IPA Bitterness

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DraconianHand

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I had a Dogfish Head 120 IPA (half of one actually) a couple of days ago and really liked it. One of the things I enjoyed about it was that it was full of hoppy flavor, but lacked a strong hop bite that most IPA's have.

I was wondering, if you reduced the amount of bittering hops and increased the number of flavoring and aroma hops, would this cut back on the bite of an IPA?

Is the subdued bite of the DFH120 a result of the continuous hopping or maybe the heaviness of the beer? :confused:

I am not looking to recreate DFH120, but I would like to copy the presentation of the hops.
 
I would guess that the severe maltiness, and especially the sweetnes, of the 120min are what cover up the IBUs. I believe it's supposed to be 120 IBUs as well, which is of course a ridiculously high number. When I made my IIPA, I didn't have a solid full boil going for part of the boil, which I think has given me a lot more hop flavor and less actual bitterness. I think my regular IPA is going to be a lot more noticeably bitter. So, you could try not doing a full rolling boil for part of the brew, or yes, add more hops later in the boil and less at the start.

P.S. LOL on the "half of one." That stuff is STRONG!
 
Yeah, a buddy of mine bought two and split one with me. I had half on an empty stomach and I got a little fuzzy headed.

Well, I don't think I can offset the bitterness with an outrageous amount of malt..I don't have the experience to make a HUGE beer yet. Would malto dextrin reproduce the heaviness and reduce the bitterness? I think no.

I will probably try reducing the bittering hops and increasing the flavor and aroma. I might try modifying your Imperious IPA.
 
Also to help cut down on the Bitter bite of the hops try using a low co-humulone hop. Here is a link to a chart that breaks down many hop varieties and shows the relationship between AA% and co-humulone levels. The higher the co-humulone level, the sharper or more bite a beer will have.

http://www.homebeerwinecheese.com/domestic hop pellets.htm

Cheers
 
So the "goal" then would be to provide the same level of alpha acids, but do it with lower co-humulone hops to reduce the bite?

Yes, also like evan said, you can use some more unfermentable sugars to give a maltier flavor and heavier mouthfeel. But just doing that won't cut back the bitter bite.

Cheers
 
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