My typical hop schedule for my house IPA is:
60 minute boil addition
15 minute boil addition
7minute boil addition
Then a large whirlpool addition at 175 for 30 minutes.
Dryhop
I’m very happy with his beer but I know in the last several years people of gotten completely away from any late boil additions. I’m thinking about taking all of my 15 and 7 minute additions and just throwing it in the whirlpool. I wonder however this will take some complexity out of the beer? I realize I won’t know it’s right for me until I give it a try, but I was wondering if anyone has any opinions?
My 2 cents. Complex procedure or recipe doesn’t always equate to complex beer in the glass. My IPA is one bittering charge early, two or at most 3 hops in an actual whirlpool at 170F, and everything else is dry hop post fermentation.
I still like a strong hop at 20 for most pale ales and IPAs. Generally an ounce for every 5.5 gallons of finished beer. Columbus or Chinook are generally my top choices.
I like boil additions, but I only use them at 60, 10, or 2, depending if I want bitterness, flavor, or flavor + aroma. Any hop addition in between like 60 and 10 is a waste for a brewer who couldn’t make up their mind what they wanted IMO. Keep it simple.
That said, I probably will be using extended flameouts for all my IPAs in future. APAs, maybe not. But IPA, yes.
For me, no. I have a single 60 minute addition for AA and a 170* hopstand for oils. Followed of course by a healthy dry hopping.
Given that different hop oils boil at different temperatures, my guess is that all that is happening in boil additions is boiling off different hop oils at different rates. Some may linger longer than others. I imagine that anything more than a few minutes in an actually boiling wort would result in a reduction of more than half of the oils in whatever hop one uses.
FWH (not every time)
60 mins
10 mins (usually 1oz of cascade per 5-6 gal)
Whirlpool (30 mins at ~170F - 1-3 varieties)
Dry (now usually 3 oz per 5-6 gallons - 1-3 varieties)
I do 60/10/Dry Hop. 1oz at 60 of a bittering hop (Magnum/Warrior). 1oz at 10 of aroma hops and then 2oz dry hop. (4 oz hops in 3 gallons)
Personally, I wouldn’t remove the 15 and 7, but maybe combine them. Take whatever the amounts for both and put it all in at 15, or hit the middle at 10. The AA% difference will probably be negligible.
Also, if you’re happy with the beer why change it? Even if it’s not the “normal” procedure, it works well for you.
I think the question that needs to be asked is: Why?
Why do you do boil additions that are for flavor not Alpha? Is anything to be gained flavor wise from a 30, 15, 10, 5, or even flameout additions, that a 170* hopstand wouldn’t do better? Is there a difference in either amount of flavor or type of flavor that occurs in boil additions?
Yep Steve, that’s really my question. My 15 and 7 minute additions are left over from the old way of thinking but haven’t changed it, just added Whirlpooling as my bank account allowed me to buy a pump at Whirlpool arm. I guess the question is do you get more complex flavors from some boil editions than just a big hopstand and dry hop alone. I don’t brew enough to do actual taste comparison experiments, has anyone tried this?
I think you went off course when you said “better”. The kettle additions are different. Whether or no they’re “better” depends on your tastes and goals.
At least for me, the difference is equipment and technique. I do extract/stove top. No pumps, so I can’t (or it would be a lot more difficult) for me to do all grain techniques like FWH or whirlpool hop additions without multiple kettles and a pump.
I started out with online recipes that did additions of 60, 45, 30, 20, 10, flameout, dry hop etc… and I’ve condensed that down to 60, 10, dry. In my opinion, I still get good flavor and aroma from the short boil hops, and they do add a tiny bit of BU. I get 85-90% of my AA from the 60 and then a small amount for the 10 min.
I do additions at 60/45/30/15/2/0 minutes, usually nothing in my fermenter. Does it make better beer? Maybe. I can’t say for sure, but I like my beer, as do my friends. It makes me feel like a mad scientist adding all those hops and I’m going to continue as such.
If anything, I think early boil additions other than a small bittering charge are out of favor.
And, to take the assertions here and twist them around, what does a whirpool accomplish that can’t be done better with dry hopping (both during and after active fermentation)?
The only thing I can think of is that it eliminates (in my case) 5 ounces of hop material from the fermenter while still capturing the oils. I put 5 ounces in the whirlpool and 5 in the fermenter… 10 ounces of uncompacted hop material in a 5 gallon batch would approach the losses seen in Fresh hop beers.
In my experience, whirlpool hops give a different character than dry hops. Dry hops can’t be beat for that big blast of aroma when you stick your nose in the glass, and they are at least part of the equation when looking for that “juicy” character. Whirlpool hops tend to leave more of an enduring flavor that lingers on the palate. To me, whirlpool hops seem less “fruit juice” in flavor than dry hops. Neither are strictly better than the other, but I do think they give different results.
For my part, I have moved to just one large whirlpool/hop stand addition for my IPA’s - no boil or dry hops. It is as much for simplicity in the brewing process as it is for flavor, though. I don’t necessarily see it as “better” than boil or dry hopping from a flavor standpoint, but it gets me a beer that I thoroughly enjoy and keeps my brewday simpler.