Using a plethera of British style hops in what?

[The Baron]

I have managed to accumulate a large amount of british hops which I will need to use in upcoming brews. The collection has crept up on me as I have been doing mainly IPA's and when ordering I generally tag on any cheap hops on offer which are generally british styles. Now I do like british beers but as most of us do I am going through a IPA period. Could forums members advise me on some styles and possible recipes to use up plenty of these hops in. I have never used british hops for dry hopping etc and wonder if beers with this style of hops are drinkable or do they become too bitter or grassy in taste. As I have said I need to use them in larger amounts than normal any suggestions and what they taste like( as I said not too bitter 35 IBU's is about my limit but I am open to persuasion)

 

[dan125]

Its a tricky one because British hops tend to be strongly 'earthy' if used in big quantities IMO.
I think the most I've used was 190g EKG in a 24L batch (80g @ 60m, 60g @ 10m, 50g DH) when trying to recreate Martin Cornell's take on a 19th century IPA back in 2016.

 

[Rodcx500z]

I did this today
New Recipe
Specialty Beer
Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 19.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.500
Total Hops (g): 59.70
Original Gravity (OG): 1.053 (°P): 13.1
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.21 %
Colour (SRM): 6.5 (EBC): 12.8
Bitterness (IBU): 36.4 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 60
Grain Bill
----------------
4.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (88.89%)
0.500 kg Munich I (11.11%)
Hop Bill
----------------
24.7 g Target Pellet (11.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.3 g/L)
20.0 g East Kent Golding Pellet (5.46% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Aroma) (1.1 g/L)
15.0 g East Kent Golding Pellet (5.46% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Aroma) (0.8 g/L)
Misc Bill
----------------
Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with WLP039 - Nottingham Ale
you could play around with this, I did it in brewmate, and its my first all grain

 

[chthon]

Do you have a list of them?
For starters:

• Fuggles for bittering and later in the boil
• EKG for later in the boil and dry hop, but if you have enough, why not use them for bittering too?
• EKG is nice for dry hopping

Also have a look at "Shut up about Barclay-Perkins". Ronald Pattinson publishes English beer recipes every Wednesday and Saturday, and most recipes use English hops.

I brewed a saison and only used Eastwell Goldings, both for bittering and late additions.

 

[The Baron]

Yes
EKG, Fuggles, Pilgrim, Northdown, Target, Magnum and some none English but British bitter/ale style hops Styrian Goldings, Flyer and some noble hops also. I am worried about using loads in dry hopping as done in IPA's etc but really do need to use them up so Need to know the consequences of large dry hops etc as using in the boil will give me too high IBU's

 

[MyQul]

What about making and English IPA? Satisfies both you current IPA phase and your need to use up some of those English hops

 

[chthon]

Oh, and how do you store them? In the freezer, fridge or just at ambient temperatures? Because it makes a difference in the remaining alpha-acids, which you need for the bittering.

 

[An Ankoù]

I, too, have accumulated a goodly pile of English hops, and for the same reason. I also find that dry-hopping leads to grassiness if its overdone. I'm tending to dry hop now with a greater volume, but a shorter period- 48 hours max. Not too fond of Styrians in any form. I'd keep the Magnum (I thought they were German) for bittering any style as they're quite neutral.

 

[The Baron]

I store them using a vacuum packer then pit them in the fridge. I had thought of a English IPA but the main issue is I have never dry hopped with English hops to any quantity and as An Ankou said want to avoid grassiness so may try shorter dry hopping as suggested. How much dare I use in a dry hop in this style?

 

[MyQul]

As well as dry hopping, get some more hops in their via a hop tea

 

[The Baron]

Do you think that would over power the beer with too much hop flavour as I said I have done plenty of dry hopping but not with english hops? how many hops should i use in your opinion on say a english IPA recipe and which do you recommend?

 

[An Ankoù]

I don't think Target are used much in dry hopping, and Magnum's probably better in a lager. I don't know Flyer. I think all the rest can be used.
Why not make 6 gallons of your basic best bitter- bittered with Target, perhaps, late hop with Goldings and then split it into 5 demi-johns for secondary fermentation and dry hopping with different hops and hopping levels.
Your hop storage of vacuum packs in the fridge means you can keep them for ages anyway. It's the alpha acid content and hence the bitterness which deteriorates with age while the flavour and aroma is usually much more stable. Hence, I bitter with new hops, but use unopened packs of older hops for flavour.

 

[hop-a-long]

If I have to much hops lying around in my freezer I tend to think in the direction of making an IPA or an RPA.
I use this magazine to guide me in what hops to use. Rye gives you a spicier malt flavour, so it works with different hops.
The tables in the back of the magazine give the aromaprofile and use of most (if not all) of the hops you mentioned.

 

[MyQul]

Do you think that would over power the beer with too much hop flavour as I said I have done plenty of dry hopping but not with english hops? how many hops should i use in your opinion on say a english IPA recipe and which do you recommend?

You can definately both dry hop and add a hop tea but as to the amounts I'm not sure as I never really dry hop my beers (I used to add my flavour to my beer by adding a hop tea and no late hops). I'm definately not an expert on IPA's as I generally make low gravity beers around 3.5%

 

[An Ankoù]

If I have to much hops lying around in my freezer I tend to think in the direction of making an IPA or an RPA.
I use this magazine to guide me in what hops to use. Rye gives you a spicier malt flavour, so it works with different hops.
The tables in the back of the magazine give the aromaprofile and use of most (if not all) of the hops you mentioned.
View attachment 19805

Thanks. Just downloaded it. It looks very good reading.

 

[matt76]

A few thoughts...

You certainly can dry hop bitter, as discussed here. Based on that thread I've got an ESB conditioning at the moment brewed and dry hopped using Fuggles and EKG. It tasted pretty good at bottling but note that i went easier on the dry hop than i do with my American IPA.

There's a load of stuff on Jim's Beer Kit about St Austell Tribute clones - this recipe on Malt Miller is similar and uses Fuggles, Willamette and a load of Styrian Goldings at flameout.

It's also worth a flick through GH's book - there's lots of British recipes using these kinds of hops - just bear in mind a lot of them seem to use less hops added earlier in the boil, whereas AIPA's trends to have a shed load added late and/or dry hopped. It's just a different style is all.

Also worth a look round the forum to see what others are brewing - Nicks90's AG17 & AG20 might be worth a look for example.

Good luck

 

[An Ankoù]

If I have to much hops lying around in my freezer I tend to think in the direction of making an IPA or an RPA.
I use this magazine to guide me in what hops to use. Rye gives you a spicier malt flavour, so it works with different hops.
The tables in the back of the magazine give the aromaprofile and use of most (if not all) of the hops you mentioned.
View attachment 19805

Just downloaded this. Appears to be a 2008 edition, but very interesting nevertheless. Thanks for the tip, hop-a-long.

 

[The Baron]

A few thoughts...

You certainly can dry hop bitter, as discussed here. Based on that thread I've got an ESB conditioning at the moment brewed and dry hopped using Fuggles and EKG. It tasted pretty good at bottling but note that i went easier on the dry hop than i do with my American IPA.

There's a load of stuff on Jim's Beer Kit about St Austell Tribute clones - this recipe on Malt Miller is similar and uses Fuggles, Willamette and a load of Styrian Goldings at flameout.

It's also worth a flick through GH's book - there's lots of British recipes using these kinds of hops - just bear in mind a lot of them seem to use less hops added earlier in the boil, whereas AIPA's trends to have a shed load added late and/or dry hopped. It's just a different style is all.

Also worth a look round the forum to see what others are brewing - Nicks90's AG17 & AG20 might be worth a look for example.

Good luck

How much did you use in the dry hop Matt, I was considering using 25g each of my lead hops so 50g in total do you think that will be too much?

 

[matt76]

In the end I dry hopped with 18g of Fuggles (all that was left in the pack) and another 18g EKG, all added loose in the FV.

That's for a 12L (ish) batch remember - though in this case I believe it only yielded 18 x 500ml for some reason.

(By contrast, the same volume of my IPA is dry hopped with about 40g Amarillo + 20g Citra)

My ESB still has another week to go in the bottle before I declare it ready for drinking so it's hard to say for sure (if you can wait that long I'll let you know). But if you're talking about a standard 20-25L batch then maybe you could actually go a tad more than 50g dry hop (I originally planned 15g each but just used up the Fuggles and matched it with EKG).

 

[The Baron]

Thanks Matt I have not brewed the beer as yet so I will possibly still at a point of not having put in the dry hop when you crack your first bottle. I await your reply. I am going to do a English IPA with alittle rye and munich in it, hops wise I am cheating slightly with Fuggles, Styrian Cardinal and Styrian goldings as they needs using up as they are open and dry hopping with Fuggles and Styrian Cardinal