It’s been a long time coming, but we’re back with another edition of The Hop Chronicles! This time, we evaluate an experimental hop sent to us by the rad folks at HOPSTEINER. Check it out!
Have you ever considered switching your evaluation base to something like Ted Hausotter uses in his hop presentations (see page 30 from one of his past presentations)?
I enjoyed the .pdf presentation, but I didn’t see anything there that would replace the value of the spider graph and other info as presented in Marshall’s work.
He’s just asking if they have considered changing the recipe to one without boil hops. He’s not suggesting eliminating the spider graph.
Yep. Exactly this. If the focus is the flavor and aroma of a hop variety, you will get enough of a bitterness charge from the whirlpool. I’ve done several of Ted’s presentations, and the beers are great for hop evaluation purposes. Most of them are even good drinkers (some hop varieties don’t do it for me).
I have moved away from evaluating flavor and aroma hops with a single hop method. I’d prefer to use a clean bittering hop like magnum and then doa. Single hop at flavor and aroma additions.
Same here. There are enough bittering hops that I like that I don’t need new ones. Can’t beat Chinook or Columbus for bittering American ales, or Magnum and Warrior for a smoother, clean bitterness. Though I’m getting back to using nobles (or mixing them with Magnum) to bitter lagers. Regardless, I bitter with Magnum or Warrior to eval new flavor/aroma hops, to stay out of the way of the hop I’m evaluating.
Edit for coherence. Much better.
This is one of the lowest alpha acid %'s on a newer hop that I have seen.
Personally, I think that a hop’s bittering character is still important to know even if you’re evaluating it as a flavor and aroma hop. If you’re brewing a beer with heavy late additions the bittering contribution will have some impact on the beer.