Hop schedules/Combos

[seabrew8]

Hey folks, i've been reading about hops of late and one thing that i noticed on HBT was single hop brews are treated like an "experiment" and a way "to get to know" your hops.

However in my go to book "Brewing Classic Styles" i recently noticed:

- 3 of 4 recipes in the light hybrid beer all use a single hop.
- 3 of 3 recipes in the english pale ale all use a single hop.
- 4 of 4 recipes in the scottish and irish ale all use a single hop.

I'm all for options and creativity but it seems to me a single hop beer is not only common but meets the standards of some highly respected brewers.

Then i read HBT with all kinds of folks using 3 or 4 different hops - which is fine - but seems it might just be overkill, especiallly for beginning brewers in all grain - like me - and make it unnecessarily more complicated.

Thoughts?

 

[iijakii]

There is no right or wrong answer. It's all flavor profiles and what you like. I make plenty of single hop beers and I also make plenty of 3 hop IPAs.

 

[seabrew8]

There is no right or wrong answer. It's all flavor profiles and what you like. I make plenty of single hop beers and I also make plenty of 3 hop IPAs.

Yeah i'm all for experimenting but what i'm getting at is it seems on HBT - to me at least - like single hops beers are treated like an exception/inferior. But its very common in the book in question.

Maybe i'm just making a mountain out of a mole hill Just always felt like i wasn't doing enough with single hop beer.

 

[Brettomomyces]

Most beer styles use only 1 or 2 hops, a lot only 1. Contrary to popular belief there are beers out there besides IPA

*edit, resist that urge! I know how it feels, you just need to do something different, but a lot of the time I end up making something worse by mucking around too much. There is beauty in simplicity

 

[seabrew8]

Most beer styles use only 1 or 2 hops, a lot only 1. Contrary to popular belief there are beers out there besides IPA

*edit, resist that urge! I know how it feels, you just need to do something different, but a lot of the time I end up making something worse by mucking around too much. There is beauty in simplicity

Yeah one of my lifetime values is the KISS principle. I also love einsteins quote - i will paraphase but it goes something like this, "If you can't explain it simply you don't understand it enough."

 

[seabrew8]

By the way this post was insipred by my new blonde ale recipe which i was going to use 1 oz of cascade and 1/2oz of mt.hood.

This is my recipe: I call it Big Blonde Because i'm maxing out my grainfather batch size.

13lbs of 2 row
1 lb of Crystal 20L

1 oz Cascade(7.3) for 60min
1/2 oz Mt. Hood for 10min

IBU ~20-25
Batch size: 6.5 gal
OG 1.058 @ %75 brewhouse eff

Suggestions?

 

[moreb33rplz]

I'm not sure how much my multiple hops beers differ from my single hop. They taste about the same. The one exception being Mosaic, which is pretty much the only hop I can pick out.

 

[FatDragon]

Hey folks, i've been reading about hops of late and one thing that i noticed on HBT was single hop brews are treated like an "experiment" and a way "to get to know" your hops.

However in my go to book "Brewing Classic Styles" i recently noticed:

- 3 of 4 recipes in the light hybrid beer all use a single hop.
- 3 of 3 recipes in the english pale ale all use a single hop.
- 4 of 4 recipes in the scottish and irish ale all use a single hop.

I'm all for options and creativity but it seems to me a single hop beer is not only common but meets the standards of some highly respected brewers.

Then i read HBT with all kinds of folks using 3 or 4 different hops - which is fine - but seems it might just be overkill, especiallly for beginning brewers in all grain - like me - and make it unnecessarily more complicated.

Thoughts?

Hop forward beers like IPAs and APAs tend to use more varieties of hops for complexity. When they go single-hop, it's usually to highlight that hop's characteristics.

Beers that don't rely much on hops often just use one variety for simplicity, sometimes with nothing but a bittering charge at the beginning of the boil. While I'm a bit surprised the English Pale Ale category is three for three as using single hops goes, since EPA's aren't hoppy but do tend to have a moderate amount of hops, light hybrid and Irish/Scotch are not hop-forward styles at all so using a single hop variety doesn't limit those brews in any material way.

 

[radwizard]

I am all for simplicity as well. I think people experiment with single hopping because it is really the best way to see how specific hops taste and smell during different additions. Also some hops seem more viable for single usage, and others work well in combination.
No beer is inferior in my book!

 

[pdog44450]

I myself like putting 2-4 hops in most beers I make unless I want the beer to have mostly malt presence with extremely minimal hop flavor. I'm not one to clone beers that big breweries or micros put out because there's no fun in that, it's already been done before and you can go buy it from the store. The most fun I have in brewing is when I make up my own recipe and get to tell myself and others that I made this beer. There's no guidelines in brewing, there is science and your creativity. While 4 hops might be overkill, you never know. You might just brew up something incredible because it was so over the top that nobody else thought of it!

 

[chickypad]

Yeah i'm all for experimenting but what i'm getting at is it seems on HBT - to me at least - like single hops beers are treated like an exception/inferior.

I think your perception is off. I'm having a hard time recalling any references to single hop beers being inferior, and as mentioned above it's the norm for a lot of styles. The majority of my Belgians, lagers (except IPL's), porters, stouts, browns, and wheats are single hop beers. I would say that SMaSH's are often designed specifically to experiment with or learn about certain ingredients, but even then I don't see people referring to them as inferior beers. The opposite actually, folks are often raving about how much they love a certain SMaSH combo.

 

[seabrew8]

I think your perception is off. I'm having a hard time recalling any references to single hop beers being inferior, and as mentioned above it's the norm for a lot of styles. The majority of my Belgians, lagers (except IPL's), porters, stouts, browns, and wheats are single hop beers. I would say that SMaSH's are often designed specifically to experiment with or learn about certain ingredients, but even then I don't see people referring to them as inferior beers. The opposite actually, folks are often raving about how much they love a certain SMaSH combo.

Yeah my perception was off! Thanks HBTer's! I really have the homebrew bug this time!