Hops mix/blend

Anyone ever combine a variety of hops pellets into a mix then add the blend at all your various addition points rather than separate variety additions? I'm putting together a "must go" APA to use up my last 6oz of last years hops (Centennial(1oz), Hallertauer(3oz), and Tettnang(2oz)) and was considering blending them together and adding putting in a bit at 60, 30, 15, 5, flameout, and dry. Good or bad idea?

I see nothing wrong with this. Sounds tasty to me.

AHS actually sells leftover hop "dust". You never know what you are getting, but it would make for an amusing beer to say the least.

I would do that for flavor/aroma, but not bittering. I think you should get the bitterness you want and go from there with the blend so that you at least have the balance you wanted in the beer.

Why not for bittering? If you know how much of each you are adding, you can calculate out the levels of bittering you want.

Nothing wrong with it as long as you don't care about repeatability of a recipe. It would make it hard to know exactly what % of hops went into each addition. Several commercial operations do mixes, iike Widmer Alchemy hops. I assume they have a controlled mix to keep recipes consistent.

godofcheese said:

Why not for bittering? If you know how much of each you are adding, you can calculate out the levels of bittering you want.

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That's what I was thinking... I know the weights of what I have and the AA % of each so I can calculate the average AA of the mix and use that for my calculations. It could be a little off if I get a little more of one hops than the other in a particular sample, but 5 out of 6 oz are within 8% of each other in AA so shouldn't be a huge variation.

godofcheese said:

Why not for bittering? If you know how much of each you are adding, you can calculate out the levels of bittering you want.

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It would end up fine either way i'm sure, but the AA content varies greatly and you wouldn't know how much of each is really going in when it's all mixed up. If anything, I want to know how many IBUs i'm getting from bittering so I don't end up with too much or too little.

BreckBastion said:

It would end up fine either way i'm sure, but the AA content varies greatly and you wouldn't know how much of each is really going in when it's all mixed up. If anything, I want to know how many IBUs i'm getting from bittering so I don't end up with too much or too little.

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I think I a can "combat" this by doing a near-continual hops addition. Most of the hops are very close in AA anyways, and I think I might do small additions every 10 minutes from 60 through 10, then a 5 minute, flameout, and dry addition. Should average out even more that way.

You only have 1 oz of Centennial and 2 and 3 oz's of the rest. It will work out as an average. It will be just that though...an average. I do try to learn something new or do something different for learning purposes everytime I brew.

If you end up blending, maybe add them all to a ziplock and break up the pellets with a rolling pin and shake. That way, you would know you have an even mix and your ibus will be easier to match with the average aa.

SchlazzGraft said:

If you end up blending, maybe add them all to a ziplock and break up the pellets with a rolling pin and shake. That way, you would know you have an even mix and your ibus will be easier to match with the average aa.

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That's a great idea and you could say with certainty what you have for IBUs.

SchlazzGraft said:

If you end up blending, maybe add them all to a ziplock and break up the pellets with a rolling pin and shake. That way, you would know you have an even mix and your ibus will be easier to match with the average aa.

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That's a pretty good idea, I'll have to try and see how much they work it takes to get them to crumble.

You could also opt to measure each hop into enough parts so that you can add the correct amount of each during each addition. I have a scale that goes down to 1/8 ounce increments, so I could measure out 1/8 increments of the Centennial, then 1/8th increments (or as close as you can get) of each of the remaining hops (such as 3/8 oz increments of Hallertauer and 1/4 oz increments of Tettnang) so that you add even amounts of each during the adds. I know that leaves some 'left over' but you could add more at the start of the boil, or for the first two additions, then go with the rest spaced out. That would give you more precise additions, and allow you to repeat the recipe later, or more easily alter it. I know this will require a little more work on the front end, but I think you'll end up with a better result at the end.

You will have to tell us how this comes out, and which method you end up using for adding the hops. Of course, post up the complete recipe so that we can see what else you're planning on doing.

Golddiggie said:

You could also opt to measure each hop into enough parts so that you can add the correct amount of each during each addition. I have a scale that goes down to 1/8 ounce increments, so I could measure out 1/8 increments of the Centennial, then 1/8th increments (or as close as you can get) of each of the remaining hops (such as 3/8 oz increments of Hallertauer and 1/4 oz increments of Tettnang) so that you add even amounts of each during the adds. I know that leaves some 'left over' but you could add more at the start of the boil, or for the first two additions, then go with the rest spaced out. That would give you more precise additions, and allow you to repeat the recipe later, or more easily alter it. I know this will require a little more work on the front end, but I think you'll end up with a better result at the end.

You will have to tell us how this comes out, and which method you end up using for adding the hops. Of course, post up the complete recipe so that we can see what else you're planning on doing.

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I'm going to mix and do nearly continuous additions. I did a quick test and crushing the pellets might be too much of a chore, as will weighing and sorting them into little batches. I'll try a few other things to see if they break up more though (they're surprisingly resilient)!

Here's what I have so far (note, 3.5gal batch):
MustGo APA

Style: American Pale Ale OG: 1.050
Type: All Grain FG: 1.011
Rating: 0.0 ABV: 5.11 %
Calories: 163 IBU's: 46.11
Efficiency: 75 % Boil Size: 4.50 Gal
Color:*** 5.7 SRM** Batch Size: 3.50 Gal
Boil Time: 60 minutes
*
Fermentation Steps
Name Days / Temp
Primary 10 days @ 68.0°F
Secondary 7 days @ 72.0°F
Bottle/Keg 14 days @ 74.0°F
*
Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Gravity Color
0.50 lbs 7.69 % Vienna Malt 1.036 3.5
0.25 lbs 3.85 % Carafoam 1.033 2.0
0.50 lbs 7.69 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 1.034 40.0
5.25 lbs 80.77 % Pale Malt (2 Row) US 1.036 2.0
*
Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
0.50 ozs 9.68 Must Go Blend 60 mins 3.92
0.50 ozs 9.20 Must Go Blend 50 mins 3.92
0.50 ozs 8.49 Must Go Blend 40 mins 3.92
0.50 ozs 7.44 Must Go Blend 30 mins 3.92
0.50 ozs 5.86 Must Go Blend 20 mins 3.92
0.50 ozs 3.51 Must Go Blend 10 mins 3.92
0.50 ozs 1.93 Must Go Blend 5 mins 3.92
1.00 ozs 0.00 Must Go Blend 0 mins 3.92
1.50 ozs Dry Must Go Blend 7 days 3.92
*Edit: might move the flameout addition to .5 oz and up the dry to 2 oz, what do you all think?
Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.0 pkg Nottingham Danstar

Mash Profile
Light Body Infusion 60 min @ 150.0°F
*Add 8.12 qt ( 1.25 qt/lb ) water @ 162.0°F
Light Body Infusion 10 min @ 168.0°F
*Sparge 12.00 qt of 175.0°F water over 10 mins
*

Honestly I wouldn't bother with the 50-30 minute additions. You're not going to get any flavor or aroma from them, and if you move them to 60 and every 5 minutes from 20-0 you'd get a lot more bang for your buck.

indigi said:

Honestly I wouldn't bother with the 50-30 minute additions. You're not going to get any flavor or aroma from them, and if you move them to 60 and every 5 minutes from 20-0 you'd get a lot more bang for your buck.

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Took your advice, and I'm brewing the following RIGHT NOW. I combined the hops and smashed them with a rolling pin. Didn't pulverize them, but broke them up into ~1/4 of the original pellet size. Ok, gotta go collect my first runnings!

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Gravity Color
0.50 lbs 7.69 % Vienna Malt 1.036 3.5
0.25 lbs 3.85 % Carafoam 1.033 2.0
0.50 lbs 7.69 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 1.034 40.0
5.25 lbs 80.77 % Pale Malt (2 Row) US 1.036 2.0

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
1.50 ozs 29.03 Must Go Blend 60 mins 3.92
0.75 ozs 8.79 Must Go Blend 20 mins 3.92
0.75 ozs 5.26 Must Go Blend 10 mins 3.92
0.75 ozs 2.89 Must Go Blend 5 mins 3.92
0.75 ozs 0.63 Must Go Blend 1 mins 3.92
1.50 ozs Dry Must Go Blend 7 days 3.92

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.0 pkg Nottingham Danstar