Hopstand - 5 types of hops too much?

[skiumah]

I'm formulating an IPA recipe with Chinook, Columbus, Cascade, Centennial, and Amarillo hops. It's based on a local IPA that uses the same hops (I'm subbing Centennial in for Horizon). I am planning to do a bittering addition, a small flavor addition, and then a hop stand. I am wondering if all 5 hops in the stand will lead to a muddled flavor/aroma profile and not let anything distinct shine through. Most recipes I've seen only use 2 or 3.

Here's what I'm thinking:

0.25 oz Columbus - 60 min
0.25 oz each Columbus/Chinook/Cascade/Centennial - 10 min
0.5 oz each Amarillo/Cascade/Centennial - HS
0.25 oz each Chinook/Columbus - HS
0.5 oz each Amarillo/Cascade - Dry Hop
0.25 oz each Columbus/Chinook/Centennial - Dry Hop

This is for 3 gallons btw. Too busy? Will use a simple grain bill, 90% 2 row, 5% Vienna, 3% Caramel 60, 2% Carapils. Yeast will be San Diego Super Strain. Target OG 1.060, FG 1.010.

 

[Ruckusz28]

That seems a bit light for 3 gallons. I'm doing a 2 gallon batch with about 8oz total. I'm also trying to make a hop bomb.

If you're worried about it being too bitter, cut your 60 minute addition in half and add more toward the end of your boil, flameout, or hopstand.

 

[stratslinger]

I'd say it's definitely not too busy - but have you calculated the IBU's on that? I understand this is only 3 gallons, but it still sounds a little light on the hop amounts, particularly if you're going largely with hop stand additions. Shoot for a BU:GO ratio of between 1.0 and 1.1 for a nice hoppy character.

A couple summers ago, a buddy of mine and I won a club brewing bracket, and made an American IPA that featured, IIRC, CTZ, Cascade, Citra, Amarillo, Summit, and Simcoe. First wort addition of the CTZ, then everything else in a large 5 minute addition and dry-hop. Came out amazing.

 

[hanuswalrus]

I actually did an APA a couple months back with those hops exactly. It came out very nice. I also do 3 gal batches. Mine was a bit mellower on the hop profile and I hopped at about the same rate you're planning on. Up the hop stand hops a bit, and I would also jack the dry hop up to ~3 oz.

The weird thing about mine was it took about a month in the bottle to hit it's stride. I don't know why but after that time in the bottle, the hops seemed to meld together and it ended up tasting pretty similar to Anti-Hero with less bitterness.

 

[kh54s10]

I think that the hops you have selected should go well together. Again check the amounts. What would muddy up a batch would be mixing a lot of very different types of hops. For instance, mixing noble hops and american type hops. Mixing herbal hops with citrus hops and piney hops, to me would make a muddy mess. But then again if you hit the proportions just right........

 

[skiumah]

I'd say it's definitely not too busy - but have you calculated the IBU's on that? I understand this is only 3 gallons, but it still sounds a little light on the hop amounts, particularly if you're going largely with hop stand additions. Shoot for a BU:GO ratio of between 1.0 and 1.1 for a nice hoppy character.

A couple summers ago, a buddy of mine and I won a club brewing bracket, and made an American IPA that featured, IIRC, CTZ, Cascade, Citra, Amarillo, Summit, and Simcoe. First wort addition of the CTZ, then everything else in a large 5 minute addition and dry-hop. Came out amazing.

IBUs come out to 52.37 before the hop stand as far as I can tell. I only have an ounce of Chinnok, Columbus, and Amarillo but I could always grab some more. Maybe something like this would be better?

0.25 oz Columbus - 60 min
0.25 oz each Columbus/Chinook- 10 min
0.5 oz each Cascade/Centennial - 10 min
1 oz each Cascade/Centennial - HS
0.5 oz each Amarillo - HS
0.25 oz each Chinook/Columbus - HS
0.5 oz each Amarillo/Cascade/Centennial - Dry Hop
0.25 oz Columbus/Chinook - Dry Hop

That gets the IBUs up to 61 before the hop stand and add another 2 ounces to the hop bill.

 

[agrazela]

When you say, for example:

...

0.25 oz Columbus/Chinook - Dry Hop

...

Does that mean 0.25oz of EACH hop, or 0.25oz TOTAL (of a BLEND) of those hops?

 

[skiumah]

When you say, for example:



Does that mean 0.25oz of EACH hop, or 0.25oz TOTAL (of a BLEND) of those hops?

0.25oz each. Sorry, should have made that clearer, I'll edit the OP

 

[stratslinger]

That gets the IBUs up to 61 before the hop stand and add another 1.75 ounces to the hop bill.

For an OG of 1.060, this is likely right about where you want to be...

I sat in on a presentation about making great IPA's from Mitch Steele at NHC a few years back, and he recommended aiming for about 30% of your IBU's in your bittering addition, and the rest on the back end, while maintaining that BU:GU ratio... If done several IPA's since then using exactly that rule of thumb, and never been disappointed.

 

[m00ps]

Could definitely use more hops. That still less than 2oz/gal total.

Itll be good, but may end up being pretty similar to Falconers Flight I think since thats a blend of some of the most popular Americna IPA geared hops. I'll use 4 types of hops in an IPA (not including the bittering charge) but I usually like to concentrate on 2 in the hopstand and 2 in the dry hop. Then I tweak it from there.

 

[skiumah]

Could definitely use more hops. That still less than 2oz/gal total.

Itll be good, but may end up being pretty similar to Falconers Flight I think since thats a blend of some of the most popular Americna IPA geared hops. I'll use 4 types of hops in an IPA (not including the bittering charge) but I usually like to concentrate on 2 in the hopstand and 2 in the dry hop. Then I tweak it from there.

If I were to add more, where would you add them? Hop stand and dry hop I assume?

 

[m00ps]

yeah, you can load up on post-boil additions without imparting muchbitterness to the beer. You can get tons fo flavor and aroma though