traditional 30/15/5 which can bring you up a few notches to ~60 IBUs, but personally I find the distinction better with the later additions of cascade, even though the IBUs are a tad lower, I like the flavor.

I was thinking for 5 gal, 1 oz chinook at 60, 1/2 oz each at 15,5, flame out???
 
For non-US hops Pacific Jade (NZ) and Sorachi Ace (Japan) have interesting citrus/herbal flavors - both have worked well for me in single hopped beers. Pacific Gem (NZ) is good mixed with other hops, but there was a little too much cask/oak flavor when I used it in a SMaSH brew. I want to try a combo of Gem and Nelson Sauvin in my next brew - seems like it could be a good combo.
 
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