Balancing hop flavours

Drummerbrew1985 · Jun 23, 2014

Hey fellow hb just wanted to see if any of you peeps have been able to juggle multiple hop flavours to create a balanced hop profile.
Eg. I brewed an AIPA at 7% with pellets.
25g cascade
25g citra
25g Amarillo
Steeped at flameout for an hour.
its still conditioning but at bottling it tasted very grapefruity and lemon zesty which I think is mostly down to the cascade. Would anybody care to rebalance my hop additions so that I get the most out of the blend and not just one dominant characteristic shining through.

Yooper · Jun 23, 2014

Drummerbrew1985 said:
Hey fellow hb just wanted to see if any of you peeps have been able to juggle multiple hop flavours to create a balanced hop profile.
Eg. I brewed an AIPA at 7% with pellets.
25g cascade
25g citra
25g Amarillo
Steeped at flameout for an hour.
its still conditioning but at bottling it tasted very grapefruity and lemon zesty which I think is mostly down to the cascade. Would anybody care to rebalance my hop additions so that I get the most out of the blend and not just one dominant characteristic shining through.

The times in which the hops are adding in the boil play a huge part, so it's hard to say.

RonPopeil · Jun 23, 2014

There's a few things to consider here. First, the later you add hops the more intense the flavor. Second, not all hops have the same intensity of flavor. Third, no one is going to be able to tell you what it is you're looking for. A lot of what you're talking about is very subjective.

To help guide in a direction a bit. Of the hops you have I would say your pungency order from greatest to least would be citra > amarillo > cascade. Only a slight edge to amarillo. In terms of flavor, to me, Citra is all passionfruit, pineapple and a hint of mango. Amarillo is very much like orange and lemon zest mixed. Some say peach but I've never picked that out. Could be yeast dependent. And then cascade is pretty ubiquitous. To me it's a mellow grapefruit flavor with a bit of herbal residual. Odds are you've drank tons of the stuff so you'll know it when you taste it.

My attempt at balancing your hop flavors would be something like:

.33oz Citra @ 15
.5oz Amarillo @15
.5oz Cascade @ 15
.33oz Citra @ 10
1.0oz Amarillo @ 10
1.0oz Cascade @ 10
.33oz Citra @ 5
1.5oz Amarillo @ 5
1.5oz Cascade @ 5

If you're comfortable with whirlpooling add 1oz citra and your amarillo and cascade scraps to the whirlpool. If not dump it all at flame out.

This is all subjective of course. YMMV, RDWHAHB, etc. IMO centennial would be better than cascade and if you like simcoe that would be a good one to swap in as well but for contrast.

And since I brought it up, yeast will play a role in all of this. Some are more malt forward, some hop forward and some take over with their own character. If you're trying to figure out what hops taste like use US05/1051/wlp001/cali ale. It's probably the most neutral yeast you'll find readily available. If you want a twist, english yeasts produce fruit flavors as well and can add complexity. Just keep it cool. 60-65F.

Drummerbrew1985 · Jun 24, 2014

Wow. Great reply thank you!
I'm using us05 and ferment at 18oC for 7 days.

RonPopeil · Jun 24, 2014

Drummerbrew1985 said:
Wow. Great reply thank you!
I'm using us05 and ferment at 18oC for 7 days.

That's on the cool side for US05 but will work. You're right in the nether region where you could go english or american.

Drummerbrew1985 · Jun 24, 2014

Yooper said:
The times in which the hops are adding in the boil play a huge part, so it's hard to say.

I didn't list my boil additions.
I added summit pellets at 60m to achieve a ibu in the high 50s

All the hops listed there are added at flameout all together and steeped for one hour. It's the quantities of each for a balanced final product I'm interested in. I'm no longer doing late boil additions at the mo as a running experiment to see what sort of results I kick up.