HOPS FOR AN IPA

[mancer62]

Hops For IPA

Was wondering what hops to use for a Wilko IPA I will be doing this week.
The current IPA I have in my Corny was again a Wilko which I dry hopped with 25g Citra & 25g Cascade. I am really enjoying it but would like to experiment with different hops. Any suggestions? I must admit I do like the citrusy taste of the citra. Would boiling the hops make it more hoppy than just dry hoping (if so how long for?) Or is dry hoping the prefered option.

 

[Ciaran12s]

You would make a hop tea rather than boil them for the flavour. Hop tea for flavour, dry hop for aroma being the general consensus.

A cafetiere makes a great hopteapot. 50 grams hops say, in the cafetiere filled up with boiled water cooled to 80ish degrees. Pour that in and leave it for maybe half an hour. Add that tea to the batch immediately before packaging. Works a treat for me!

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
I use a dedicated cafetiere for hop tea, but I cool my boiled water to 60°C since reading this article.

 

[dan125]

If you like cascade & citra, you'll probably also like - amarillo, simcoe, galaxy, denali & centennial (some of my favourites).
Don't be afraid to use 100g or more for dry hopping if you're looking for that big hop hit.
:small

 

[Dutto]

Hi!
I use a dedicated cafetiere for hop tea, but I cool my boiled water to 60°C since reading this article.

Definitely food for thought and "ditto" on the dedicated cafeteria.:thumb:Personally, I use 250ml of boiling water for five minutes when making a hop tea and then squeeze out the resulting brew and pour it into the bottling bucket (or PB) along with the dissolved priming sugar.

For me, a problem with using lower temperatures has to be that the normal time-frame (30 minutes?) for making a hop tea isn't long enough to allow the oils to be released from the hops; and once released they are open to oxidation.

Hmmmm! As I said, food for thought! I would go back to dry hopping but the memory of all those blocked filters are probably going to stop me!

 

[terrym]

If you boil the hops you will extract bitterness. The longer you boil and the higher the %AA of the hops the more bitterness you extract. Normally you don't need to bother boiling the hops with a kit.
Hop teas are fine for a kit just like dry hopping. My rule of thumb for a hop tea is 100g liquid to every 10g hops, since you need to have more liquid than a hop porridge and yet you don't want to dilute your brew. And I chuck in all of the hop tea when its cooled, hops and liquid.
There are many American style hops out there to try, selecting them is down to personal taste. For example I prefer Cascade over Centennial. But you won't know until you have tried them.
But do remember there are other hops out there to experiment with other than American hops, Styrian Goldings, EKG, First Gold to name but three.
And you should be looking for a dual purpose or aroma only hop to go with your beer.
More on hops here
http://beerlegends.com/hops-varieties