Best hops for APA and IPA?

Hops are kind of expensive in China and I'm meeting up with someone from the states over summer vacation...would like to buy 2-3 lbs of hops over amazon but not 100% sure what to buy. I've used chinook, cascade, willamette, and citra so far. Really like chinook both for bittering and for dry hopping. Citra was nice but almost too fruity...though if you mixed it with something else I think it would balance out. Any other hops that are really popular for making APAs or IPAs?

Warrior for bittering is another good one. Citra, Simcoe, ahtanum, East Kent Golding, mosaic, cascade, motueka, Pacifica, wakatu are all hops I've used in IPA's, both my American Cougar Country & all NZ-hopped Maori IPA's. Maybe a half pound of each would net you more variety?

It depends on what your goals for the beer are. If you want a big citrusy hop bomb of an IPA, look at the high alpha American hops - Chinook, Citra, Summit, Apollo, Bravo, Simcoe. If you want a bitter, robust English-style IPA, look for more Brit hops: Nugget, Challenger, EKG, etc. If you want a middle of the road, get some of both.

The thing is, know what you want from your beer before you consider hops, then look for hops that have a profile that fits your goal. Also, you can't consider hops without considering water profile, fermentation conditions, and yeast. All of those will greatly affect both the quality and yield of your hops. The same recipe brewed with 2 different water profiles can yield an award-winning 45 beer on one hand, and an undrinkable glass of platypus musk on the other.

I agree with uniondr...if you aren't doing big batches of anything, get a greater variety in half pound batches and experiment to find what you like.

I am a fan of Chinook, Citra, Simcoe, Centennial and Columbus in various combinations. However I am partial to citrusy and piney IPAs.

Cascade, Centennial and Columbus. I always have these three in stock.

Columbus is another good one I forgot to mention. One of the first hops I ever used! Sterling is another one I like that plays well with Saaz & EKG.

I brewed one of my best beers with Centennial and Mosaic (IPA).

I am currently fermenting two beers (IPA's) with the folloing hops:
#1 Columbus (bitter hop) and loads of Azacca (both late additions and dry hop).
#2 Columbus / Simcoe / Amarillo (all as bitter hop) (Simcoe and Columbus as dry hop)

My favorite IPA so far is a Chinook, Cascade, Citra brew. Additionally, all of these hops smash well and work well together.

Don't forget Galaxy. That's a good one, too. Fruity.

Amazon IME doesn't have good pricing for hops. If you are going to be buying a bunch check out brewing specific sites like nikobrew, RiteBrew, morebeer, etc. Site sponsor Farmhousebrewing has a lot of varieties in 4 oz bags. Could be fun to get ten of those.

Also keep storage in mind. Idk what your batch size is, however, if it's under 40 gallons of beer, and you're ordering a few pounds of hops, chances are that you won't be using them all at once. If you let your hips (leaves or pellets or whatever) sit out in the heat, they'll lose potency and stale over time. Keep them in a freezer if you can!

Some good aroma hops for an American Pale Ale or IPA:

Mosaic
Equinox (HBC 366)
Galaxy
Citra
Simcoe
Nelson Sauvin
Apollo
Amarillo
Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus
Centennial
Cascade
Bravo
Comet
Summit
Chinook
El Dorado

If I could only pick one hop for these styles, give me Centennial.

permo said:

If I could only pick one hop for these styles, give me Centennial.

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I feel the same way about Mosaic.

Wow, lots of great responses. I'm pretty sure I saw ritebrew on the amazon marketplace but will check out some of those other sites. I'm more into the pacific northwest hop-bomb type of APA and IPA.

Unfortunately they're doing something with the internet where I live and I can barely connect to anything. Might have to do things a bit later. Too slow to get a secure connection for a credit card transaction.

How much does heat affect hops? I will be in Malaysia and India for about 4 weeks after picking up the hops and it will be toasty as hell I imagine. I'd be going for vacuum-sealed bags of pellets.

I'm a little surprised cascade hops have come up as much as they have. I like the flavor but from my experience they were very mild compared to chinook or citra. Is that normal?

You definitely want to keep them vacuum-sealed and in the freezer as much as possible.

jm21 said:

I'm a little surprised cascade hops have come up as much as they have. I like the flavor but from my experience they were very mild compared to chinook or citra. Is that normal?

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I think most people consider Cascades as an almost ubiquitous IPA/APA finishing hop. Yes, it's (usually) mild in AA (but I have some 9.3s right now), but the flavor and aroma components are hard to beat for a big citrus finish. Cascades are to American hoppy styles as EKGs are to English bitters. Not a requirement by any means, but there's a good reason they are so commonly used.

Also, check Yakima Valley hops. HUGE selection and good prices, too.

Chinook tops my list for a clean flavor... and that is why I planted some!

For those ordering bulk hops, I have ordered some vacuum sealer mylar bags to try. If they work well I will post a report! Will be great for breaking hops down into 1 oz packages for freezer storage.

MaryB said:

Chinook tops my list for a clean flavor... and that is why I planted some!

For those ordering bulk hops, I have ordered some vacuum sealer mylar bags to try. If they work well I will post a report! Will be great for breaking hops down into 1 oz packages for freezer storage.

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So how did the mylar bags work out for you MaryB?

Probably a more helpful discussion if you can describe what flavors you want in an IPA or pale ale. There's such a wide range of IPA characteristics that you are not going to get much help in any particular direction just asking people what to use. Ten or so years ago you would have been given the names of a handful of hops in a handful of different combinations for an AIPA or APA over and over with little variance. Today there are so many hop varieties and substyles that common combinations for one substyle will be completely different from another. For example, if you wanted to make a piney west coast IPA your hop choices will be almost certainly unrelated to the hop combination for a fruit bomb hazy IPA.

Get a hop bine root. There must be a grower in your region. DO NOT sneak it in, could be an agriculture holocaust. Like Snakeheads in the Potomac river in Washington D.C
Or fruit trees from another state.

chudsonvt said:

I am a fan of Chinook, Citra, Simcoe, Centennial and Columbus in various combinations. However I am partial to citrusy and piney IPAs.

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Sounds like what I got in my freezer

I've had good success with Summit for bittering, really high AA% so you get lotsa bang for the buck and a little goes a long way (you get approx 24 IBUs per 10g if added at 60 mins). I wouldn't recommend it for aroma as many people report onion/garlic flavors but for bittering its worked great for me. Warrior is another good one, as is Galena