Hop Taste Testing

[dierythmus]

I have about 7 extract brews under my belt and I’d like to try a hop taste test. What’s the best way to do this? Ultimately, I’d like to have some sort of base recipe and divide it up into 3 or four different types of hops. What’s the best way to do this?

 

[frazier]

Well, you could make up a 5 gallon batch, and line up 6 1-gallon jugs, and do six equal boils using different hops in each. In a month or two, you'll be able to taste-test the results.

Or (my preference), do some googling and find six different beers that use the hops you are interested in. Buy those beers, and find out right away.

Cheers!

 

[TopherM]

There's an ongoing debate about if hop bitterness even has a unique character per hop. When people think of hop character, they think more of the flavoring and aroma additions.

A guy in my brewclub just put about a cup of boiling water in styrofoam cups with a little bit of DME and added a pinch of about 25 different hops to 25 different cups. It was a little more controlled than that, but you get the idea.

That was a pretty good exercise, IMO.

I agree, though, that the descriptions of hops are pretty good these days. I tend to keep citrusy/fruity/floraly hops matched together, and bitter to the IBUs of the style or underlying style (if I'm experimenting). I would then do the same thing, but keep resiny/earthy/spicy/woody/piney type hops together.

That always works for me. Besides the two kinda group designations I made above, most hops are not drastically different, they are a pretty smooth spectrum along the same continuam, and when you are brewing to a particular style, it's pretty easy to research what hops are best for that style.

Hope that helps!

 

[GLish830]

Thank you everything helps when you know nothing.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I have had excellent results making small batch single hop samplers following a process similar to what Basic Brewing does. This video has a quick section on the process. I notice that this one has a 30 minute steep, but at some point they did a trial of different steep times and liked a 10 minute steep the best. I tend to use either the Briess Golden Light or Pale Ale malts, and it turns out about 7 bottles of a quite nice Pale Ale style beer.

 

[GLish830]

Does the steeping time depend upon what types of hops you are testing, like for lager, IPAs, stouts, etc?

 

[tracer bullet]

Does the steeping time depend upon what types of hops you are testing, like for lager, IPAs, stouts, etc?

It can, same for the amounts. There are tons of variables. You'll have a few things to learn - what they taste like, how much to use, and eventually what does and doesn't go together and what ratios for that. By about 1,000 tests you'll be an expert but have forgotten 90% of it. I'm joking on the last part, but seriously there's a lot to it and the experts basically live and breath the subject to get there.

Weight, and AA, would be the easy factors to consider. Maybe a combination of those. And take careful notes.

There's a site, Brulosophy, that does hop tasting tests. Would be worth browsing through. You might see their pungency ranking and decide if you want to go a little heavy or light on a hop. And read their results as well and see if it's one you want to bother with. You might see what they tasted and end up thinking - that doesn't sound like what I want, I'll move it down the list. And vice-versa of course.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Does the steeping time depend upon what types of hops you are testing, like for lager, IPAs, stouts, etc?

Adding hops at flameout and letting them steep at near boiling temps, is probably not a lot different than boiling them. A longer steep would give more bitterness, and less hop flavors and aromas. When the Basic Brewing guys did a trail of 3 or 4 different steep times, they found that a 10 minute steep gave a good balance of hop characters.

If you are aiming to brew a Pilsner, IPA or Stout, you would probably want to adjust your process to fit the style.

Often "hop sampler" batches are done with a style similar to an American Pale Ale. This is a pretty decent style to showcase hop characters without too much other flavors to cover up the hops. It is also perfectly valid to brew something like a Porter to evaluate EKG, Fuggles, and Willamette hops. It may give you a better sense of what those hops add to those specific styles. I have done some of the small batch hop samplers with more of a Belgian spin (Pils DME, noble hops, Belgian yeast) and with more of an English Ale spin (Pale Ale DME, English hops, English yeast). I think for both of those batches I added the hops for a 10 or 15 minute boil.

 

[GLish830]

Wow, Brulosophy has tons of great stuff

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Wow, Brulosophy has tons of great stuff

Shhh...I don't think we are allowed to say positive things about Brulosophy around here!

The Brulosophy Hop Chronicles series tends to be one of the first places I look up information on hops. It is not without flaws, but it is better than much of the marketing spin from online vendors.

Probably my favorite site for hop info is:
https://beermaverick.com/hops/

 

[AlexKay]

Forget the beer; just make hop seltzer. Hop stand, 10 minutes or so in 160 degree water. Cool, carbonate lots, and let it sit for at least three days for residual (and excessive) bitterness to dissipate. I get best results when filtering the hop water as it goes into the keg; a hop bag or spider might work, too.

I don’t see a reason you couldn’t bottle prime with CBC-1 if you wanted smaller quantities.

 

[AlexKay]

Related question: if you were going to taste test half a dozen hops, which ones would you try?

 

[AlexKay]

Oh, almost forgot! If you don’t want the hassle, Hoplark makes canned hop seltzer, with about a half dozen different single-hopped choices (plus “special releases” every month or so.) Citra/Mosaic/Sabro/Centennial/Lemondrop seem to be available right now.

 

[Knightshade]

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned just hopping bud lite. I did it, easy and pretty eye opening. I still reference some of my notes from the taste test.

https://www.bertusbrewery.com/2013/03/dry-hopped-bud-light.html

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

There's a parallel topic - Testing Hops (link) - with some additional ideas on hop taste testing.

 

[newtwobrew]

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned just hopping bud lite. I did it, easy and pretty eye opening. I still reference some of my notes from the taste test.

https://www.bertusbrewery.com/2013/03/dry-hopped-bud-light.html

This seems like an easy way to do hop comparisons... and a good way to use the Bud Light that my so-called friends brought over a few days ago!

 

[bwible]

Adding hops at flameout and letting them steep at near boiling temps, is probably not a lot different than boiling them.

And then there’s First Wort Hop which is supposed to be different again. I did a couple recently with FWH and I like it.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned just hopping bud lite. I did it, easy and pretty eye opening. I still reference some of my notes from the taste test.

I want to give this a try myself. It would especially be useful of combined with a beer that comes in recappable brown bottles. I am not positive what cheap and low-flavor beer is not packaged in twist offs. I will likely use one of the Corona varieties because I want some more clear bottles and Corona come in pry-off bottles.

 

[Knightshade]

IIRC when did this, I used a capper to re-cap my bottles of Bud Light. I had never used a capper before then...so..I really didn't know WTH I was doing. Opened a couple (I only did a handful of bottles) some of them were FLAT!!

At any rate, discovered that you can cap them well enough, just give them an extra little twist after to make sure that they're actually on there, then give another squeeze w/the capper.

Couple of days later, 2nd time around they still gave off a little of that pssshh when I opened them and did a taste test.