Designing Hop Schedules

One of the things I really enjoy about brewing is coming up with my own recipes. I feel like I know enough to decide what malts and how much I want to use. However, hops are a different story. I am a relatively new brewer so I only have 4 of my own recipes under my belt, but for those I have just been taking someone else's hop schedule (How to Brew, etc) and substitute different hops. I know some people will say that taking hop schedules and changing them subtly will be the bes t way to get a feel for designing hop schedules, but I think there is a better way.

I have recently been reading through "Designing Great Beers" and he attempts to describe such a method. Ray Daniels was saying to choose the aroma/flavor hops first and then add bittering hops to contribute the rest of the necessary IBUs. Despite going into detail about how to determine the amount of hops for bittering, he doesn't do a good job describing how to decide the amounts of flavoring/aroma hops (he discusses different oils and how to choose hops, but doesn't explain how amounts affect flavor).

What methods do you guys use to determine hop schedules (amounts and times)? Please divulge your secrets and experience.

Trial and error. This is where experimentation really makes a difference, and why brewing beer is just as much of an art form as a science. I think you're doing fine by following someone else's hops schedules and making substitutions for the flavors and aromas that you are after in a particular batch of beer. You're asking the right questions by looking at "when" and "how much" to add to any batch after researching the characteristics of your hops.

As practice, i'd probably keep doing what you're doing and look at some clone recipes of beers you are familiar with, and analyzing why the brew masters added one particular variety of hops and how much/how long/when it was used. It's simple deduction to follow a roadmap like that, then adapt it to your own brewing style.

I do not know how accurate this graph is, but similar things have helped me develop hop schedules for my own recipes.http://brewsupplies.com/hop_characteristics.htm

There are several good websites with descriptions of hops varieties. Some hops are citrusy, some are earthy, some are spicy, and so on. It's hard to know at first what it is you want- so lots of research is required!

For example, think of a commercial beer that you like. You can look up on their website usually, and find out what kind of hops they use. Or think of the styles of beers you like- if you like Bell's Two Hearted, for example, you'd be drinking a beer loaded with citrusy/floral centennial hops. If you like Stone's pale ale, that hop variety that is noticed immediately is ahtanum.

Generally, the US "C" hops are citrusy. These include chinook, centennial, cascade, columbus. Many of the English hops are woody and/or earthy- like fuggles. German hops tend to be noble hops- that is, not citrusy or earthy but instead "clean".

A good way to find out what hops you like, besides drinking lots of beer, is to brew a beer with only one variety of hops- say, all cascade. Then you'll know exactly what cascade hops taste and smell like, and what they bring to a beer.

It always depends but I typically build my hop schedule around three additions: bittering (60 or 90 minutes), flavor (15 minutes), aroma (5 minutes). I also often have additions for first wort hopping, dry hopping and aroma at flameout (0 minutes).

I will usually use a different hop for bittering and flavor/aroma. If I'm brewing a hop-focused American style, I will often use different hops at the 15 minute and 5 minute additions to get some complexity.

Personally, I prefer the heavier, spicy/pine American hops like Chinook or Simcoe for flavor, and the citrus-y ones like Amarillo for aroma. I'm also a fan of Willamette for flavor. But that's just my taste. As others have said, the best way to develop a schedule with specific hops is experimentation.

And of course, the hop schedule will be different for non-American styles...

I recently did a dry hopping experiment so that I could get an idea of differing hops characteristics. So I feel a bit more secure about being able to say I want xxx hops in my beer. Understanding IBU's is the easy part since its just indicating how bitter your beer is. However, flavor and aroma are a different story, I am unsure how 1 oz of xxx hops compares to .5 oz of xxx hops.

I was all about the Citrusy hops until I got stationed here in the UK. I have fell in love with the Challenger Hops and Whitbread Goldings Variety hops!! Although the citrusy hops still hold a special place, my flagship brew i make utilizes Challenger and WGV hops that the citrusy hops just can't do in it.

I totally second the 3 addition hop schedule 60 mins for bittering, 15-20 mins for flavor and 5 minutes for aroma/slight flavor and 0 mins for all aroma

I've found that brewing clones of commercial beers helps me shortcut the process somewhat. I know going in what to expect, and learn if I've come close to what it should be.

So if you were to stick a 3ish addition hop schedule for most brews and were to brew a malty beer like a bock or an irish red ale, would you do just a 60 minute addition, or would you do a flavor/aroma addition as well just smaller? On the flip side, if you doing a hoppy beer like an ipa or something, would you use the 3 addition hops schedule as a basis and proceed to include more hops additions in the flavor/aroma time frame, or just increase the hops amounts for the 3 additions?

I know I might be over simplifying or generalizing hop schedules, but thats what I am striving to do. I find I enjoy what I am doing a lot more if I have a firm foundation to build off of, and I want to skip years of trial and error.

SkiNuke said:

So if you were to stick a 3ish addition hop schedule for most brews and were to brew a malty beer like a bock or an irish red ale, would you do just a 60 minute addition, or would you do a flavor/aroma addition as well just smaller? On the flip side, if you doing a hoppy beer like an ipa or something, would you use the 3 addition hops schedule as a basis and proceed to include more hops additions in the flavor/aroma time frame, or just increase the hops amounts for the 3 additions?

I know I might be over simplifying or generalizing hop schedules, but thats what I am striving to do. I find I enjoy what I am doing a lot more if I have a firm foundation to build off of, and I want to skip years of trial and error.

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From my experience of crafting Bocks and Irish reds for maltiness or nope hop flavor/aroma toss in your hops at the 60 mins boil only if making a Bocks be sure to use a noble hop like hallertau. For IPA's I don't have much experience in that department. But for other brew I've made the 60min additions boost the bitterness. The 15 min additions are great for flavoring and 0 min additions are all aroma. What I do with the flavoring hops for my flagship brew is add 25% more than the 60 min additions. However this only works if you're using one hop in the recipe. For complex recipes I research the hops a bit more to balance out the flavor or make one stand out more when flavoring. And aroma hops are usually the largest hop bill for me.