McCall St. Brewer
Well-Known Member
After being in the "hophead" stage of homebrewing, I've been wondering what comes next. To digress a bit, I think it is very common for homebrewers to enter a stage where they discover hops and how to make very hoppy beers and to become very anamored of making really hopped up brews.
In my case it happened when I moved to full boils and then to AG. Before that I made some extract batches that I really enjoyed, but none of them ever had very much hop bitterness, aroma or flavor.
Now that I've gotten a year's worth of full boil AG batches under my belt (both figuratively and literally-- you should see what's been happening to my wasteband size) I've been able to make some beers that really show off the characteristics that hops can provide.
I'm not tired of it yet (and I suspect that my brews will always tend to be hoppier than most commerical varieties), but I'm wondering-- is there a typical stage that many homebrewers move on to after their "hophead" stage?
In my case it happened when I moved to full boils and then to AG. Before that I made some extract batches that I really enjoyed, but none of them ever had very much hop bitterness, aroma or flavor.
Now that I've gotten a year's worth of full boil AG batches under my belt (both figuratively and literally-- you should see what's been happening to my wasteband size) I've been able to make some beers that really show off the characteristics that hops can provide.
I'm not tired of it yet (and I suspect that my brews will always tend to be hoppier than most commerical varieties), but I'm wondering-- is there a typical stage that many homebrewers move on to after their "hophead" stage?