general hopping

[MrFeltimo]

i'm sure this has been discussed before, however,
when adding your bittering hops, usually at the start of the boil, why bother with the fancy stuff, Fuggles, EKG and the like, what i mean is, you dont really get much character from the bittering addition, right? why not add the high alpha hops, magnum for example, you will get more bang for your buck with this clean high alpha.

What I've been doing is adding my magnums, then the fancy stuff where it counts. Is this rational thinking?

What do you guys do?

 

[Yooper]

While you may not get much character from the bittering hops, sometimes you do get some taste.

For example, while magnum is a "clean" variety with little flavor, using something like columbus or chinnook IS noticeable, and many perceive chinook to be harsh. Sometimes, using a lot of a low AAU hop can leave a vegetal or grassy flavor in the beer, if tons of it are needed for bittering so in that case I especially like using something like magnum for bittering.

For English beers, I still use traditional English bittering hops, or a German hop like magnum if I want it to be neutral. For German beers, I always use either magnum or a noble hop if the IBUs aren't too high (and needing lots of low AAU hops.

There is a bit of flavor, more like a tone to the beer, from bittering hops in most cases even if not a strong flavor.

 

[riderkb]

That is how I do it. The cost is a small factor, but I like the using high acid bittering hops because they reduce the amount of gunk in the kettle. Although recently I've been doing a lot of SMaSHs. It that case I bitter with the chosen hop. The one I kegged today is a Crystal/Pearl SMaSH. Crystal is a wimpy bittering hop.

 

[MrFeltimo]

That is how I do it. The cost is a small factor, but I like the using high acid bittering hops because they reduce the amount of gunk in the kettle. Although recently I've been doing a lot of SMaSHs. It that case I bitter with the chosen hop. The one I kegged today is a Crystal/Pearl SMaSH. Crystal is a wimpy bittering hop.

Well thats just it, recently i got given 2 oz of calypso @15 aa, i made my usual pale ale grain bill but added the hops at 20 mins and then at flameout, tastes great, its all about the flavour, aroma right?