I have always used EKG as my default hop. About to order a lb of it and use it as the main hop in some lagers.
I don’t want it to be weird. The noble hops are cheaper slightly, but I find them just so mild. Anyone have a thought?
I think try it. But you might reduce the dosage compared to what normally you do for a pale ale. It doesn’t take as much hops to make a light lager taste hoppy.
good thing to note. its rare that ive done a light lager, well in fact i have never done a light lager. but am basically doing a german pilsner but with EKG to ~35 IBU.
The great thing about homebrewing is you can brew whatever you want, with whatever ingredients you want. If you want to use EKGs in a Lager, that’s your prerogative. If you were going to enter the Lager in a sanctioned competition, I’d say use hops that fit the style.
I love EKG and would try this if I had a lot of time for brewing lagers. I don’t have a chance to brew many lagers so I tend to stay with the traditional hops.
+1.
im going to go ahead with it. i’ll try to let people know how it went in about 2 months.
Use whatever hop you like in whatever beer you want.
cluster IPA
I don’t think it’s so far off from noble hops that it would seem out of place in a lager.
If you have been at this for a while, you’ve seen other hops listed as Noble. Hersbrucker for example. Sometimes EKG and Fuggles too.
yup, i wanted to add, in my opinion EKG is refined enough to be noble, but with 150% more character/flavour than hal/tet/spa/saaz. talking out of my bumbum, hallertau and spalt are excessively mild and boring and tettnanger is one-noted. saaz has crazy low AAs when ive gotten it and that messes with my usages and perception of it, though i remember enjoying it a lot once.
i think ages ago i used styrian goldings and it was a good beer. i dont have access to them or things like lublin hops, etc at the moment.
don’t like fuggles.
In another thread we discussed the idea that you use the best hops you have for whatever style you’re making. If you’re making a Czech Lager but the Saaz you have are questionable but you have nice, fresh Liberty or Santiam or Edelweiss or Vanguard or Crystal or Mt. Hood, giddy up. The beer would be better overall. The concept of EKG in a pale lager is slightly unusual but I would not be afraid to try it. I make A LOT of gold lagers. I use noble hops often but not always. Also, if you’re ever interested in making a beer with a nice noble hop, get some Spalt from Yakima Valley. They are more robust than Hallertau, Tettnanger, etc. There is spice and herbal character but they seem to have more PUNCH than some others. Freshness matters, clearly. I’ve had GREAT Hallertau hops and also some with very little character. Let us know how it comes out.
^I am a proponent of this ideology, the “wrong” hop in good condition usually gets me better results than the true to style hop that isnt in as good of shape. For this reason, I have quit using Saaz altogether, I just had too many instances of saaz being in poor condition.
I’ve used US goldings in lagers as a single addition for bittering . I boil very lightly, and I found that some earth and floral character still came through. It was a very pleasant beer and did not taste out of place.
Saaz is funny because it’s already a mild and low-alpha hop, generally. There were some people (here? another board?) where someone was placing a direct order with a hop farm in the Czech Republic. You had to place an order in advance and I believe they were whole hops. I’m sure they were excellent. For the rest of us… getting good Saaz is tricky. I think I would go to Yakima Valley as a plan B only because I always seem to get excellent hops from them.
I know I mentioned this but there was a Kolsch brewed by a craft brewery in Chicago and I had some of it on draft at a place where you can play bocce indoors. The beer was good enough for me to contact the brewery and ask for the recipe. The brewer answered and told me that the hops were Nugget to bitter and then Santiam later in the boil. Unusual and untraditional? Yes. Great beer? You bet.
Russian River Brewing is another brewery making world class beers with mostly domestic hops.
In related news I have eight 1-ounce bags of Tettnanger from Yakima Chief. I am making a marzen this coming weekend with them and I really wanted to see what shape they were in. I cut those bags open and vac-sealed them in another bag all together and they look and smell great. Very green, vibrant and aromatic. If they were duds, I wanted to have enough time to pivot to something else like Hallertau, Hersbrucker, Edelweiss, etc.
I have been going through a pound of US Saaz from Hop Heaven this year. They have been great. I have been using them in CAP and it the best beer I make. Those hops are the secret ingredient.
Just brewed a basic lager to build some yeast for an imperial Pilsner. I used a total of 1 oz of ekuanot to keep it from being too boring. It should still be a very mild hop character but hopefully tasty. Use what hops you like.
Really? US Saaz? Huh. I have tried some US Hallertau and Tettnanger and was not impressed. Also, Hop Heaven is a bit of a mystery… does he GROW hops? Does he buy hops in bulk and mix varieties to make new varieties? If you tell me that his US Saaz are that good then I need to get some. I actually need more Edelweiss so I would be ordering that as well.