Bittering hops

[King Ruddager]

Quick question about bittering hops why not. Once they've been boiled for an hour is there any residual taste or aroma and, hence, does it matter at all which variety you use for bittering (assuming you get the desired IBU)?

 

According to our favourite chart below the answer would seem to be "no", but it's always worth asking this kind of thing. I'm looking at buying a whole stack of something for bittering my next brew so I'm hoping the leftovers will be useful in pretty much all other recipes too.

 

[King Ruddager]

Oh yeah and, following from that, does anyone have any recommendations? Left to my own devices I'd just go with Nelson, because that's what I've heard of.

[Beerlust]

Hi K.Rudd. (Sorry for the pun!) [lol]

 

In my brewing experiences, certain hops that are used for bittering will leave residual minimal flavour aspects behind. Some will leave cleaner profiles that are almost non existent in most brew recipes.

 

One thing I am now taking into consideration when selecting a hop for bittering purposes, is it's "Co-humulone" level. Most brewers talk about Alpha levels in a hop as the most important thing to consider when constructing recipes, but I have come to see co-humulone levels as something almost equally important, especially when it comes to selecting a bittering hop for a certain style of beer recipe.

 

A hop with a lower range co-humulone level will present a much smoother bitterness than one with a higher percentage.

 

For example, if you bitter to a level of say 40 IBU predominantly using a higher co-humulone hop such as "Galaxy", as opposed to using a hop such as "Nelson Sauvin" (as you mentioned), then expect a harsher tasting bitterness from the higher co-humulone hop than that of which you will experience from the lower co-humulone bittering hop at the same end IBU number.

 

Certain beer styles warrant harsher forms of bitterness than others, & everyone is different when it comes to how they like & perceive bitterness in a beer.

 

Trial & error with different types of hops will eventually give you a hop you like to use more than others for bittering purposes. [rightful]

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony.

[Hairy]

Oh yeah and' date=' following from that, does anyone have any recommendations? Left to my own devices I'd just go with Nelson, because that's what I've heard of.[/quote']

My go to bittering hop for most of the beers I brew is Magnum. Very smooth.

 

I don't always use it but I always have Magnum on hand.

 

And I agree with Lusty about co-humulone levels. It's getting a nasty habit, that one [biggrin]

[PhilboBaggins]

I brew with my own tastes in mind. And for myself, I have never been able to detect even the slightest hint of anything that I have chosen for a bittering addition.

 

I've used Galaxy to bitter an ESB, and Pacific Gem to bitter a Porter. Cost me far less than bittering with EKG or Styrians, and I still get a beer which suits my tastes.

 

My advice is this: determine whether you are one of the people who can detect the taste of your chosen bittering hop or not. If you can detect it after 60-90mins boiling, then you are a better man than me, and you will need to start being discerning about your choice in bittering hops.

 

If it turns out you are like me (lord help you) then use whatever the hell you want to bitter your beer. Sorry, but co-humulone means exactly jack sh*t to me. [lol]

[King Ruddager]

Hairy - If you think Magnum is a fairly unintrusive bittering hop then that's good enough for me. The LHBS has some at 14.5%AA which is high, so I'll have to be careful with it, but that'll do.

 

Philbo - I doubt I could detect the difference anyway either so I suppose that makes me like you, hooray! Also, have you ever listened to "Ziltoid the Omnisicient" by Devin Townsend? I only ask because you've got a Zapp Brannigan picture and he kinda reminds me of Captain Spectacular ...

[PhilboBaggins]

I listened to a bit of Strapping Young Lad years ago, mainly because I'm a fan of their drummer, but I'm afraid I don't know who Ziltoid or Captain Spectacular are. Cool names though, [happy] .

[King Ruddager]

After SYL Devin went home, locked himself in a room, stopped taking his ADD medication and the result was "Ziltoid the Omniscient" - an album about a space puppet who comes to Earth searching for our best coffee, only to be ultimately confronted with his own reality.

 

Full album on YouTube why not - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUcmBI1D4lg. Enjoy.

[PhilboBaggins]

You're probably right Ed, and Lusty seems to have done his research for sure. [cool]

 

The point I was trying to make is that some of us can taste the difference, and some of us can't. I suggest people try a couple of different bittering hops for themselves and see if they can taste the difference between low and high cohumulone hops at 60-90 mins. If they can't then it makes it much easier when looking for a suitable bittering hop.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I'm probably in the not being able to taste the difference category. I will have to do an identical recipe twice with two different bittering hops to be sure though. Normally I just use Magnum for bittering. I've been using it in my Munich Helles recipes and can't say I've noticed any harshness in them.

[Hairy]

Magnum is a high AA and fairly low co-humulone hop. So following on from the above, it should be a smooth bittering hop.

[LordEoin]

yeah, I like magnum or EKG, they end with a nice clean bitter.

Bought a bottle of isomerised hop extract recently too which i've been intending to play with (so far it's just getting syringed into random pints)

 

[PhilboBaggins]

Hey Eoin!

 

Welcome back mate! [happy]

 

Thought you'd fallen off the face of the earth!

[LordEoin]

Thought you'd fallen off the face of the earth!

 

I did. And I fell for miles through the cracks in the earth, through to an unseen lands of blossom and fruit, when I was caught by a Titan who took me in and raised me as one of his own.

 

You see... althought the life of a demi-god is longer than ages of men, and the treasures bestowed upon them is greater than the coffers of the most affluent of dynasties combined, they are left longing for the one thing that they can never have. An heir!

 

We lived blissfully together for close on 628 years (for time moves slowly in the half-light) before I had had my fill of their sweet wine and and lost count of the endless nights spent basking in the soft arms of daughters of Aphrodite.

 

But my attention always returned to the Titan's bride, with skin pale as snow and lips red as blood. One gaze into her coral eyes was enough, and oh, how I longed to be one with her through for just one endless night.

 

Unknown to me though, Titans know all thoughts and desires of mere men, better than men themselves.

 

The moment I laid her down below me, pressed tightly skin to skin in passionate embrace, the heavens opened with a hail of burning coals and we were torn apart by all of the forces of the land and sea.

 

The Titan charged in on the fiercest steed and a furious battle ensued (the details of which I will spare you lest they haunt your every hours of slumber 'til the day that you die) and continued until we both stood face to face, the hot steel of our drawn blades chipped and warped. Our last drops of blood streaming from countless lacerations.

 

Then he knelt before me and uttered these words:

"LordEoin, never before have I both loved and loathed man nor immortal to half the extent that I love thee. Strike clean and bury my head below yonder Cherryblossom. For it was there that I met my wife, your prize. And it is there that you should claim her as your own. STRIKE NOW!" he yelled. "Strike now and end this turmoil. Tear my still beating heart from my chest and give it to my lady. It belongs with her, and without her it is useless to me"

 

Oh how I wanted to strike. I wanted feel his last blood spray across my brow. I needed to taste his tears.

 

I raised my sword to end it when my passing eye fell on my prize. But she appeared shrivelled and beaten, washed out and thin. Her once supple skin now taut and translucent.

She wept and bowed her head.

 

It was certain that if I were to strike the final blow, this is how she would remain - a withered shell around a still heart - not the Goddess that I was about to kill for.

But if I showed mercy and did not strike, I would surely lose her for her beloved Titan.

 

Shaking, I dropped my blade to the ground, and with the last of my strength I hammered my boot directly to his face, leaving sprawled him at her feet.

 

I knew my time in heaven, or valhalla, or whatever the name of that glorious place, had come to an end. So I began to climb the rockface back up towards the world of man that I had known so long ago.

I climbed for six weeks with neither food nor shelter before reaching the top, and breathing my final breath as an immortal I dived upwards into the bottom of the ocean.

 

I awoke on the shore, not much more than a few days from home. Wearily, I walked without stopping until I came to what was once my home and still is to this day.

[PhilboBaggins]

Nice. [biggrin]

[Beerlust]

Congratulations on the new addition to the family LordEoin. [joyful]

 

What night do we collectively celebrate by "wetting the baby's head"? [biggrin]

 

Anthony.

[Marty_G]

Just love the search function when it brings up gems like this from 2013.   Love that graph in post one. 

 

I have decided that I am going to try to cut the cost of my hop bill by buying the cheapest high AA low cohumulone hop which is Summit at a cost of $30.50 delivered for 500g.  Summit is 18%AA and 25g in a 60min boil gives 40IBU.  That works out at $1.52 for bittering hops.  The the saving can go into the flavour and aroma hops. 

Is there anyone else who uses a similar strategy?  Super cheap high AA% low cohumulone hops for bittering.  Warrior and nugget are others that are suitable for this plan.  

[King Ruddager]

Crikey, what a blast from the past! I would have been brewing extract in my old apartment when I asked this

[King Ruddager]

45 minutes ago, MartyG1525230263 said:

Summit is 18%AA and 25g in a 60min boil gives 40IBU

Much smaller margins for error if the AA is that high by the way - just something to consider

[Marty_G]

12 minutes ago, King Ruddager said:

Much smaller margins for error if the AA is that high by the way - just something to consider

Wouldn't the margin of error be the same as to get 40IBU in 60min with say a 10%AA hop you need a larger amount? 

[King Ruddager]

What I mean is that each gram makes a bigger difference with higher AAs, so if you're 1 gram out that's a bigger error.

Probably only an issue for batch sizes below 20L though TBH

[Otto Von Blotto]

It depends on the beer I'm making. Pale ales not really because most of the IBUs come from late additions, so the long boiled addition is so small it doesn't really matter much in terms of cost. 

Pilsners are always hopped exclusively with Saaz, so while it might cost more than using Magnum or something, I think it produces a better beer. I have used Magnum to bitter other lagers though, and I often use it in stouts and porters where hops aren't the dominant flavour. 

[Norris!]

Welcome to the bittering debate Marty. Dont say Magnum. 

[Norris!]

But yeah, I use warrior because I have like 60g of it which for most of the styles I brew, that amount will last 5 to 15 brews depending on what I make and what I am looking for. As Otto noted, for some pales the bittering charge is so small that I dont use warrior but generally FWH with a nice hop I am using in the batch or something like Columbus that has more flavour than magnum or whatever flavour warrior is supposed to have.

Some ales never even see an addition before flameout. Which is why 60g of warrior might last me 2 years. 500g of a bittering hop might last you, your entire brewing career. Or until you cannot brew anymore.  I wouldnt spend my money on that, but that is me. I think 60 min additions suck for ales, but with that said, @Ben 10 made a tasty brew with only a 60min, if I am remembering right, and he loved the flavours and aromas, some had to be from the yeast, but hopefully he chimes in, he did use Mosaic.  

But basicaly, yeah totally agree with your thought process, there @MartyG1525230263

[Marty_G]

1 hour ago, Norris! said:

Some ales never even see an addition before flameout. Which is why 60g of warrior might last me 2 years. 500g of a bittering hop might last you, your entire brewing career.

Hang on have I missed something. Most recipes that i have seen which is quite a few although i have made only 3 AG's all seem to have a 60min bittering addition of around 25g-50g depending on the AA%.   I was working on using close to 25g of it every ale which would be 20 brews.  So what would your hop schedule look like @Norris!?