Centennial hops vs. Amarillo hops....huge DIPA difference

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GolgiApparatus

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I decided to try my bottled DIPA tonight...12 days bottled today. It was a recipe I came up with and made already once before, probably 8 months ago. The original recipe was filled with amrillo and cascade. Well, LHBS was out of amarillo, so I decided to go with Centennial...a full 4 percentage points higher in AA than the amarillo in my original recipe. I thought...no problem.

I replaced the amarillo with centennial, ounce for ounce, at every stage, including dry hop.

I opened up my first bottle tonight. And while it is delicious and hoppy, it is NOTHING compared to my original batch. I'm disappointed, but then again, I have a tasty beer. I know there are hop differences, but there was graipfruit and citrus bursting from the bottle on the orignal batch. This one batch just tastes like a really good malty IPA.
 
How does it compare to Bell's Two-Hearted?

I bring it up because it's an extremely popular IPA that is hopped exclusively with Centennial.
 
I'd personally let it sit another couple of months in the bottle. Twelve days is much too soon to drink this. Conditioning tends to improve the taste enormously -- and maybe by then you'll forget about the other beer!

I also tend to use software such as beertools.com to calculate IBUs and ABVs, so that when I swap out ingredients, like you did, to know how much to adjust the amount.
 
You really don't need software if you do recipes in Alpha Acid Units. Multiply the AA% by the weight of the hops. Then you can adjust the weight if you get the same type of hops with different AA%. In the future I will probably make my recipes out in AAU instead of ounces for hops.

Holy crap. I just realized how old this thread was. I forgot I was on a searched thread instead of a new one. I will be in the dunce corner if anybody needs me.
 
I can't believe no one told jsullivan that IPA's are best young. Oh well, I assume they have all learned that by now.
 
I can't believe no one told jsullivan that IPA's are best young. Oh well, I assume they have all learned that by now.

I was thinking the same thing! lol

IPA's that have aged a few months taste bland. all of the good hop flavors fade out and make me a sad panda
 
I was thinking the same thing! lol

IPA's that have aged a few months taste bland. all of the good hop flavors fade out and make me a sad panda

Ditto....being that the thread is almost 3 years old I agree that they prob know better by now lol
 
i wonder if he is still bottle conditioning it waiting for someone to say otherwise...
 
Both are good hops, but Amarillo is higher in myrcene (69% vs. 53%) and many of other aromatic compounds akin to citrus/fruit/etc. which tend to produce more intoxicatingly aromatic IPAs.
 
Only had Bell's once. It was on tap.

Have to say, I found it pretty intoxicating. :rockin:
 
...do you think this thread will pop up again in another year or two? Very odd. Anyways, Bells 2 Hearted is great!
 
I was thinking the same thing! lol

IPA's that have aged a few months taste bland. all of the good hop flavors fade out and make me a sad panda

Ahhhhh... I disagree...

IPA's are supposed to age for a couple months... (remember the log sea voyage).

My oldest ones from the same 11 gallon batch are always the most complex.

Ten again it may be the recipie I am brewing... Warrior and Citra Hops...

I wanted to play in an old post too.

DPB
 
IPA's are supposed to age for a couple months... (remember the log sea voyage).

This same logic doesn't really make sense in today's age. Putting a lot of hops in beer back then allowed them to hold up better during the long sea voyage and thus prevent premature spoilage. Of course we brew better today than we did back in the 1700s. But overall, you'll find that AIPAs are best drunk fresh. It would seem that you simply prefer malt complexity and sweetness that develops with age over fresh hop character.
 
It would seem that you simply prefer malt complexity and sweetness that develops with age over fresh hop character.


True I do like English IPAs over West Coast IPAs because I want a “balanced beer” and I would like to keep the skin on my teeth…but in my opinion you don't lose anything.

Aging a High hoped beer with also give you HOP COMPEXITY.

My Citra-Warrior takes about four months to reach its potential… at least where I like it.

And I recently made a 11 gallon batch of a Single Hop IPA using 12 oz of Palisades (7.5); Same thing; it was better as it aged.

All sorts of hop character remain and the little nuances of the hop is hidden when you blast your pallet.


I think I picked up using more low Alpha Hops from reading Phil Markowski's book: Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition

The idea being that with more hops you have an oppertunity for more character... anyway....

Happy Brewing
 
When I buy an IPA off the shelf, I'll check the date code to make sure it is less than six weeks old - for many breweries, that seems to be the point of no return in terms of beta acids overwhelming the beer character.

Some Brett strains seem to be doing a really good job at preserving hop character for longer, probably because they are such aggressive oxygen scavengers and the dryer, crisper beers they produce, but I haven't had too much time to play around with them. Brett B and Brett C would be the logical candidates based on flavor characteristics.
 
I have a serie of almost smash IPA that i use to compare hops with, my first one was clolumbus for bittering (always columbus and a 90 minutes boil) and a Amarillo for flavor and arma, my secon was centennial. Iboth of them tasted nice, but the amarillo was intensly fruity, peach, grapefruit and mango but i found that the amarillo hop is way sweeter than the centennial, with confuses the taster towards dryness and outhfeel. The centennial one was very piny, grapefruity and orangy, its a hop that i find covers more the different ranges of hop flavors that you can find (fuity and piny). The beer felt drier too, two great hops, but different beast. I would try paring them in another IPA, i think they would offer a nice cornocopia of flavors
 
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