Steam Beer Hops

[rockfish42]

I'm wondering if anybody has played around with some of the substitution hops for Northern Brewer in a steam beer and had success. I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in chinook hops the Fall after next and would like some assurance that they're suitable for something other than an IPA/IIPA/DIIPA.

 

[Oldsock]

It all depends what you want and who you are brewing for. If you want a “traditional” Steam Beer then NB is your only option. If you want Chinook hops in your Steam beer that’s cool too, but it will make for a very different beer. If I was playing around with a steam beer I’d go for something a bit more subtle, maybe an “American Nobel” (Crystal, Liberty, Sterling, Mt. Hood) or something like Glacier, Palisades, or Vanguard.

Chinook is a potent/rough hop, and I’d worry about it walking all over the subtle malt/fermentation character, if you do use them go easy on the late boil additions and IBUs.

 

[SumnerH]

It all depends what you want and who you are brewing for. If you want a “traditional” Steam Beer then NB is your only option.

Just to give you some historical cover for using other hops:

Northern Brewer is the defining hop of modern steam beers, but it's extremely unlikely that it was used in any truly traditional versions; it doesn't grow well in California latitudes, and steam beer was a make-do style that wouldn't involve much imported hops (perhaps a hint for flavoring, but more than likely none at all). Anchor didn't use NB until after Prohibition, and maybe not until Fritz Maytag bought them in the 1950s.

Indeed, Northern Brewer didn't even exist until c. 1934.

If you want a traditional steam beer, Cluster is probably your best bet--in fact, I'm brewing a Cluster cali common for the 4th of July to highlight the first American hop in the first American style of beer. Fuggles were also grown in 19th century California during the pre-refrigeration gold rush days when the style was in its heyday--they'd be a reasonable choice, too.

http://brewingtechniques.com/library/styles/2_1style.html
http://byo.com/component/resource/article/1442-steam-beer
http://***********/stories/beer-sty...eer-styles/1443-steam-beer-style-of-the-month

 

[Oldsock]

Sorry for the confusion, by traditional I was referring to the current style guidelines. Good info/thoughts on a pre-pro version, but that isn’t what it sounded like the original poster was going after.

 

[SumnerH]

Sorry for the confusion, by traditional I was referring to the current style guidelines. Good info/thoughts on a pre-pro version, but that isn’t what it sounded like the original poster was going after.

Yeah, I mostly just mention it because a) I've been doing one recently; and b) People (not least the BJCP) get hung up assuming that a steam beer always has to be just like Anchor Steam, when there's plenty of history of a fairly diverse beer style.

If the OP wants to use Chinook or whatever because it's on hand, that's almost exactly the same sort of decision historical steam beer brewers were making-but as you note, it's not going to taste like a current-style steam beer.

 

[rockfish42]

Thanks for all the replies, I guess I've got some experimenting to do. I've previously done a couple steam beers with cascade that weren't overwhelming, maybe I'll stick to using the chinook for bittering and finish up with something more delicate. If I'm aiming for 28-35 IBU I can't imagine them taking over too badly.