Favourite British Hop Combinations?

Ingredients
1

Just wondering what folks favourite British Hop Combinations are?

Going to brew a Best Bitter with Challenger, EKG and Northdown. Going to try them all in equal amount at 85 min, 10 min and Dry Hop to see how it turns out.

Very interested to know what amounts of each hop folks would be adding and at what times for some of their FAVOURITE hop combos, like for example EKG, Cluster and Brewer’s Gold? Let’s say for a 5 US Gallon (18.92L) batch of quaffable 5.0% British (or British/American hybrid) Pale Ale at 30 IBUs.

Cheers! Dan. :o

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A lot of people don’t like Fuggles and then some people love them.  I am not a huge fan, but in darker British Ales, I like to add a touch of them with East Kent Goldings.  EKG is my “go to” British hop - whether solo or in tandem with Challenger, Northdown or Bramling Cross.

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Is there a consensus on why people do or don’t like fuggles?  I’ve been thinking of trying them in my Irish Red.  MoreBeer.com says it’s like Kent Goldings with more aroma and less “softness of Kent Goldings”.

4

To me they smell and taste like dirt.

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I still love the description I remember one English beer writer gave of Fuggles: “Fresh, English dirt in the morning.”  And he meant that as a good thing! [emoji38]

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I’m one of those guys who loves fuggle amongst most of the english hops. seems it may have the same problem as summit… some folks get tangerine… I get nothing but beef broth and onion. its like a nasty french onion beer soup.

EKG, cluster and brewer’s gold are a great combo too.

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I use Fuggles and EKG in my Irish Red.  Once the beer ages a bit to mellow the flavors, it is a good combination.
For ESB I use Challenger and EKG.

As you can see EKG is one of my favorites for English ales.

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Sounds interesting, if not strictly British :wink: What amounts of each would you be adding and at what times?

9

How long is a piece of string?  :wink:

10

Lately, I’ve begun thinking in ratios when it comes to hops. If I want a malt forward beer maybe just a single 100% addition from 30-60 min to hit the intended perceived IBU(s).

If I want more pronounced flavor I shoot for something like a maybe 30/70 split starting at 5, 10, 15 min until 70% of perceived IBU(s) are reached then the 30% bittering charge between 30-60 min to hit a total perceived IBU.

The hops can be added together or in ‘layers’ of different hops at different times. However, some hops are considered bittering hops and others are better for flavor and/or aroma. Some do well in either case. This is a fairly good article: https://www.morebeer.com/articles/master_hop_character

Hope this helps.

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I’m one of those who will take Fuggle hops over EKG anytime.  I first came to that conclusion in the 80’s, and it’s never changed for me.

But oddly enough, I find Willamette hops to be terrible.

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;D I know!.. Interested to know what amounts of each hop folks are adding at what times for some of their FAVOURITE hop combos like for instance EKG, Cluster, Brewer’s Gold? Let’s say for a 5 US Gallon (18.92L) batch of quaffable 5.0% British (or British/American hybrid) Pale Ale at 30 IBUs.

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Fuggle and EKG mainly but keep in mind that England imported a LOT of hops from America. The varieties are hard to pin down since the brew logs often didn’t say anything more than “Pacific” or “New York”.

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Cluster will be as close as we can get to any of those old American hops, and will have a reasonably similar character to what they would have been like.  Any modern American hops will be inappropriate as substitutes.

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In the 19th century maybe (so - before the invention of bitter or crystal), but not much since WWI until very recently. The invention of pasteurisation massively reduced demand for hops for preservation.

Put me firmly in Team Goldings, I’ve never particularly got on with Fuggles. But one thing to remember is that we have weather in the UK, so you can get very marked differences between vintages of hops. August 2017 was very overcast and so everything came out a bit earthy, whereas the heatwave of 2018 “vaporised” a lot of the fruity aromatics (particularly in hops like BX) and you were left with quite an austere bitterness.

Also in the same way that we don’t get the pick of the Citra or Mosaic crop, US homebrewers will be last in line for the best of the UK hops…

So give me Goldings for preference, but mixing them say 2:1 with a fruity one like Bramling Cross, Bullion or Jester can be delicious in brown bitters. And a recent surprise was a Godiva SMaSH, although Godiva is a new Farams variety that’s almost unobtainable even here. It won’t give Citra any sleepless nights but delicious all the same.

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this combo is from a british IPA I make; 2oz cluster @ 90m, 1oz brewer’s gold @ 60m and 30m, .5oz EKG @ 15m and flameout. I looked back at my logs and saw that I have used bullion in place of brewers gold too. I always love this beer no matter…

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Bullion and Brewers Gold are sisters, so I’m not surprised at that substitution. I find Bullion to be a little more unrefined than Brewrrs Gold.

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No one has mentioned Challenger yet.  Has it fallen out of favor in the UK?

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AFAIK it’s still in Fuller’s blend for ESB, Pride, and Chiswick –  Challenger, Northdown, Target, and Goldings I believe.

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Challenger hasn’t gone away, I can imagine that it counts as the 3rd-or-fourth favourite hop for many people, it’s just that their attention has been taken away by sexier new hops.

I also meant to mention Flyer for dark beers, and at some point I’ll get round to making a dark beer with Phoenix.