Hop Schedule

Hi just a question on hop schedule for an simple ipa. I have 12 pounds of 2 row and 1 pound of 20L. My efficiency is about 65-70ish. I have the following hops but not all are fresh but stored in my frezer in zip lock bags. So any sugestions would be great.
I have 2oz of simcoe fresh from brew store
2oz of amarillo fresh from brew store
1 oz of amarillo 5 months old
1oz of cascade 5 months old
1.5 oz of hallertaur 2 weeks old
1oz of golding 6 months old

I want to know if the hops are bad will it ruin my beer or just the flavors just not be as pronounced?
With that said i was thinking something like...
.5 simcoe 60 min
.5 simcoe 20 min
1oz amarillo 20 min
1oz cascade 20 min
.5 amarillo 5 min
With beer smith (newbie to this, just making my first recipe) i get 80.3 ibus? Should I use less simcoe at 20min and add more at 60 min? Should I use a different bittering hops?

this seem ok? I am not too sure if i want to use the older hops? any suggestions would be great. Should i dry hop?

Northern hemisphere hops are only harvested once a year (fall), so as long as you keep them cold and away from oxygen the ones you bought a few months back will be just as good as the ones you buy at the store now. If they are just loose in ziploc bags in the freezer you are not going to have as much character left, smell them and see how they are. They should be fine for bittering, but the alpha acids degrade over time, so you'll have to use a bit more to get the same IBUs. If you see a cheap food saver vacuum sealer thingy buy it, great for sealing hops back up if you don't use all of them.

Hops around 20 minutes won't give you much character. I would shift all of those to the last 5 minutes of the boil. For an IPA dry hops are almost a requirement as well for that big fresh hop aroma.

Simcoe and Amarillo is a great combination, maybe 1 oz of each at flame out and another ouce of each for dry hop. Bitter with some of the older hops.

Hope that helps, good luck.

Were the hops stored in airtight bags (can you smell the hops through the bag?) Were they pellets or leaf? I only ask because I think that these issues would be the difference in using them.

I don't get to brew as often as I'd like so I end up freezing a lot of my ingredients. Exposure to air is the biggest threat even if they are frozen. I am most careful with hops.

That being said, it looks like you are thinking of using mostly fresh hops anyways. I have decent success with frozen leaf hops for bittering, but did notice that my older hops did not do as well for the aroma.

Hope this helps!

I get great flavor from 20 minute additions. Peoples systems and methods are different and yield different results. I don't often use hop bags and most of the time I just dump the whole brew pot into the fermenter. A good cold crash cleans it up fine.

I'd just use your older hops as normal. Cascade is my favorite for aroma. If they are pellets you probably won't be able to tell much differnce.

Ok here is a new idea then. What if i bitter with the Cascade 1oz for 60? The golding is not a bittering hops right? Then use .25 oz of simcoe also with bittering. Then add .5oz at 10 min of simcoe, 1oz amarillo at 10 min 1 oz amarillo at flame out. Sorry can't check beer smith at work but does this look ok? Just want to have a hop schedule ready so i can brew right after work. Oh and I like hops alot and the beers i would like to imitate would be sculpin ipa, west cost ipa, stone ipa ect. Was thinking a 1oz simcoe dry hop and 1oz amarillo dry hop.
Thanks for the help so far guys.

I would save the Cascade to use for flavor and aroma as it has nice citrus tones and doesn't have a high alpha acid percentage. Stick with Simcoe for bittering (usually 12-14% AAU). Also, I love hops as well, but 80+ IBU's is pretty darn bitter. Make sure that you're ready for that. If you just want a lot of hop flavor, I'd back off on the bittering a bit (maybe 65-70 IBU) and add more hops in toward the end of the boil. Hope this helps.

Should I just start off with .5oz of simcoe at 60min? Then do flavor hops at 20-0min. I love a lot of hop flavor and a good amount bitterness. But my favorite ipa is west cost ipa 88 ibu (i think). But would like more hop flavor so add more simcoe in the last 15min or so and at boil out.
So thoughts on this...
.5oz simcoe at 60
.5oz simcoe at 15min
1oz amarillo at 15
1oz cascade at 5
1oz amarillo at 5
dry hop 1oz simcoe
dry hop 1oz amarillo

Any thoughts please?

that looks much better, although I would probably dry hop with amarillo and cascade. The simcoe is more of a bittering hop than an aroma hop. Sub that and I think you're looking good.

Thanks alot guys just opened a west cost ipa and starting to brew. So anymore suggestions cause i wont start the boil for another 3 hours or so

Mooseknuckle2000 said:

that looks much better, although I would probably dry hop with amarillo and cascade. The simcoe is more of a bittering hop than an aroma hop. Sub that and I think you're looking good.

Click to expand...

In my opinion Simcoe & Amarillo are made for each other, probably my favorite combo. I make a SimArillo IPA that is goes over really well w/ my hophead friends. Simcoe has a real nice piney, pineapple aroma.

Mooseknuckle2000 said:

The simcoe is more of a bittering hop than an aroma hop.

Click to expand...

Really?

A short list of great IPAs and DIPAs that use Simcoe near the end of the boil or as a dry hop:
Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Younger
Hopslam
Sculpin
90 Minute
Weyerbacher Double Simcoe
Jai Alai
etc...

Oldsock said:

Really?

A short list of great IPAs and DIPAs that use Simcoe near the end of the boil or as a dry hop:
Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Younger
Hopslam
Sculpin
90 Minute
Weyerbacher Double Simcoe
Jai Alai
etc...

Click to expand...

lol, I guess I should have thrown an "IMO" in there. A lot of people flavor with Simcoe. I guess I'm just more partial to the Cascade for dry hopping.

I plan to dry hop with amarillo and simcoe but i just want to know if by hops during the boil looks ok or should i go another route with the hops during boil?

hops during boil look good to me

ddrayne10 said:

So thoughts on this...
.5oz simcoe at 60
.5oz simcoe at 15min
1oz amarillo at 15
1oz cascade at 5
1oz amarillo at 5
dry hop 1oz simcoe
dry hop 1oz amarillo

Any thoughts please?

Click to expand...

Looks good. You can also take that Simcoe/ Amarillo 15min additions & do a FWH (first wort hop).