Hi squad, I have a pound of Idaho 7 whole cone hops and a half a pound of EKG pellets in my inventory. I’m looking to do a pale ale but I’ve never used this combo of hops before. It sounds like they might play nice together on paper but which should be the bittering hop and which should I use for aroma and dry hop? Part of me is thinking to put them both in throughout the entire process as well. Choices choices…. Anyone have experience with using this duo? I’m not seeing anything online about this particular combo.
EKG and Idaho 7 for a Pale ale?
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I use EKG in a couple of English style pale ales and a very American Ballantine IPA recipe, and I use Idaho 7 with Azacca and Strata in a Fantastic Haze clone. I wouldn't have thought those two strains would work well in the same beer, but from the wonderful Beer Mavrick hop comparison tool there is some degree of commonality that might let them fit together.
As for which to use for IBUs, Idaho 7 will have double the AA% or more vs EKG, so if those are the two choices I'd use Idaho 7 for the IBUs. Alternatively, Magnum or something similar for an early addition to make the bulk of the IBUs and use the Idaho 7 and EKG for late/wp/dry hop adds...
Cheers!
As for which to use for IBUs, Idaho 7 will have double the AA% or more vs EKG, so if those are the two choices I'd use Idaho 7 for the IBUs. Alternatively, Magnum or something similar for an early addition to make the bulk of the IBUs and use the Idaho 7 and EKG for late/wp/dry hop adds...
Cheers!
This tool is amazing! I just spent way too much money on hops as one of the Canadian online retailers had a 20% off sale. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the well thought reply. I must admit when I first thought about this I didn’t think it would mesh well at all but when I dove into the flavor profiles a little deeper, it sounded pretty good. I should get earl grey, tangerine and a little citrus from the Idaho and lavender and spice from the EKG. Seems like spring to me.
You're certainly welcome if I helped at all 
I don't recall getting any tea character out of I7 in my usage but it could have been drowned out by the combined fruity strength of the three strains together.
My pleasure - and it is amazing! And we lost it a couple weeks ago due to some busted code at the server end which caused some panic But fortunately they got it straightened out. There's also a Yeast Comparison tool which is pretty cool in its own right.
Cheers!
I don't recall getting any tea character out of I7 in my usage but it could have been drowned out by the combined fruity strength of the three strains together.My pleasure - and it is amazing! And we lost it a couple weeks ago due to some busted code at the server end which caused some panic
But fortunately they got it straightened out. There's also a Yeast Comparison tool which is pretty cool in its own right.Cheers!
Aside from our obvious natural biases to avoid combining hops that are traditionally used for very different beer styles like in this example, are there documented cases of hop varieties that play poorly together?
I'd use exactly 50/50 for each addition. Bittering addition is not only about bittering, especially with noble hops. There are flavour compounds that go into solution as well with these. If you are interested in that topic, Scott janish's "the new IPA" really goes into detail.
Idaho 7 seems like a rather "juicy" and "piney" hop. I'd go with Miraculix and use it 50/50 in late boil/wp and dry hopping.
The more flowery herbal noble qualities of the ekg should play well with Idaho 7, you will probably get a rather new world tasting beer but a more subtly so.
The more flowery herbal noble qualities of the ekg should play well with Idaho 7, you will probably get a rather new world tasting beer but a more subtly so.
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