Finishing with bittering hops a bad idea?

[Brew_Meister_General]

I'm planning on adding 1 oz of Northdown hops to the boil at 60 minutes and then 1/2 oz at 20 minutes (along with some Mittelfruh) which delivers a total of 22 IBUs.

They have an AAU of 7.1% which isn't that high but I was still wandering if this would result in a harsher flavour.

Would this be more true if I added the Northdown hops at 15 or even 10 minutes?

 

[Ungoliant]

From what I understand, hop additions at 20 minutes and less are flavor and aroma additions. The hops aren't being boiled for long enough to make the beer much more bitter. The aroma compounds in hops are volatile and boil off quickly, which is why aroma hops are added so late in the boil.

I recommend reading this page, John Palmer articulates this part of the process much better than I can.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-1.html

 

[B-Hoppy]

I remember back in the mid-90's(?) when CTZ first came out, someone at the Oregon Brewers Festival was pouring a beer that they dry hopped with CTZ. I was hooked and never looked back!! Lots of brewers recently are experimenting with stuff like Apollo, Bravo etc very late in the boil with really good results. I make candy with a few and some descriptors are melon/cucumber, herbal/citrus etc. The sky is the limit!

 

[Qhrumphf]

There's plenty of "dual purpose" hops. Northdown is one of them. You're good to go. There are few hops I would say no to using as a late addition, like Magnum where they're great for bittering (really great for that matter) but have no real aroma contribution what so ever. But most of your high alphas will still provide flavor and aroma.

 

[Brew_Meister_General]

Yeah I've just realised how stupid this question was 7% isn't that high and Northdown is a dual purpose hop, but its always interesting as you never know what other people know!

 

[Calder]

From what I understand, hop additions at 20 minutes and less are flavor and aroma additions. The hops aren't being boiled for long enough to make the beer much more bitter.[/url]

I beg to differ. While I agree, hop utilization/bittering is less at 20 minutes and in, I've made plenty of decent IPAs with all hops being added 20 minutes or later. If you use enough hops, you will get a lot of IBUs.


For the OP - Many bittering hops are being used as finishing hops these days. I'm drinking a beer right now based loosely on Arrogant Basterd, which uses just Chinook, which is a traditional bittering hop. I really love its spicyness

 

[Ungoliant]

I could have worded that differently. You're right, it will still extract some bitterness, but not nearly as much as a 60 minute addition.