West Coast Style IPA Hops

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shaneogle89

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What are the best hops for a West Coast style IPA? I was thinking getting some Cascade because I LOVE cascade hops! Also thinking about Cenntenial and Chinoke. What do you guys think?
 
You've got tons to work with. Cascade, Centennial, Columbus, Chinook, Amarillo, Simcoe, Citra, the list goes on and on.

If you've got a bunch of cascade and centennial, look up the Firestone walker union jack clone that's here on HBT. Awesome beer, that screams West Coast IPA
 
Cascade is a fantastic, general purpose hop to have around, buy it by the pound. It's typically my west-coast "filler" hop because it goes well in EVERYTHING. The expensive/difficult to get hops like centennial, amarillo, citra, and simcoe are rare for a reason- truly epic hops, but I've also been digging on the zythos pellet blend lately, if you can get that. It's a fruity american IPA blend all in one pellet. If you want to GROW hops, you can't go wrong with cascade- but if you can get cent, simcoe, or amarillo rhizomes go for those too.

Other favorites include northern brewer and bravo/magnum for bittering- I have a pound of bravo for bittering every single beer I make (cheap alpha acids). If you want to grow though, get aroma hops because you won't be able to calculate the alpha acid contributions.
 
What would a good boil schedule be for a west coast ipa? Recommendations? This is my first "my" recipe and I'd like a few pointers :)
 
I would switch the 30 min addition for a 20. At 30 you're losing a lot of flavor but not gaining much bitterness. My huge-hop beers get 0.25 oz to 1 oz of hops every 5 minutes starting at 20 (20, 15, 10, 5, 0 and ****ELOADS of dry hops). That's some over-the-top hoppiness. I use so much hops I often don't even need a bittering charge. Pick the aroma/flavor hop additions you want and then add 60/90 min additions to get the IBUs where you want them.

Edit: Trust me! I'm from San Diego!

Edit2: I totally didn't know that HBT filtered the S-word. I know there's a sort of a swear-prohibition in the official forum rules, but we're all adults here so I tend to slip one in now and again. I was being creative this evening and went with the UK spelling and still got filtered. Is that new? Anyways- apologies to the mods, I'll keep in line! Cheers!
 
daksin said:
I would switch the 30 min addition for a 20. At 30 you're losing a lot of flavor but not gaining much bitterness. My huge-hop beers get 0.25 oz to 1 oz of hops every 5 minutes starting at 20 (20, 15, 10, 5, 0 and ****ELOADS of dry hops). That's some over-the-top hoppiness. I use so much hops I often don't even need a bittering charge. Pick the aroma/flavor hop additions you want and then add 60/90 min additions to get the IBUs where you want them.

Edit: Trust me! I'm from San Diego!

Edit2: I totally didn't know that HBT filtered the S-word. I know there's a sort of a swear-prohibition in the official forum rules, but we're all adults here so I tend to slip one in now and again. I was being creative this evening and went with the UK spelling and still got filtered. Is that new? Anyways- apologies to the mods, I'll keep in line! Cheers!

Ya I really want to hop the crap out of it! Hops are my drug haha! And speaking of San Diego I'm heading to Stone Brewery Sunday to get a nice growler of Stone Ruination filled :)
 
It depends on the character you want from the hops.

There is some definite overlap for sure, but here are a few very general trait examples:

Resiny Pine/Marijuana: Apollo, Columbus
Fruity/Tropical: Citra, Falconer's Flight
Fruity/Floral/Spicy: Bravo, Crystal
Fruity/Herbal/Spicy: Millennium, Nugget, Palisades, Glacier
Floral/Herbal/Spicy: Northern Brewer, Perle, Willamette
Citrusy/Fruity/Pine: Centennial, Simcoe
Citrusy/Pine: Chinook, Summit, Galena, Zythos
Citrusy/Floral: Cascade, Amarillo, Ahtanum, Horizon
Citrusy/Neutral: Magnum, Warrior
 
For the love of all that's good, if you're making a ture West Coast IPA, dont do that .5oz or .75oz decimal crap with your additions. One ounce or more per hop per addition!

Also dry hop! Too many IPAs I get dont tend to the aroma well enough.
 
For the love of all that's good, if you're making a ture West Coast IPA, dont do that .5oz or .75oz decimal crap with your additions. One ounce or more per hop per addition!

Lol, well that depends on your boil/batch size, and how much bitterness you're after with the first addition :)
 
I would switch the 30 min addition for a 20. At 30 you're losing a lot of flavor but not gaining much bitterness. My huge-hop beers get 0.25 oz to 1 oz of hops every 5 minutes starting at 20 (20, 15, 10, 5, 0 and ****ELOADS of dry hops).

I second this... I use the same schedule and at least 3 - 5 oz dry hop.
 
it depends on the character you want from the hops.

There is some definite overlap for sure, but here are a few very general trait examples:

Resiny pine/marijuana: Apollo, columbus
fruity/tropical: Citra, falconer's flight
fruity/floral/spicy: Bravo, crystal
fruity/herbal/spicy: Millennium, nugget, palisades, glacier
floral/herbal/spicy: Northern brewer, perle, willamette
citrusy/fruity/pine: Centennial, simcoe
citrusy/pine: Chinook, summit, galena, zythos
citrusy/floral: Cascade, amarillo, ahtanum, horizon
citrusy/neutral: Magnum, warrior

+1
 
bobbrews said:
It depends on the character you want from the hops.

There is some definite overlap for sure, but here are a few very general trait examples:

Resiny Pine/Marijuana: Apollo, Columbus
Fruity/Tropical: Citra, Falconer's Flight
Fruity/Floral/Spicy: Bravo, Crystal
Fruity/Herbal/Spicy: Millennium, Nugget, Palisades, Glacier
Floral/Herbal/Spicy: Northern Brewer, Perle, Willamette
Citrusy/Fruity/Pine: Centennial, Simcoe
Citrusy/Pine: Chinook, Summit, Galena, Zythos
Citrusy/Floral: Cascade, Amarillo, Ahtanum, Horizon
Citrusy/Neutral: Magnum, Warrior

Thanks this helps a lot! Also I will definitely change my boil schedule :)
 
In the book The Brewer's Apprentice, Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River) discusses using Chinook and Columbus to provide "edge" and "personality" as compared to low-cohumulone hops such as Magnum, Horizon, or Warrior. Also a high 90-minute boil with 3-4 hop additions.

Oh, and for more info on brewing a DIPA, read this: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/6351/doubleIPA.pdf
 
California Cluster hops are good if you can find a good variant on them...super duper good.
 
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