Naive hop schedule question

[myelo]

Something I'm wondering about …

I understand you add hops at the beginning of the boil for bitterness and the aroma will mostly boil off. So you add hops at the end of the boil for aroma and flavor. What I'm having trouble getting my head around are recipes that add hops at various other times during the boil. To my newbie little brain, it seems it would be most efficient to only add bittering hops at beginning of boil for the desired bitterness and add all the aroma hops the end for desired flavor/aroma.

Why the intermediate hop additions? Palmer touches on this but I didn't quite get it.

 

[bajaedition]

Something I'm wondering about …

I understand you add hops at the beginning of the boil for bitterness and the aroma will mostly boil off. So you add hops at the end of the boil for aroma and flavor. What I'm having trouble getting my head around are recipes that add hops at various other times during the boil. To my newbie little brain, it seems it would be most efficient to only add bittering hops at beginning of boil for the desired bitterness and add all the aroma hops the end for desired flavor/aroma.

Why the intermediate hop additions? Palmer touches on this but I didn't quite get it.

you are correct about the beginning being better for hop utilization, but there has been argument about harshness of the bitter vs time boiled.
in other words, yes you may get 50% utilization at this amt of time in boil, and 20% later, but the hops will be smother at the lesser level. I think that is bunk and it is the type of hops that the harshness comes from. Some hops come off smother than others in the same way some have better flavors than others. For that reason I prefer low AA hops and will use more of them for more bitter and I stay away from high AA hops.
Now, having said that, this is all about taste, what one guy likes others do not. So the answer seems best made by the brewer as to what he likes.
Also remember you have to brew to your target, and your target is the guys who help you dispose of your beer. If they do not like it you have a lot of beer to drink yourself. When I first started a huge part of y target was other home brewers so I could get away with hoppy beers, now days a lot more of my target is friends and family so over half of my brewing is more conventional style beers, that effects my hops choices.

hope this helps

 

[crawforc3]

Something I'm wondering about …

I understand you add hops at the beginning of the boil for bitterness and the aroma will mostly boil off. So you add hops at the end of the boil for aroma and flavor. What I'm having trouble getting my head around are recipes that add hops at various other times during the boil. To my newbie little brain, it seems it would be most efficient to only add bittering hops at beginning of boil for the desired bitterness and add all the aroma hops the end for desired flavor/aroma.

Why the intermediate hop additions? Palmer touches on this but I didn't quite get it.

I think of intermediate additions as giving the beer hybrid characteristics between bitterness and flavor/aroma. I imagine a balancing scale where one end tips the balance towards bitterness and the other end tips the balance in favor of flavor and aroma. Somewhere in the middle, you might get a little of both bitterness and flavor. For example, a 30 minute addition isn't all about adding bitterness, but it's also not all about adding flavor. Maybe a little bit of both though.

 

[JimRausch]

OK, I'm going to confuse you(us) even more - 1st wort hopping.
You add a dose of hops while draining your wort into BK, before you start the boil. "Through the magic of hop utilization"(I think that's how Dawson & Keeler termed it) you treat that addition like a 20 minute flavor addition. I wish someone could explain it other than 'magic', but I do it frequently and it does seem to work as advertised.
Has anyone bought the 'Hops' book? Is it worth it?