Thoughts on English Hops for Spring Pale Ale

[NormanHurst]

I'm planning a spring pale ale with English hops. Probably 4.5% - 5% abv; solid MO grain bill with perhaps a low % of Munich or Light Crystal.

I'm undecided on yeast and open to ideas but I want a crisp, hoppy beer rather than a fruity, estery beer.

With regards hops, I want to try something new (different to Fuggles, EKG, Bramling Cross, First Gold which I have used before). Reading up on posts here and elsewhere, Target and Jester seem like good options but not sure if they are complementary?

Initital thinking is Target at 60m to c. 25 IBU, a 10m addition of Jester to add another 5-10 IBU, another dose of Jester at Flameout and then dry hop with some Target (2-3g per litre).

Thoughts on the rough plan so far? What would you use to make a hoppy English pale to drink in late spring / early summer?

 

[The Baron]

You can not go wrong with Target as a archetypical English hop as both bittering but also flavour and probably is not used as much as it should be. Regards not wanting fruity flavours I have not used Jester but I believe it can give quite a bit of fruitiness but I can vouch for First Gold as giving a orangey tang to its flavour(one of my personal favourite hops) so steer away from them if you want a normal/old fashioned English flavour and go with the other suggestions you have i.e Fuggles. EKG, Target, Challenger and maybe Northdown.
Yeast wise just choose a neutral one if you do not want any esters and maybe ferment at the lower temps to suppress any esters say US05 or something similar or as I have said if you use a English style yeast and I would personally use US04 or a similar style but keep the temp down to reduce any esters.

 

[trueblue]

Challenger is my favorite hop but also consider progress, northdown and boadicea. To get it more hoppy treat your water to make it more chloride forward. I would avoid using SO-4 like the plague, spoils any decent wort.

 

[Surfingobo]

I’d have thought jester would work well in an easy drinking English ale. It should give a small amount of fruitiness in my experience but more of a clean hop fruitiness than the heavy raisin character some English yeasts give which I think is what you are trying to avoid!

 

[An Ankoù]

Target's good, Challenger is excellent. I tried Aramis (a French hop) in an English style beer and it worked very well indeed. I've used quite a bit of Jester and it can be a bit of a shock if you let it dominate and it has a flavour all of it's own. I do a light ale SMaSH with Adnam's yeast, but be careful with that one. I also like Sovereign and a really goog hop, either on its own or mixed is Phoenix- first impressions can be of chocolate, but that quickly fades. Haven't tried Olicana or Opus yet, but I'm expecting them to be "odd" like Jester. Endeavour, Pilgrim, Pioneer, Brewer's Gold and WGV are all first class hops. Bullion can be a bit funny in a light beer.
@Northern_Brewer posted an excellent article on recent English hops some months ago. You might try and find it.

Edit:
Here it is:
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...does-everyone-think-of-them.90881/post-974445I don't like Boadicea either. Nasty, rank hop when used on its own.

The whole thread's worth reading.

 

[NormanHurst]

Thanks all - appreciate the thoughts and input.

Yes, after 'hoppy fruity' rather than 'yeasty fruity' if that makes sense!

Looks like Jester divides opinions a bit. Will read up a bit more on other options. There was a Josh Weikert article that suggested Pilgrim as a good option. Food for thought!

 

[trueblue]

I don't like Boadicea either. Nasty, rank hop when used on its own.

The whole thread's worth reading.

I like Boadicea but I have only used it as a finishing hop with normally Admiral or Magnum as bittering hop. One of the beers I brewed with it got 2nd place in one of the home brew festival competitions several years ago.

 

[An Ankoù]

Thanks all - appreciate the thoughts and input.

Yes, after 'hoppy fruity' rather than 'yeasty fruity' if that makes sense!

Looks like Jester divides opinions a bit. Will read up a bit more on other options. There was a Josh Weikert article that suggested Pilgrim as a good option. Food for thought!

https://www.britishhops.org.uk/varieties/endeavour/https://stocksfarm.net/shop/hop-varieties/2019-hop-sale-varieties/
Endeavour look like just the hops you're looking for and I reckon they'd go great as a 50/50 mix with First Gold.
Give Jo a call at Stock's Farm. They got some varieties at half price in their sale and I've always been very impressed by the quality of their hops.

This is worth a read, too. Also from Stocks.

https://stocksfarm.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/British-Hops-Published.pdf

 

[Braufather]

My penny worth, For a crisp beer I’d either Use oo7 or mjack equvilent which is clean but dry finishing and mash on the high side to compensate, or instead add some sugar to malt bill and go with any regular english yeast.

I was disappointed when using us yeast in an English Ipa Which was my first idea. Also to mix it up at the end you could through in some Slovenian GoldingS which brighten it up. I like challanger or ESG as main hop.

never used target but reading above I might do next time.

 

[MrRook]

My penny worth, For a crisp beer I’d either Use oo7 or mjack equvilent which is clean but dry finishing and mash on the high side to compensate, or instead add some sugar to malt bill and go with any regular english yeast.

I was disappointed when using us yeast in an English Ipa Which was my first idea.

I think 007 is top notch for a British IPA.

 

[Nicks90]

Challenger or progress will both fit that bill.
I love both hops and used them a lot in all sorts of beers and they never disappointed me.
As for dual use bittering hops, both Admiral and target are good and make a great SMASH

 

[Derek Smalls]

I’ve brewed a couple of batches in recent months, using Endeavour & Olicana in equal measure. Both batches tasted good, but the second one was better on the nose because I slipped 10g of Cascade into the dry hops.

Both had a light malt base and Magnum as a bittering hop. Liberty Bell was the yeast. 5% abv.

I plan to do a couple more soon without changing too much, although I’m eyeing up Jester or Target to go with Endeavour.