Say you want an equal impact from two hops. How do you balance the amounts of the the two varieties in attempt to equalize them? It is based mostly on oil content?
As a very basic example, let’s say I am doing a beer with Palisade and Hersbrucker. I don’t have specific specs on either variety other than AA. Hopunion lists Palisade as being 1.4-1.6% oil while Hersbrucker is 0.7-1.3%. If I go with the averages of these figures, it is 1.5% and 1.0% respectively. Should I go with a 3:2 Hersbrucker to Palisade in attempt to balance them the way I proposed?
Yes and yes ! Balancing the hop amounts based on their oil content is a good starting point to balance out the intensities of different hops. After that I change the next time around (if need be) based on what I thought of the blend. I change hop combos so much I make sure to keep records for when I go back and revisit a particular combo.
