Hops for beginners?

[cokronk]

Are there any good resources that can be recommended for learning about hops.

Me and a buddy have about all we need to start doing all grain and I was thinking for the first 10-15 gallons we could make the same beer and pick one ingredient to change up over all three, like the hops.

The problem is, the kits I've done so far use a different hop for flavoring and a different one for bittering, so I'm unsure as to whether or not it would be good to do the same hop for bittering and for flavoring and what hops would be best to use. I think most every single kit I've done has included cascade...

 

[KevinW]

www.hopunion.com! Lots of good stuff here.

Most "how to brew" books are prety good too, I am partial to Palmer's How to Brew.
Online version www.howtobrew.com works good!

Sometimes microbrewers will list the variety of hops in their beer descriptions. If you look around online or sometimes even the packaging. You can at least find out what variety/ies are being used to help pinpoint what flavors you are looking for in the beers you like then you can use them in your beers. This is how I learned what hop flavors I like better for my beers!

 

[OldStyler]

+1 for the How To Brew.

I think the idea of brewing 3 of the same base and just changing the hops is a good one. I would say just make one batch have williamette, or cascade, or centennial, or saaz or whatever you want be both flavoring and aroma hops. Just take good notes as to the total AAUs added and which is which... you know, so you actually learn something.

 

[Mpavlik22]

The best way to learn IMO is through trial & error.

But this article had some good general info:
http://***********/stories/article/indices/37-hops/149-aroma-therapy

 

[Homercidal]

Lots of sites with descriptions. I'm sure you'll find them all pretty much restate the same flavor notes.

You might want to make sure you're using bittering hops for bittering, and not flavor, although you could use flavor hops for bittering. Bittering hops are generally high alpha acid and mostly used because they are cheaper $/pound. When used late they might not impart as nice a flavor.

Of course there are always exceptions to this and there are no hard and fast rules.

Another thing you could do is try different yeasts between the batches. I think you'll be amazed at the flavor differences between them.