Not enough hops

One of my favorite beers is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I liked it so much I wanted to see if I could brew up something close. I brewed my best tasting pale ale to date, however, when taste tested next to a SNPA...it lacked some serious hops!

Unfortunately I do not have the recipe as it is on a hard drive where the CPU is dead (going to take me some time to recover it) but it went VERY similar to the following...and I am 80% sure it is the exact recipe I used..

10# Pale 2row
.75# Crystal 60L

2oz Magnum (60min)
1oz Perle (30min)
1oz Cascade (10min)

The recipe originally was supposed to be:

http://www.brew365.com/beer_snpa.php

Thoughts why mine wasn't hoppy?

Additional Note: My good friend is am absolute hop head, and while he enjoyed my version of the Pale Ale, he said that it lacked hops sorely. He also said that he didn't expect IPA level hops...but he said given the level of hops usage something was up.

EDIT: Also, I used pellet hops....if that detail matters.

My recipe is very similar- except I add hops like this:

1oz Magnum (60min)
1oz Perle (15 min) or cascade, depending what I have
1oz Cascade (1 min)
1oz Cascade (dryhops)

I like hops closer to the end of the boil for hop flavor and aroma. Adding hops at 30 minutes will give no hops flavor/aroma and the 10 minute ones are good for flavor. I also dryhop my SNPA clone. I like about 26-30 IBUs from the bittering addition. Maybe two ounces of magnum at 60 minutes is way too bitter? Did you not add any flame-out or one minute hops?

Water chemistry can play a part in accentuating or muting the hops as well- do you know your water chemistry?

How's your water?

Mine is very soft, and I've come to a vague conclusion that this stops my hops really biting in my beers. So use more!

It's weird cos i can over hop with higher alpha hops, and avoid too much harshness usually. But they usually come over more mellow and herbal than I would have imagined from bought beers that purport to use the same ones.

Or I could have a process problem of course, but my boils are vigorous so don't think so.

Forgot to add that I did dry hop.

No I don't know what my water is like, however I live in New Hampshire in a town and my water is not well water, and it seems to be pretty decent.

I tried to look up the water profile with no luck...although Im sure its on the softer end of things

I'd recommend moving the flavor/aroma hops to 5 min and 0 minutes and add some dry hops.

Also, not to get too into water chemistry, but maybe add a small amount of gypsum to the boil. Say half a teaspoon or so. I wouldn't do too much without knowing your water profile.

NorsemenRugby58 said:

Forgot to add that I did dry hop.

No I don't know what my water is like, however I live in New Hampshire in a town and my water is not well water, and it seems to be pretty decent.

I tried to look up the water profile with no luck...although Im sure its on the softer end of things

Click to expand...

Did you add any flame out hop additions, like the recipe asked for? Leaving out two ounces of hops at flame out definitely would impact the hoppiness alot!

no I didn't think/know that adding hops at flameout had such an effect on flavor. I also didnt know that flavoring hops are added with sub 30min to boil.


Thanks for all the advice!

also, could you briefly explain how/why adding hops at flameout produces such major contributions to flavor?

Thx

NorsemenRugby58 said:

also, could you briefly explain how/why adding hops at flameout produces such major contributions to flavor?

Thx

Click to expand...

Well, 2 ounces of hops would provide a ton of aroma, which is perceived as flavor. But there are some flavor contributions as well. Boiling the hops extracts the bittering compounds from them, but not boiling them and allowing them to "steep" in the hot wort during cooling contributes plenty of aroma and flavor.

Leaving out 2 ounces of hops from a hoppy recipe makes a huge difference.

oh ok I understand thanks for the advice