Getting the right flavour characteristics out of hops

I was wondering how to get certain characteristics out of hops. For example, let's say I wanted to get the pine flavours from Chinook but not so much the spice, how could I get that flavour profile? Or similarly with Williamette, it's described as fruity, herbal, spicy, floral, but how would I get the floral characteristics and less of the others?

This isn't a question about bittering characteristics; I know the earlier a hop goes in the boil the more bitterness it will give. This is about getting the right aroma/flavour from the hop.

Thanks.

Good question. I don't know if you can without selectively breeding a hop to accentuate those characteristics.

I don't know about being able to reduce the unwanted characteristics (other than switching to another hop?), but to preserve the desired characteristics, you want to try not to drive off the characteristic hop oils:
http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/01/21/late-hop-additions-and-hop-oils-in-beer-brewing/

Chinook likely gets a lot of its pine-y note from Myrcene. Willamette surely gets much of its its floral note from Farnesene. Both of these oils vaporize at below boiling temperature. So to best preserve these characteristics, add them very late in the boil--or, ideally, post-boil; and particularly in the case of Chinook, perhaps in a hopstand below 140°F / 60°C. And of course, dry-hop.

agrazela said:

I don't know about being able to reduce the unwanted characteristics (other than switching to another hop?), but to preserve the desired characteristics, you want to try not to drive off the characteristic hop oils:
http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/01/21/late-hop-additions-and-hop-oils-in-beer-brewing/

Chinook likely gets a lot of its pine-y note from Myrcene. Willamette surely gets much of its its floral note from Farnesene. Both of these oils vaporize at below boiling temperature. So to best preserve these characteristics, add them very late in the boil--or, ideally, post-boil; and particularly in the case of Chinook, perhaps in a hopstand below 140°F / 60°C. And of course, dry-hop.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, that's pretty useful. I guess to get the desired flavours from my hops I need to put them in at the right time, which looks like waiting until the beer is cooling and steep them for the rest of the cool in some cases. Or save most the hops for the dry hop.

Yup definitely can manipulate hop characteristics by adjusting the timing and temperature of addition. Unfortunately, a lot of this comes from trial and error. The best way to learn about a hop is work with it a lot. One thing to remember is that just because something has a flash/boiling point at a certain temperature, doesn't mean that it automatically disappears once that temperature is reached. Otherwise our wort would turn into sugar bricks once the temperature hit the boiling point. Also, Northern Brewer is another hop to check out for pine characteristics. It does come with some mint as well though.

Also, here is another good link for hops, http://beerlegends.com/chinook-hops.

ive found dry hopping and whirlpool additions with chinook will get you a lot of pine and basically zero spice IME. I dont really like chinook's character during the boil. You just gotta tool around with it. Some hop descriptions will say what flavors/aromas it contributes for different types of additions.

I agree in trying different temps. From flameout to 5min to hopstands at various ranges. They all give you very different results. I managed to serve a Sorachi Ace single hop beer (100g flavor additions) to someone who usually picks it out of everything and hates it due to the dill flavor and he liked it. Cause I did all the flavor addition in a tepid range hopstand. Guess the nice lemon notes of the hop have a low flashpoint.

Anyhow, what I generally recommend is subisomeric and tepid range hopstands, as they leave many more of the oils intact. Those are also usually the ones you want. So try that. Highly recommended. Also incorporates a lot of flavor into the beer compared to the other additions. Both due to the absorbtion of oils into the beer and the yeast reacting with that.

You can (and should) also try to stagger your dryhop. Try adding half or around 1/3rd of it while there is still active fermentation. Some will say the co2 will scrub away a lot of oils, but the yeast and the oils also react to give you different, stronger flavor. Really cool technique.

I shifted all my flavor hops to hopstands, no flameout or late, by now. Usually start subisomeric with most and then add the rest around 30-40 min later when it has reached tepid. Also do the double stage dryhop I mentioned. I feel I get a load more use out of my hops. Loads more (lasting) flavor, more complexity, and improved aromatics too. Just win all around.

What is "subisomeric "?

Below the temperature at which the alpha acids begin to isomerise.

Exactly. So that you don´t get added bitterness. This is a good article I have used as my base for a while now. https://byo.com/component/k2/item/2808-hop-stands