I’m pretty old school when it comes to hops. I don’t brew a lot of Pale Ales or IPA’s although I do enjoy them. I have to admit I am not up to date on all the new hops out there. All the fruity, “juicy”, melon, passion fruit stuff I just haven’t experienced much.
But with a Red IPA on the brain I thought up a mix of Columbus, Amarillo and Centennial sounded good.
I know some other common mixes I see are Cascade/Centennial, Amarillo and Simcoe.
Whats good to pair up with say Citra or Galaxy? I’ve also wanted to use Chinook in a beer for a while but haven’t looked into them much. Could I get a few suggestions, reading hop descriptions sometimes just do give me enough of an idea, especially when talking good combos.
*Edit…I just seen the next thread is turning into something similar, didn’t even see it before posting.
I don’t have a favorite combo necessarily. Centennial, CTZ and Amarillo could be one (maybe with just a touch of simcoe). I have been blending Azacca and Mosaic for a very nice “tropical” IPA lately.
Citra Equinox (now Ekuanot) is one of my all time favorite mixes. I make a IIPA with it and when its on tap, becomes dangerous because the hop aroma and flavor keep me filling my glass.
I currently have a 1:1:1 Equinox/Comet/Centennial IPL on tap. I love citrusy hops and this combo somehow ended up having very strong orange character that I am in love with. Equinox is just amazing in my opinion and will become a permanent part of my APA/IPA if I can ever settle on one recipe…
yeah - this hop has worked its way up the priority line, I’m using it in a lot of recipes now.
doing a simcoe/ekuanot mix next.
to the OP:
Citra and Galaxy also work really well together. or alone - for a Red IPA, all Citra or Citra plus a little Willamette is money (Tocabaga Red IPA from Cigar City is predominantly Citra with some Will - I devised an homage that is ridiculously good).
I love Willamette, I agree its very underated. I use them inan Amber Ale, never would have thought about them for an IPA but now im interested. I do like Citra, but I get the catty character and not the fruity mango so I would like to mix it if I use it again. I think I have had an all Galaxy Pale Ale. I bet that would be a good combo.
I don’t have a favorite necessarily. Lots that I like a lot. Always evolving with trials of new varieties.
Mt Hood/Liberty
Mt Hood/ Cascade or Centennial
Azacca/Cascade
Azacca/Lemon Drop
Galaxy/Nelson
Galaxy/Citra
Citra/Chinook
Amarillo/Citra/Columbus
Ekuanot/Chinook (or Ekuanot with Simcoe,Galaxy, or many ale hops)
Amarillo/Simcoe
Amarillo/Centennial/Chinook or Columbus
Saaz/Styrian
Thinking about mixing, I realized I do a lot of single hop stuff, but one combo that I’ve used over and over again in my Cascadian Dark Ale is a 1:1 of Cascade/Mosiac. 100% Cascade a la Sierra Nevada Pale is too much for me, so the addition of some citrus cuts it just nicely. I made one batch with Cascade/Citra since I had a bunch of free citra laying around (conference give away) but it wasn’t as good, even though I love Citra.
Most of my other IPA’s have been single hop. Did one with HBC 438 (Ron Mexico) that was incredible. About to do one with El Dorado.
I use Magnum for clean bittering, and then late aroma hops, but I don’t really consider that a combo. Like my El Dorado DIPA I’m brewing this weekend is Magnum at 60 minutes and then El Dorado at 10 min and El Dorado dry hop, so in my head that’s a “single hop” since all the aroma and flavor is going to be the El Dorado.
I am in agreement with you 100%. I do a “hop lager” with Mandarina, tettnagner and Cascade and it is very tasty when fresh. My house IPA used to use French Strisselspalt (I know not German but…) and when I had na hard time finding that hop I felt that the beer suffered. I do use Crystal now in place of that, which I feel is almost German enough.
