How many hops is too many hops?

[homegrownbrew]

So i was up in Bend Oregon over Memorial Day and had the pleasure of tasting alot of great brews....While at Deschutes I tried their seasonal Phil's trail ale and it was fantastic...everything I wanted in that beer....It was golden/amber, very clean, nice and malty, and the kicker...hoppy as hell. It finished like a ghost too, just gone...I could taste the dry hopping, but not a whole heck of a lot of bittering hops.... I figured it was just alot of late additions without many bittering hops. Also the alcohol on this beer was only 5 %!! A session IPA...beautiful. So I thought to myself, I want to try to recreate this beer...


now for the fun part...I was recently involved in a brew competition at Sierra Nevada (My Baltic Porter took second I thank you) and some of us in the brew club were given a very private VIP tour of the Brewery with the master brewer...who let us into "everywhere" and also let us fill up quart sized ziplock bags (3 each) of whatever hops we wanted...now let me tell you that Sierra Nevada's Torpedo, of which I am a huge fan has got some very interesting hops in there....citra for starters...which intrigued me...so I got about 10 oz's of Citra, 10 oz's of Magnum and 10 oz's of mo'tweaka...not sure what strain this is but Terrance (MB) assured me it was the bomb...so now I've got all these ridiculous hops and want to do something crazy....ok recipe follows...


15.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 75.00 %
2.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 10.00 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 %
1.00 lb Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 5.00 %

1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (40 min) Hops 22.0 IBU
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] (20 min) Hops 11.7 IBU
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (20 min) Hops 15.2 IBU
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] (15 min) Hops 9.6 IBU
1.00 oz Mo' Tweaka [8.70 %] (15 min) Hops 6.9 IBU
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (15 min) Hops 12.4 IBU
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] (10 min) Hops 7.0 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 3.6 IBU
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (10 min) Hops 9.1 IBU
1.00 oz Mo' Tweaka [8.70 %] (10 min) Hops 5.1 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
1.00 oz Mo' Tweaka [8.70 %] (5 min) Hops 2.8 IBU
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (5 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (5 min) Hops 3.0 IBU



Beer Profile

Measured Original Gravity: 1.044 SG
still fermenting
Bitterness: 119.1 IBU Calories: 196 cal/pint
Est Color: 7.2

My question....do u think I overdid the hops...what are the most hops you've used in a batch...this is ten gallon by the way....i am just looking for some feedback.

Thanks

 

[Yooper]

No such thing as overdoing hops! The most I ever did was 17 ounces in 5 gallons, for a Pliny clone.

But........I don't think magnum tastes very good. I'd use it for bittering, but NOT in those late additions. You can use other hops, or just leave it out, but in my opinion magnum is a "bittering only" hop.

I have no idea what mo'tweaka is, so I have no opinion at all on the recipe, aside from the magnum!

 

[homegrownbrew]

what does magnum do when added for flavor and aroma? And also I was worried that I didn't have a high enough alcohol % for the amount of hops...I started the bittering hops at 40 minutes in a 90 minute boil...im just curious to know if the recipe sounds good at all?

thanks

 

[homebrewer_99]

No such thing as overdoing hops! The most I ever did was 17 ounces in 5 gallons, for a Pliny clone.

But........I don't think magnum tastes very good. I'd use it for bittering, but NOT in those late additions. You can use other hops, or just leave it out, but in my opinion magnum is a "bittering only" hop.

I have no idea what mo'tweaka is, so I have no opinion at all on the recipe, aside from the magnum!

Mo'tweaka...more tweaking (to be done)...

Homegrownbrew: WOW, just WOW!!!

 

[Bokonon]

I haven't had this beer yet, haven't had a chance to make it down to Bend but I love the idea of a low alcohol IPA. Did some digging and it seems that beer has an herb called Meadowsweet in it.

I've never heard of it, but I think I'll see if they carry it at my local health food shop

 

[david_42]

How many hops is too many hops?

When you open the spigot on your kettle and nothing comes out because all of the wort has been absorbed by the hops.

 

[HoppyMaltPoet]

Kind of new to the forum, but thought I would add my 2 cents. I agree that it is personal preference for how much is too much when it comes to hop additions. There are some great high IBU IPAs out there. There is a chart (I have seen it in the forum before) that gives a balancing of malt to hops. I use this when I am making beer for parties/family get-togethers and I know that most of the people I am catering to will not appreciate a highly bittered beer. So I try and keep the IBU's way down.

Here is a link to a thread that discusses this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/hop-malt-balance-57129/

 

[pkeeler]

What is the taste threshold for flavor additions? If you can't taste any difference between 2 oz at the end of the boil and 3 oz, then throwing 9 oz in is just a waste of hops and money. Now, those numbers are arbitrary (i.e. I just made them up). Unlike bittering, I don't think there is any hard science on flavor and aroma additions that can quantify things.

Commercially, if they could use 3 oz for 60 min. and dry hop with 1 oz, and get the same IBUs as you with the same aroma and flavor, that is what they would do. They are making barrels and costs add up. But maybe 5 oz in a 5 gal batch does do something, I have no idea. If anyone has seen any actual studies in this area, I would be curious. It seems like the English basically do things like they always have and really don't study or experiment. The Germans are the big brew scientists, but they are minimalists and would never think of doing this. Americans will brew what is cheap or what tastes good, but only recently have the "tastes good" crowd started to sponsor brewing science. Most American science sponsored by A-B was how to make beer cheaper and more consistent.

 

[Potter1]

..do u think I overdid the hops

No!!!!!! This sounds like a good brew, but I might also think of switching out those magnums for something that is bitter, but has some better flavor (I dont get much from magnum) Simco? Chinook? Serachi?

 

[Phoenix60]

I brewed the kit from austin "moltiv hoptail" 19oz of hopps. I enjoyed it but not many of my friends enjoyed it. To think about it, if I did not brew it myself and it was someone elses brew I may have not been too fond of it.

 

[Manfish]

I think once the beer turns green... it would be time to stop. Until then, the more hops the better

 

[bsdx]

When you open the spigot on your kettle and nothing comes out because all of the wort has been absorbed by the hops.

Squeeze the bag!!!

 

[homegrownbrew]

whats funny is that the foam on last hopbag addition at 0 minutes turned it green/yellow...the smell coming off of the kettle was amazing. i have it fermenting at 62 degrees in my chest freezer and, tell me if someone else has done this same thing...cracked the lid and the hops smells were amazing, dipped my head down in to take a big pull and whammo....almost died from breathing in pure co2....it was incredible...i had to call my buddy and have him do it too! hahaha but yeah thanks for all the comments I appreciate it...and if you find the phils trail or if you ever make it up to bend...its incredible.

 

[jaobrien6]

IMO and based on my experience, if you're going for heavy flavor and aroma, you *must* dry-hop.

I tried an IPA where I loaded up with late addition hops. None at all between 60 and 15 minutes, and then every couple of minutes until flame-out. Then I intentionally didn't dry hop to try it out. After a week and a half, when I transferred to my secondary, it smelled amazing. Several more weeks later after secondary and 2 weeks of force-carbing, it had lost a *lot*. By the time the keg was kicked, it really didn't seem that hoppy at all.

Next IPA, I used less hops overall, but did use a total of 3.5oz in 2 separate dry hops. That was a flavor/aroma bomb! Fantastic until the day the keg kicked.

The moral of my story? No such thing as too much, but make sure you don't neglect the dry hopping.

 

[ksbrain]

+1 on the dry hopping

 

[Brew_Boy]

I know this is a late reply, but oh well.
The hop you were un-sure about sounds like Motueka. Its a hop from New Zealand, I havent used it yet, but have heard awesome things about it.
Here's the data sheet from the supplier if you are interested, http://www.brewshop.co.nz/pdf/motueka.pdf