help with my hop choice for my next lager

[fluketamer]

hi i need help with my lager recipe

i have 10 lbs of 2 row and 10 of pilsen.

i have 1/2 oz galena, an ounce of chinook, ounce of saaz , 2 ounce of mosaic, 4 oz of nz pacifica, and an oz of mandarina, zamba, and huell melon

looking to make 6.5 gallon batch

im prolly going to use 8-9 lbs of malt but i am pretty lost with the hops.

i was thinking of bittering with the nz at 60 and 20 or maybe the galena at 60 then huell melon at flameout or any of the other aroma hops at flameout.

not looking for anything traditional per se just dont want to ruin 6 gallons of beer with a wierd hop combo

anyone have any reccomendations.

thanks

 

[lumpher]

How hoppy do you want it? You could bitter with the galena and Chinook, then flavor with the Saaz.

 

[AlexKay]

One very safe choice is to go 100% Pacifica; I would go 60, 10, and hopstand. I like using hops that are noble-adjacent; you get the spirit of a traditional lager and, at the same time, aren’t making a beer you’ve had 20 times before.

I haven’t tried it, but my guess is that Pacifica would play nicely with the Melon or the Mandarina (but not both.) I personally don’t like Mandarina, so if you go this way, adding some HM to the hopstand might add some interest.

 

[fluketamer]

One very safe choice is to go 100% Pacifica; I would go 60, 10, and hopstand. I like using hops that are noble-adjacent; you get the spirit of a traditional lager and, at the same time, aren’t making a beer you’ve had 20 times before.

I haven’t tried it, but my guess is that Pacifica would play nicely with the Melon or the Mandarina (but not both.) I personally don’t like Mandarina, so if you go this way, adding some HM to the hopstand might add some interest.

thansk thats really what i was looking for. i dont have a lot of experieince with bittering hops i have used a lot of HME in the past and just flavored it with aroma hops.
i know what you mean by not adding both HM and madarina. i just kegged a lager with mosaic and simcoe and that tastes like pure cotton candy . not exactly what i was looking for.

im prolly going to go with pacifica at 60 and 10 then HM hopstand thanks

How hoppy do you want it? You could bitter with the galena and Chinook, then flavor with the Saaz.

i should have specified that i like a hoppy flavor /aroma to my lagers. not too bitter

looking for 20-25 ibus at most

thanks for the suggestions

 

[AlexKay]

For bittering hops, depending on who you ask:

• Every varietal tastes the same after a 60 minute boil, and all you need to do is calculate IBUs.
• Smaller quantities of high-alpha hops give a less "vegetal" taste than larger quantities of low-alpha hops. (They certainly leave less debris in the kettle, if you care. And depending on the hops, they may be cheaper, too.)
• There is some ineffable quality to "good" bitterness that some people think has something to do with the cohumulone level. (Plenty of folks watch cohumulone; I am not aware of good, modern research that suggests this is important.)
• Noble hops should be used for bittering (and everything else), according to people named Horst or Věra.