Bittering Hops

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Crystal_Ball

Crystal_Ball

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I’m talking about the hops that go in at the beginning of the boil whatever the length.
If I’m correct the hops at the beginning of the boil add no hoppy flavour or aroma just bittering flavour/taste.
Is it purely about achieving a particular IBU with any hop? Can I just use any hop that I have left over to achieve this? (Unless I was making a true to the word single hop beer)
So what’s makes a good bittering hop?
Obviously I’m not going to be using my most expensive hops if all the hoppy flavour & aroma is going to be lost.
 
Sorry but I think you have the wrong end of the stick.

A "bitter" taste covers a huge variety of bitter flavours and a "bittering hop" will add a bitterness that is individual to that particular hop ...

... so chucking just any old hop into a brew to get "bitterness" won't work. Sorry. :nono: :nono:

Think of other tastes. How about "sweet". Sugar, honey and syrup are all "sweet" but they all taste different.

Just the same with "bittering hops". :thumb:
 
Dutto said:
Sorry but I think you have the wrong end of the stick.

A "bitter" taste covers a huge variety of bitter flavours and a "bittering hop" will add a bitterness that is individual to that particular hop ...

... so chucking just any old hop into a brew to get "bitterness" won't work. Sorry. :nono: :nono:

Think of other tastes. How about "sweet". Sugar, honey and syrup are all "sweet" but they all taste different.

Just the same with "bittering hops". :thumb:
Click to expand...

Got ya!
I guess I didn't realise it had so much of an affect at the bittering end and at the end of the boil.
 
Some hops cover all bases which it is a great idea to make a single hop beer. Ive used EKG, Pacific Jade and Chinook as single hop beers and they all offer completely different tastes and that involves adding hops throughout the whole boil process and a dry hop as well. Its the best way to nail the processes and to understand what the hops bring to the party.
 
This is a great start to a thread.

I've wondered many times about the bittering hop, and just used high alpha acid varieties, as in the calculator it means you get the right IBUs with less hops.

However....

I did think that it seemed like a waste of aroma hops - a Citra or Amarillo, for example - when I could be using something less aromatic and more bittery. I've also wanted to do a SMaSH, but again used a different high AA hop at the start of the boil and saved the showcase hop for the late additions and dry hopping. It usually comes out great, but somehow I feel I've let down the purity of the SMaSH concept, and may be missing out on something.

Not sure what I'm saying here, apart from that I would really like to see how this discussion develops.

Dog.
 
As an old fuddy-duddy my "go to" hop is always East Kent Goldings but I am slowly weaning myself on to other "modern" hops like Chinook, Fuggles (very similar to EKG I find) and Styrian (actually another Golding variety).

I intend to try Citra as a hop in a Light Ale that I will brew for the summer.

With hops the options are enormous.

My suggestion is to get to know the characteristics of a single variety of hop before branching out into the myriad varieties available. :thumb:
 
Magnum and Herkules are my go-to bittering additions. Neither bring anything to the party but clean bitterness.
 
I was thinking about this myself after reading that commercial brewers use high alpha hops for bittering to keep costs down. For me brewing on a small scale using different bittering hops has the opposite effect ie I have to buy 2 packets rather than one so often use the same hops or whatever I've got left over for bittering.

Be interested to hear others views.
 
Magnum is very well thought of as a clean (not harsh) bittering hop. English ales have used Challenger and EKG since forever. Perle is very popular for pilsners on the continent. You'll be drinking it so next time you taste an ale you like the character of, try to find out what they used to bitter it.
 
When I was looking into this I came across a good post by Mod Yooper on our sister forum HBT. It seems what you looking for is low co-humolene and low beta acids to give a smooth bittering whilst a high alpha acid value for ecomomy. I've used simco in the past as a bittering hop as it fits the bill. I bought some Styrian Dana with my last order from GEB to use as my bittering hop for the next two or three brews , and will probably buy Mangnum next time from crossmyloof

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=334038

"Sometimes!

As an example, magnum is pretty neutral and I couldn't pick it out as a bittering hop in a German, English, or American beer as the variety used. But if you used chinook in a German beer as the bittering hop, I certainly could. There are some "harshness" characteristic with US hops like chinook and cluster.

The key is the levels of cohumulone. That gives the perception of "harshness" to a hop flavor, especially in bitterness.

Noble hops (hallertauer, tettnanger, etc) are well known for their smoothness, and in a German lager I could easily guess if a non-noble hop variety was used for bittering (unless it was a "clean" neutral hop like magnum). That's because they are low in cohumulone, and harsh tasting beta acids as well.

Here's a cool reference on all the commonly varieties of hops and the beta/alpha acids and cohumulone (and other oils) contents: http://www.usahops.org/userfiles/fil...%202011%29.pdf
 

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