IPA's and Mixing English and West Coast Style Hops

[RmikeVT]

All,

I put together the recipe below and brewed the other day and I'm sure I'm going to get a nice mid-strength hop forward American/English IPA hybrid. I'm using BeerSmith estimated FG, but from my experience with the yeast I'm using, I suspect it will end up closer to 1.010.

Up until brew day I had planned on brewing the beer with a an ounce or two less EKG/Challenger replaced with a west coast hop like Cascade or Amarillo. But on brew day I wussed out and was concerned about muddying up the more delicate English hops with the American Hops. I don't get to brew as often I used to, so I'm less inclined to experiment. What do you all think of the recipe with an addition of west coast hops on top of the english hops? Or should I stick to the same continent/style hops. I would love to hear from experience.


All Grain (12.5g)
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.012
ABV: 5.6% (estimate)
IBU: 45.7
Color: 8.3 SRM

17.75 lbs Great Western 2 row
2.0 lbs Munich Malt
1.75 lbs Briess Crystal 40
1.0 lb Victory
1.0 lb Torrified Wheat

60 minute 1.0 oz Northern Brewer (15.1 IBUs)
40 minute 1.0 oz Northern Brewer (13.3 IBUs) - I meant to add at 60 oops
0 minute 2.0 oz EKG - 30 minute whirlpool at 190* (5.9 IBUs)
0 minute 3.0 oz Challenger - 30 minute whirlpool at 190* (11.4 IBUs)

Dry hop 2 oz Challenger and 2 oz EKG for 10 days or whatever

Split batch into 6g carboys and pitched Nottingham in one and WLP013 London Ale in the other.

 

[Pappers_]

I brew both English and American style IPAs often, but have never mixed up the hops. I've read that some English commercial brewers are using American hops in their Golden Ales.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

should I stick to the same continent/style hops. I would love to hear from experience.

British brewers have long gone for a bit of citrus from Saaz/Savinjski as a dry hop, and it's now reasonably common for them to mix Goldings with second-line US hops in a similar fashion - the likes of Cascade, Liberty etc. Seems to work well with Goldings, not so well for some of the other UK hops. Certainly in paler beers, not so often in brown beers (although they do a bit).

I think the key is not to over do it - splashing lots of Citra or Mosaic around soon swamps any British character. So keep the US hops to the dry hop and maybe <25% of the copper hops, and use some of those "lesser" varieties to just give a bit of citrus rather than the full-on tropical thing.

Just as a couple of other comments - Northern Brewer may have been bred in the UK but these days it's not grown here, there's a bit grown in Germany/Belgium. Don't sweat the bittering too much, use whatever you have to hand - Magnum, CTZ etc, although Admiral is the current UK high-alpha variety.

Challenger's OK, I'd prefer First Gold or Bramling Cross though, for marmalade & blackcurrant respectively.

I'd dial down the speciality malts myself.

Yeast - I suggest WLP041 or 1332 which though both linked to Seattle are fruitier cousins of 002/007 and suit the transatlantic theme.

 

[rhys333]

I would go for it. I've seen a fair amount of UK ESB's or what they're terming American IPAs that include a US/UK hop combo. Also, I agree with the above poster about not overdoing it with pungent varieties like mosaic, as they can easily overwhelm UK hops.

 

[RmikeVT]

I think this is going to be a recipe that gets developed. I brewed as stated above and will evaluate it as I drink to figure out if I can find a place for some american hops in it. I think a toned down US varietal might be the place to go, something like Willamette.

 

[RmikeVT]

Thanks for the suggestions. Next go around I will probably dial back on specialty malt and use a British pale malt. I happened to have US 2 row on hand that needed to get used and thought I could use the old Munich/Victory trick to get some malt complexity. Looking back I would probably dial back the crystal malt to about <=5%.

Are you saying your preference would be to sub out the challenger for First Gold and/or Bramling Cross?

I like the yeast suggestion too. So far I've brewed similar pales ales with US-05, WLP002, Wyeast 1469 and now this one with Notty and WLP013. 1469 really jumped out to me as a good all purpose ale yeast and really surprised me with how well it let the hops shine through.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Looking back I would probably dial back the crystal malt to about <=5%.

Are you saying your preference would be to sub out the challenger for First Gold and/or Bramling Cross?

As a founding member of the Campaign to Avoid Excessive Crystal I wouldn't argue with that - and it can be helpful to balance the beer by adding as much sugar/invert/syrup as crystal.

We're getting onto personal preferences here - some people absolutely adore Challenger-only beers. Personallly I think 60:40 Goldings:Bramling Cross is my favourite for the more crystal-heavy brown bitters, I'd prefer something more orangey like First Gold in something that was lighter on crystal, and for golden ales I'd prefer something more lemon-citrusy. But that's personal preference, YMMV.