If you haven't tried making an IPA with only late hops...

...you need to.

I just pulled my first taste of my newest IPA. The grist was a modified version of EdWort's bee cave IPA, but that's not really what's important here. Hops were all 13% alpha simcoe pellets:

1oz @ 25min
1oz @ 15min
1oz @ 10min
2oz @ 5min
2oz @ flameout
2oz dry hop 10days

67 IBU

What I have created is the best standard american IPA that I have ever tasted. I have a pound of amarillo in the freezer that will be used for just this purpose. This recipe used 9oz only because BMW sent me an extra ounce of hops by accident (thanks ed!). Want to try it? Here's my formula for using a half pound of hops per 5gallon batch, which makes ordering by the pound from hopsdirect.com make perfect sense. Pick your favorite hop:

1oz at 15, 10, and 5. 2oz @ flameout and dry. Now add one ounce at whatever time is necessary to achieve a BU:GU ratio of 1.1. Booyah. Thank me later.

Am I right that you'd only need to boil this for 25 minutes, then? Or are there other things that take longer to boil off?

I still boil for 60. Standard length boil means standard boiloff, standard sparge volumes and predictable efficiency. You could cut down the boil time, I'd say do at least 30mins.

Also, that only applies to my recipe using simcoe. If you tried it with 5.5% alpha cascade, that one ounce to get the IBU's right is going to be earlier than 25mins.

I was reading about this the other day and how an overabundance of late hop additions give the beer a wonderful nose/aroma/flavor. I might just have to try this seeing as how its harvest season and hops are down to $15.00 a pound on some websites. Obivously most recipes call for late hop additions or flameout but not 6 oz in the last 15 minutes! Thanks for the reassurance!

I'm waiting for some new hops to get delivered so I can make a heavily hopped pale. I have an all centennial IPA tapped right now, so I was thinking of going low on bitter, high on flavor and aroma. I'm thinking this method would be good, but I've been wanting to try FWH. Would 5+ oz FWH get me what I want?

I just sampled my IIPA all amarillo (9.5%AA whole leaf) the other day and it was great. I didn't do all late additions but I ended up doing 1 oz every 10 mins during the boil. 2 oz first wort hoppping and 2 oz in dry hop. So far so good. By far the best I have made so far!!

Nice to see people heavily hopping IPAs for a change.

I've got a recipe that uses 11 ounces and leads off with the lower AA hops (Cascades). Realistically, 6-8 ounces can do the same job, if you mix the hops.

david_42 said:

Nice to see people heavily hopping IPAs for a change.

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That made me nearly spit coffee out of my mouth.

Back OT:
I had not considered this due to hop prices. However, thanks to hops direct, I think this is going to be one of my near future ipas.

I have several smash's and ipa's on the plans with the 5 lbs of hops calling my name.

Is this technique usually done with only one type of hop? Or was that just the way coasterine did it for this recipe? IS ther anadvantage with this all late hopping to use multiple or a single variety?

I'm planning to do it with just one hop because I have a very difficult time discerning hop varieties in beer and I want to really find out what just that hop tastes like. It certainly has worked with simcoe. I'm really looking forward to a more floral IPA with the amarillo. To me, mixing the hops just "muddies" the flavor. I can't pick them out and so I can't enjoy them as much.

I am going to do one as well. Do you let the flameout hops sit for 5 minutes or start the cooling process right away?

I cooled right after flame out, but I was using an immersion chiller so it took a bit longer. I would say let it sit for a few mins then start cooling.

I made an IIPA in which I added hops every five minutes from 45mins to flame out, and it was pretty awesome. Similar idea here.

Blender said:

I am going to do one as well. Do you let the flameout hops sit for 5 minutes or start the cooling process right away?

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I let it sit for 5mins, but I use a CFC. If you use an immersion chiller you might start cooling right away, or maybe wait just one minute, either way I don't think it would make a huge difference.

Single hop IPAs are good, but if you want something that will strip the enamel off your teeth, a mix of Cascades, Perle and Amarillo can't be beat.

I need to amend this. I dry hopped with pellets before and was happy with the results, however I am not happy in this case. My beer has a hop dust suspended in it and it leaves a bitter grittyness in the back of the throat. It settles in my glass and leaves a healthy layer on the bottom of the glass, but I'm assume the particles are different sizes because some seem to sink much more slowly. I'm sure it will settle out eventually but I'm brewing this using amarillo next weekend and I just ordered 2oz of amarillo leaf hops for dry hopping.

david_42 said:

Single hop IPAs are good, but if you want something that will strip the enamel off your teeth, a mix of Cascades, Perle and Amarillo can't be beat.

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I'm getting ready to brew an IIPA in a few weeks with a full pound of hops added in the last 15 minutes (1 ounce every minute). I'm using a mix of Amarillo, Chinook, and Columbus, which i think will make the enamel stripping power even more intense.

Maybe I'm brain farting, but in the ratio BU:GU = 1:1, what does GU mean?

GU = Gravity Units

I recently brewed Midwest's Hop Head Double IPA all-grain recipe and decided on the fly to start hopping with 20 mins. left in the boil after reading the same thing as the OP.

It's still in primary, but after a pretty intense krausen/blow-off, it is showing the signs of being a hop monster. It smells tremendous.

masonsjax said:

Would 5+ oz FWH get me what I want?

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I've been going the FWH route on all my IPAs (or, frankly, any beer where I want some hop character), and I have been very happy. Bitterness has been very smooth, and I've been impressed with the hop aroma and flavor I've gotten out of it.

If I find myself with an abundance of hops (and I just might very soon), I may try only late additions, but I've enjoyed the FWH very much.


TL

jjp36 said:

GU = Gravity Units

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Oh yeah, duh. Thanks.

Interesting. I just crafted my own IPA recipe using Simcoe and Amarillo at 20 mins, 15, 10, 1 and lots of flame out hops (I did use a small 60 min Columbus to get the IBU up though). My inspiration was this:

http://www.mrmalty.com/late_hopping.htm

Next time the flame out additions will go into a hop back. It's not ready yet, but I've got a good feeling about this batch.

I recently kicked my simcoe IPA and just tapped my amarillo IPA which otherwise used the same recipe. I declare simcoe to be the superior hop by far.

Coastarine said:

I recently kicked my simcoe IPA and just tapped my amarillo IPA which otherwise used the same recipe. I declare simcoe to be the superior hop by far.

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Simcoe is hard to beat. Way better than Amarillo for my tastes as well. They also work really well together by the way.

moti_mo said:

They also work really well together by the way.

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+1 I made an IPA using a mixture of amarillo/simcoe from 30min-dryhop and it turned out fantastic!!! I'm planning on using the same sort of mixture in an APA and I expect great results with that one as well.

I'm near the bottom of an APA I made using Amarillo. I was shooting for very little bitter, and tons of flavor and aroma. I added some FWH and it turned out more bitter than I wanted, but I'm ok with that. Amarillo has a nice pitted fruit flavor/aroma that I can't exactly put my finger on, kinda tastes like several fruits to me, but there's a strange almost metallic flavor too that I'm not a huge fan of. I'll probably stick with using it for aroma or very small flavor additions from now on.

I did an APA using Amarillo for bittering and flavor and German Tradition for aroma and it was a really tasty combo that reminded me of strawberries. Later I did a very similar APA using only Amarillo and it was lacking...

katja said:

I did an APA using Amarillo for bittering and flavor and German Tradition for aroma and it was a really tasty combo that reminded me of strawberries. Later I did a very similar APA using only Amarillo and it was lacking...

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I've never used German Tradition before. What's the flavor profile of those guys?

moti_mo said:

Simcoe is hard to beat. Way better than Amarillo for my tastes as well. They also work really well together by the way.

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Indeed. Dogfish Head 90 IIPA uses them together, to great effect.

Torchiest said:

Indeed. Dogfish Head 90 IIPA uses them together, to great effect.

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and Pliny the Younger