FiddleTilDeath
Well-Known Member
No, less is not more. Less is less. More is more!
More is better, all the time, no matter what!
I've been creating my own recipes for a while, after modifying kits with more hops and more malt. I'm a huge fan of BIG balance, beers that are both ridiculously hoppy and ridiculously malty. My recipes are almost all over 100 hypothetical IBUs, but everyone who tastes my beer loves it and never thinks its too much. I keep trying new recipes with more and more hops, but I have not even been able to overhop a beer, probably because I also keep the malt bills very high as well.
I just wanted to throw out as a discussion point - the idea of maximalism. That said, I view the idea of less is more or minimalism, used in conjunction with maximalism - as the road to success. The whole more is better thing is a bit of rhetoric, but the principle is important.
I see a lot of threads where people are wondering about minute changes to their hop schedule and trying to hit exact target IBUs. I don't see the point here, but I concede I don't do this very scientifically.
I just figure that a certain kind of malt, matched with the right hops, and the right yeast will always be great, if you use a ton of everything, even if the ingredients are simple. I had 2 extract beers tie for 1st place in a competition over all grain beers, which were a Summit only DIPA and a big Belgian Pale Ale. My recent Pale Ale uses 4oz of Summit and 1oz Warrior and while I would never call it balanced with the 6 lbs of Pilsner LME, combined with the fruity esters of the California Ale yeast, the beer is very refreshing, fruity, with a hefty but not overwhelming amount of bitterness, working very well with the light malt which makes enough of a showing for the beer to work. For me the solution is spreading out the hopping evenly over the course of the boil, but I pretty consistantly use 5-8oz of hops each batch, even for session brews.
So stop worrying about hitting target IBUs, put in a bunch of stuff you like, and relax! Use more hops! Use more malt! More is better all the time no matter what.
More is better, all the time, no matter what!
I've been creating my own recipes for a while, after modifying kits with more hops and more malt. I'm a huge fan of BIG balance, beers that are both ridiculously hoppy and ridiculously malty. My recipes are almost all over 100 hypothetical IBUs, but everyone who tastes my beer loves it and never thinks its too much. I keep trying new recipes with more and more hops, but I have not even been able to overhop a beer, probably because I also keep the malt bills very high as well.
I just wanted to throw out as a discussion point - the idea of maximalism. That said, I view the idea of less is more or minimalism, used in conjunction with maximalism - as the road to success. The whole more is better thing is a bit of rhetoric, but the principle is important.
I see a lot of threads where people are wondering about minute changes to their hop schedule and trying to hit exact target IBUs. I don't see the point here, but I concede I don't do this very scientifically.
I just figure that a certain kind of malt, matched with the right hops, and the right yeast will always be great, if you use a ton of everything, even if the ingredients are simple. I had 2 extract beers tie for 1st place in a competition over all grain beers, which were a Summit only DIPA and a big Belgian Pale Ale. My recent Pale Ale uses 4oz of Summit and 1oz Warrior and while I would never call it balanced with the 6 lbs of Pilsner LME, combined with the fruity esters of the California Ale yeast, the beer is very refreshing, fruity, with a hefty but not overwhelming amount of bitterness, working very well with the light malt which makes enough of a showing for the beer to work. For me the solution is spreading out the hopping evenly over the course of the boil, but I pretty consistantly use 5-8oz of hops each batch, even for session brews.
So stop worrying about hitting target IBUs, put in a bunch of stuff you like, and relax! Use more hops! Use more malt! More is better all the time no matter what.
