How to squeeze as much flavor as possible out of saaz hops?

[Bosh]

It's time to clean out my hop freezer and have a half pound of saaz hops I want to use up. I was thinking a nice malty best bitter (OG 1.045, IBU 30), with saaz standing in for the EKG I used up on my pale mild and porter.

I usually use high AA American hops so I'm wondering what would be the best way to squeeze as much flavor as possible out of these lower AA hops. I've heard horror stories about grass bombs that come from dry hopping with saaz so I'm not going to go in for that.

So if I use a neutral bittering charge what's the best way to get some nice saaz taste into my bitter? Late boil additions (how late?), flame out or cooler hopstand or some combination of those?

Not expect an IPA-style smack in the face hop bomb, but want some definite flavor that can balance out the maltiness of the recipe I'm putting together. Also have Columbus, Millenium and Bravo on hand if using a touch of those would help...

 

[lumpher]

Really bring out Saaz flavor? Wait till you have a really warm night. Go for a really long run, and get very sweaty. Go to bed without taking a shower. Next morning, take the Saaz and scrub them on your feet really hard. Same flavor, but should intensify ( or maybe mellow it ) some.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

If you want to have the malt stay out of the way so you can use a small enough amount to avoid any grassiness (although I've not had that happen) you could put them into Cream of Three Crops. I love Sterling in that ale (it's similar to Saaz).

 

[jwalk4]

I'm not sure Saaz is the hop I'd choose for a bitter. It's pretty mild, and sometimes imparts a tea-like flavor which perfectly accompanies lighter beers (in colour/ingredients), less so than bitters.

Try replacing the tettnang in Yooper's Fizzy Yellow Beer with your Saaz. You'll be pleased, I'm sure.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=120939

 

[JonM]

Zymurgy's Nov./Dec issue had an article on hop-forward lagers. I think their recipe called for Ultra, but suggested that other hops would work just as well. Sounds like a good way to use up 1/2 lb (that's right) of your hops.

ETA: I'm sure it would work just as well as an ale if you don't have lagering gear.

 

[JKaranka]

Saaz used to be relatively common in British pale ales. I find it works well blended with EKG. Some of those low alpha hops seem to give good flavour from decent 15-20m additions. I found Saaz dry hops to be very much like perfume or light soap. You'd be looking at half to one oz dry hop in a special bitter type. It has a nice herbal and zesty character that works well with Fuggles too. With a typical grist of 90%+ pale malt and less than 5% each of medium crystal and some sugar or flaked maize it goes down very well.

 

[Bosh]

Yeah going for a rather malty bitter so the saaz will have to strain more than in a lager to shine through.

So a 20-15 minute boil then? Would like to mix it with EKG but used all of that us and I'm not playing $4 an ounce to buy more in Korea so will wait until I can get a crap ton more in bulk from the states.

In my mild I used EKG and put them all in during the last 15 minutes in stages and that was tasty but pretty, well, mild. Would like a bit more of that perfume/herby/spicy punch so 20-15 minutes for the lot?

 

[JKaranka]

I do 60 / 20 / 0 and dry hop additions with those types of hops. It won't be like a AIPA but you should be able to make the hops shine. Bitters are not very malty but balanced and should have a proper bitter bite to them.

 

[Bosh]

I do 60 / 20 / 0 and dry hop additions with those types of hops. It won't be like a AIPA but you should be able to make the hops shine. Bitters are not very malty but balanced and should have a proper bitter bite to them.

Sounds good. I have my half pound of saaz plus anything else I want to throw in for a 40 liter split batch so that sound be fine.

Didn't mean especially malty, just a good bit maltier than hoppy American beers. Am eyeballing 90% base malt (mostly pale ale, maybe a little munich), 5% c60, 5% carabrown for the malt bill which is malty but not overpoweringly so especially since it'll have an OG in the mid-40's and plenty of hops.

 

[JKaranka]

I wouldn't use carabrown. By what I read it is like brown malt so I'd restrict that to darker beers (porter, maybe mild or some form of dunkel in small amounts). I do love brown malt, though. Just made a hybrid dunkel Weiss with some of it. 5% Crystal and 20% Munich might be more in the malty but not toasty territory? Or you could just use light Munich as your only malt and make it a SMaSH.