Working on a hop bomb recipe, looking for advice & critiques.

Hey guys I'm very new to brewing and am trying to come up with a recipe for a hop bomb ale. The idea for this is to have a crisp hop bomb IPA/Pale ale without a whole lot of malt characteristics so the hops can really shine through.


Let me know what you think (Especially the hop schedule since I kinda took a couple different recipes and then added things myself) Thanks to anyone who wants to help! Also, if this is stupid, tell me this is stupid. I like to learn things, heh.



4 LBS Light DME
4 Lbs American 2 Row Malt
8 oz. Carapils
8 oz. Caramel 10L
1 LB Sugar


==
Hops in boil - Pellet
2oz Magnum 100min
1oz Warrior 100 min


1oz Chinook 20 Minutes
1oz Crystal 15 minutes
1oz Crystal 10 minutes
1oz Cascade 5 Minutes

1 oz Centenial 0 min
1 oz cascade 0 min


Dry Hop for 7 days - Whole leaf
Cascade 1 oz
Chinook 1oz
Warrior 1 oz

You should drop an ounce off the magnum addition at 100 min...and you probably only need to boil for 90 mins instead.

I'd drop either the 20 or 15 min addition.

I'd also only add 1 of the 2 oz at flameout.

You may think you need to go this overboard to get a "hop bomb" beer, but it's not completely necessary.

This is just my opinion, I am not the worlds best recipe creator, but, 3 oz of bittering hops for 100 min is a extreme. Warrior is named that for a reason, it is aggressive, I would say go with one ounce for bittering and pick one bittering hop. I guess it depends on what you define a hop bomb as, if you are looking for bitter, this will do it, that amount of bittering will overpower any hop flavor. You also might want to re-think dry hopping with Warrior, do not think you will get a lot from that. Maybe break up the late additions and dry hops and split them evenly at 20, 15, 10, 5, 0 and dry hop for a consistent flavor. Just my opinion though.

kbuzz said:

You should drop an ounce off the magnum addition at 100 min...and you probably only need to boil for 90 mins instead.

I'd drop either the 20 or 15 min addition.

I'd also only add 1 of the 2 oz at flameout.

You may think you need to go this overboard to get a "hop bomb" beer, but it's not completely necessary.

Click to expand...

Ok thanks! Yeah I've been very underwhelmed with the hoppiness of the few beers that I've brewed so far so I guess I was hoping to error on the side of too much. I've always said I've never had a beer that was too hoppy...Although I've also read that once you're over 100 IBU's your tongue doesn't really perceive a difference. Is that why you're saying to drop off the extra few ozs or could too much hops possibly ruin the beer?

ChadChaney said:

This is just my opinion, I am not the worlds best recipe creator, but, 3 oz of bittering hops for 100 min is a extreme. Warrior is named that for a reason, it is aggressive, I would say go with one ounce for bittering and pick one bittering hop. I guess it depends on what you define a hop bomb as, if you are looking for bitter, this will do it, that amount of bittering will overpower any hop flavor. You also might want to re-think dry hopping with Warrior, do not think you will get a lot from that. Maybe break up the late additions and dry hops and split them evenly at 20, 15, 10, 5, 0 and dry hop for a consistent flavor. Just my opinion though.

Click to expand...

Ok yeah you're right, if I overpower with the bittering hops I may miss out on some of the flavor which I don't want. And about dry hopping with Warrior, whoops! I meant Magnum, I screwed that up.

The reason I wanted to try dry hopping with Magnum is because Sierra Nevada does that with their Torpedo http://www.sierranevada.com/beers/torpedo.html

full boil or partial boil & top up?
bc you need more hops with a concentrated boil vs full boil.

midfielder5 said:

full boil or partial boil & top up?
bc you need more hops with a concentrated boil vs full boil.

Click to expand...

That's a good point. All I've done this far is a partial boil (3.5 gallons or so) although I think my pot could handle a full 5 gallon boil.....I don't have a wort chiller though so that could be quite a long cooling process in my sink.

Do you want bitterness or hop oil flavors, or both. I made an IPA with 12 oz all within 30 minutes, cascade etc. Its very delicious, but it didn't have enough bitterness. All I added was 1/8 an oz of magnum for 90 minutes and it was pefectly balanced. The bitterness factor calculated in at 55, but was mostly oils. It tasted more like 35-40 IBU. There is no way to make a perfect recipe the first time. Mine took four (4) versions before I got it right.

Another thing to think about is what kind of hop flavor your are looking for; dank or more on the lines of citrus.

ChadChaney said:

Another thing to think about is what kind of hop flavor your are looking for; dank or more on the lines of citrus.

Click to expand...

I was thinking along the lines of a complex bitter (100+ IBU's), piney, grapefruity, beer with some floral tones..