Glacier hops

A friend of mine recently acquired a large amount of glacier hops and offered to send some my way for brewing (he no longer brews). I'm not familar with glacier and have been having a hard time finding recipes that use them and have yet to find any that use glacier hops exclusively. SO far all I've really gathered is that is has an AA around 5.5-6 and has even been called a substitute for Williamette.


Anyone know if Glacier hops would be acceptable as the ONLY hop in an APA?

Anyone know of any Glacier only recipes?

Glacier is a great hop for APA's. I use them as late and dry hop additions. I don't use them for bittering because I have other hops for that.

You could definitely brew a great APA with only Glacier...IMO.

I've brewed a couple of PAs using Glacier. I like it. I have read that Glacier is a substitue for several different hops. I am not sure that any of the claims are true. I just did a SMaSH with Glacier and I still can't say that it tastes a whole lot like any other hop. Williamette is close, I suppose. I've used it as a Willamette substitute and it works ok. It does have some citrus, though.

I recently brewed and am currently drinking an APA made exclusively with Glacier. I really like it and I think it is certainly worth trying out. They are a very smooth hop for bittering but I would use more for aroma that with a typical American hop, it is kind of a subtle flavor.

I understand that at 5.5-6% AA glacier hops aren't ideal for bittering. However, am I correct in assuming that if you use enough for the 60 min boil time that you'll still get the IBUs you want?

For example:

2 oz 60 min
1 oz 15 min
1 oz flameout

The above should end up with an IBU in the upper 30s, right? If so, then isn't that on the mid-upper end of the IBU range for 'typical' APAs? Or am I wrong and the type of hop makes more of a difference as to its bittering abilities than just plain old AA?


Sorry for the noobish hop questions. I've been strictly a kit brewer and with the possibility of lots of glacier hops being available to me I'm trying to figure out how I can make use of them alone or if I 'need' to supplement some other hop for bittering.

They work fine for bittering. In fact, the only hops that you may not want to use are those with very low AA% (1.5% for instance) because you would have to add a giant amout. This would leave a substantial amount of vegetable matter which could affect the taste.

Assuming you are aiming for five gallons, 2oz. at 60 minutes and 1 oz. at 15 minutes will leave you at 63 IBUs using the Rager formula. That's way above the usual level for an APA. BJCP says IBUs for an APA should be between 20 and 40. Try 1oz, 1oz, and 1oz.

I just checked my last APA and I used 1 oz. at 60, .5 oz. at 15, and .5oz at flameout.

Some people have described Glacier as minty, which I definitely tasted from my post fermentation sample. However after a bit of mellowing out that taste has gone. Not my favorite hop but usable. Apparently it has been a plentiful hop and subbed into a lot of recipes by some of the online recipe kit vendors.

Personally I like the complexity of using more than one hop -but if it was given to me I would use them up. My address is . . .

Thanks for all the info everyone.