Hop Help

[troglodytes]

So I know I want to brew a hop heavy beer. Whether it be a DIPA or a NEIPA or even a regular IPA with a crap ton of dry hops...I could go any of these routes. But I finally have a kegging setup and I'm so excited to finally brew an IPA with low O2 pickup (and before people say oxidation is a myth, I have had every bottle NEIPA turn brown and flavorless after a month in bottle).

Here's the problem, for the past 2 years I have been experimenting with hop combination to try to come up with an IPA I really love and something that is original, and I have been striking out big time. I've realized some are due to process errors on my part, some could be lack of freshness of ingredients, but a lot of my issues, I think are just hop combos that don't work.

So here's the ask, since I have a freezer full of aging hops...could you let me know tried and true hop combos out of the available list? I'm personally excited to try Huell Melon, El Dorado and Manderina Bravaria but have not used them in the past and kind of scared to work with them in combo with American varietals like Cascade and Columbus.

Freshest (sealed Hops)
1# Huell Melon
1# El Dorado
1# Manderina Bravaria
8 oz Perle

Aging (frozen in sealed containers but over 2 years old at this point)
14 oz Warrior
8 oz Sorachi Ace
10 oz Jarrylo (worst hop I've had in an IPA but I could have used it wrong)
4 oz Centennial
6 oz Columbus
6 oz Cascade
4 oz Mt Hood

 

[mashpaddled]

Before you get a sea of people telling you what they like in an IPA, why don't you describe what flavors you want to appear in the beer? Far more likely a recipe tailored to your preferences will be something you love than somebody else's IPA.

As an aside, jarrylo is a weird hop and not well suited for an IPA. I've done ok making Belgian beers with it but still not anything I'd ever buy again.

 

[troglodytes]

I welcome hearing what others like in an IPA, as I will take on all flavors. I would say the only times I don't like an IPA with when it has that catty flavor that Citra or simcoe has at times when incorrectly done. Other than that give me piney/resinous, or citrus, or dank berry. I don't want to hear the obvious Cascade/Columbus/Centennial work well together. But I also don't know how to work with some of these new varieties. Will a punch of Columbus late at a 1:3 ratio of El Dorado work or is it off-putting? Does Manderina and Huell Melon work together or does it not provide enough of that bitter backbone an IPA needs and ends up being too fruity?

Ultimately I know the answer is to experiment but with a new little one in the house I don't get to brew near as often as I'd like to do test batches. And I'm honestly scared by my string of horrible luck in building my owner recipes these days. Seriously, that Jarrylo/Sorachi Ace APA I made tasted like I brewed a beer with grass clippings and rose hips. It was gross. I stuck the bottles in my basement for a year and now that the hop flavor has aged out of it, its actually becoming drinkable. I just recently attempted a Manderina/Amarillo Wheat IPA thinking the flavors would go together and its was bad, but I'm confused because it made so much sense on paper.

 

[thehaze]

El Dorado, Huell Melon and Mandarina Bavaria are all fine, albeit much milder in aroma and flavour than better known hop varieties. I think they will work fine together, but you will have to use more to get those flavours out of the hops.

In IPAs, I tend to like sweet citrus notes: sweet tangeringes and oranges, with grapefruit juice and rind coming last. I also like pine and resiny, but without the sweet, cloying caramel flavours, which most brewers pair the pine/resin with. Floral, earthy and spicy are also something I like to mix with newer flavours: think german Brewers Gold, Ella, etc. Tropical aromas and flavours are also very desirable, but I don't really shoot for those as often as I would like to.

 

[troglodytes]

El Dorado, Huell Melon and Mandarina Bavaria are all fine, albeit much milder in aroma and flavour than better known hop varieties. I think they will work fine together, but you will have to use more to get those flavours out of the hops.

Do they work well without the aid of something with more pronounced bitterness? I'm assuming you still do a small 60 minute addition of something like Warrior and focus on the El Dorado, Huell, and Manderina late. Also, have you used all three at once or should the focus be on one, lets say El Dorado at a 3:1:1 ratio with the others?

 

[thehaze]

I stopped doing 60 / 90 minutes bittering, but it's still something that works fine. I begin hopping IPAs in the last 20 minutes, continously, with a big whirlpool and dry hop.

El Dorado is fruity: candied cherries, some green mango/pineapple, generic citrus. Mandarina Bavaria can give of citrussy notes, a bit of grassiness, but you need to lose a lot of it. I quite like it for many styles, but in an IPA, you need a lot. Huell Melon is closer to a fruitier, Hallertau hop than something like Citra, Mosaic, etc. Still OK, in larger doses. If your process is very good, the hops are fresh, I can see these 3 giving lots of citrus, some tropical/rindy flavours with a bit of grassiness/earthiness in the background.

I have used all 3, but never together. The assumptions made above are based on tasting notes from each individual hop.

 

[troglodytes]

Maybe I'll focus on just one of those hops, then and use some of my older hops earlier in the boil as they have probably lost some AA and certainly aroma. I'd love a critique of the following recipe.

10# Pilsner Malt
1.5# Wheat
.75# Carapils
.25# Crystal 15L

Mash @ 150F
Target 150:100ppm Sulfate to Chloride
Target 5.3 mash pH

Hops:
.25 oz Cascade FWH
1 oz Cascade @ 10min
.5 oz Cascade / 1 oz El Dorado @ 5min
1 oz El Dorado @ flameout
2 oz El Dorado whirlpooled for 20min @ 180F
2 oz El Dorado Dry Hop @ day 2 or 3
2 oz El Dorado Dry Hop @ day 6