Single Hop IPA's

I’m going to be making a bunch of half batch single hop IPA’s this summer in order to find out the properties of as many hops as I can. I’m keeping the same malt/grain bill for all of the recipe’s and I’m going to do hop additions at the same times. Bascially it’ll be a 60 min, 20 min, 10 min, and a dry hop addition. So I wanted to keep the proportions of the hops the same so that I could compare them accurately. What I did with this was calculated the alpha acid contribution I wanted from each addition and then calculated how much of each hop it would take to reach that AA and thats how many ounces I used for each addition. Does this sound like the right way to do this? Thing is I have my lower AA hops in the 5-7% range and it takes 10 or more ounces for some of them, does this seem like much for a 2.5 gal IPA. Thanks for the feedback

should be fun!

I just made an all centennial IPA that tastes great. I'm sure you'll have a great time taste testing them.

cheers.

Can you clarify something for me, are you shooting for the same IBU level amongst all the IPAs or just the same quantity of hops?

Schizo, thats my question, you trying to brew the same SG & IBU, with all the same malts, then hit a target IBU with each different hop?

Subscribed. I am planning on doing this someday.

zac said:

Schizo, thats my question, you trying to brew the same SG & IBU, with all the same malts, then hit a target IBU with each different hop?

Subscribed. I am planning on doing this someday.

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Thats what it looks like to me which is why it takes so many more lower AA hops then the higher AA ones.

The numbers will see way high because usually a bittering hop (one with high AA) is used for the first hop addition where most of your IBUs come from because it doesn't contribute much flavor if any. So where 10ounces seems like a ton in a 2.5 gallon batch, it's because you're only using a 5-7% AA hop instead of the normal 10-15AA or so .
This is my take on all this.

I am keeping the same malt/grain bill base for all the recipe's. I am doing all of my hop additions at the same time. I am not doing the same quantity of hops, rather I am doing the same AAU's per addition. Since the gravity will be the same for all of them I figured this would be the same as IBU without having to do the math. So I just calculated how much weight it would take of each hop to achieve the same AAU per addition. Hope thats clearer

You could also consider keeping all the additions the same size except for the 60 minute addition. Change the 60 minute addition enough to adjust for the IBUs. I would recommend that since flavor and aroma do not necessarily scale by AA content. You could have one beer with low AA (so higher 20, 10 additions) end up with more apparent flavor and aroma, well of course, you used more. Then comparing that to a higher AA hop that might not have as much flavor. You would hate to end up with a the conclusion "oh that hop doesn't contribute as much flavor as this other" just because you used less.

IrregularPulse said:

Thats what it looks like to me which is why it takes so many more lower AA hops then the higher AA ones.

The numbers will see way high because usually a bittering hop (one with high AA) is used for the first hop addition where most of your IBUs come from because it doesn't contribute much flavor if any. So where 10ounces seems like a ton in a 2.5 gallon batch, it's because you're only using a 5-7% AA hop instead of the normal 10-15AA or so .
This is my take on all this.

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Thats what I figured. Now what I'm wondering and what I guess I'm going to learn from all of this is whether or not flavor/aroma contribution is proportional to the AA of a hop. Ex: will 2 ounces of Cascade lend more aroma than 1 ounce of Colombus since their is more weight or will they lend apprx the same since they will be about the same AA?

Beerrific said:

You could also consider keeping all the additions the same size except for the 60 minute addition. Change the 60 minute addition enough to adjust for the IBUs. I would recommend that since flavor and aroma do not necessarily scale by AA content. You could have one beer with low AA (so higher 20, 10 additions) end up with more apparent flavor and aroma, well of course, you used more. Then comparing that to a higher AA hop that might not have as much flavor. You would hate to end up with a the conclusion "oh that hop doesn't contribute as much flavor as this other" just because you used less.

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So would you say keep the same AAU for the 60 minute addition and then for the 20,10, dry hop do the same weight? How much weight would you add for those additions for a 2.5 gal batch? 2 oz per each of the last three additions?

If i were doing this, I would brew up 5 gallons of wort, blend it all together in your normal kettle and then seperate out 5 x 1 gallon boils and hop those. Get 5 x 1 gallon jugs to ferment in or even 10 x 64oz growlers for more testing. Then you have an exact base that will not change as much as brewing a second time. Also you will use like an ounce of hops for each rather than 10oz.

$.02

Matt Up North said:

If i were doing this, I would brew up 5 gallons of wort, blend it all together in your normal kettle and then seperate out 5 x 1 gallon boils and hop those. Get 5 x 1 gallon jugs to ferment in or even 10 x 64oz growlers for more testing. Then you have an exact base that will not change as much as brewing a second time. Also you will use like an ounce of hops for each rather than 10oz.

$.02

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Yeah, that would be economical and all but then its like what do I do with a bunch of 1 gallon batches of beer once they're all done. Racking/bottling them is going to be a pain bc I feel like there is a ton of opportunity for a lot of oxygen to get introduced proportional to the volume you're dealing with.

emacgee said:

So would you say keep the same AAU for the 60 minute addition and then for the 20,10, dry hop do the same weight? How much weight would you add for those additions for a 2.5 gal batch? 2 oz per each of the last three additions?

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I would keep the 20, 10 dry additions the same weight. Then just add/subtract enough at 60 to hit the same IBU, the AAU will change (just use some software to calculate the IBUs).

I think 2oz for each addition might bee too much (for a 2.5 gallon batch). If you go same weight way, you are going to be limited by your high alpha hop choice. For the highest alpha hop you might not need any 60 minute addition, that might be a good rule to go by...base those addition off the numbers that give you the desired IBUs without any 60 minute addition. Then with the lower alpha hops just use the same weights at 20, 10, dry and add what is needed at 60 minutes to get to the same IBUs./

I would keep the weights of the later (aroma, flavor) hop additions more-or-less the same (since they're not really about AA%) and adjust the earlier, bittering additions per AA%

emacgee said:

Yeah, that would be economical and all but then its like what do I do with a bunch of 1 gallon batches of beer once they're all done. Racking/bottling them is going to be a pain bc I feel like there is a ton of opportunity for a lot of oxygen to get introduced proportional to the volume you're dealing with.

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I would just bottle from the gallon jug and add carb drops. Then you are getting little or no oxygen into it. Just ferment for two to three weeks and then chill in the fridge to settle, then bottle from there. Should work like a peach.

You should definitely listen to beerrific here. It's a bit more complicated but you want the same sized additions to 20, 10. & dry hop additions. (I'd say between .5 & 1 oz each for 2.5 gal batches.). Then have a variable 60 minute addition to hit a target IBU (say 60 IBU).

I think we reached a concensus.

Beerific nailed it.

emacgee said:

So would you say keep the same AAU for the 60 minute addition and then for the 20,10, dry hop do the same weight? How much weight would you add for those additions for a 2.5 gal batch? 2 oz per each of the last three additions?

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Beerrific said:

I would keep the 20, 10 dry additions the same weight. Then just add/subtract enough at 60 to hit the same IBU, the AAU will change (just use some software to calculate the IBUs).

I think 2oz for each addition might bee too much (for a 2.5 gallon batch). If you go same weight way, you are going to be limited by your high alpha hop choice. For the highest alpha hop you might not need any 60 minute addition, that might be a good rule to go by...base those addition off the numbers that give you the desired IBUs without any 60 minute addition. Then with the lower alpha hops just use the same weights at 20, 10, dry and add what is needed at 60 minutes to get to the same IBUs./

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I'm late to this party, but that's exactly what I'd do. AAUs don't really scale for later additions, and 2 ounces of hops in a late addition in a small batch is a LOT of hops. Now, I love hops so it's not a bad thing- but it won't really be comparable. You should use the same amount of flavor and aroma hops (anything past 20 minutes left in the boil) in each beer.