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Messing around with hops

Willards

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Location
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After just a few wonderful years of enjoying craft beers, my wife and I were inevitably drawn toward brewing our own.
To our surprise, we were able to muddle through the wealth of misinformation and create a very drinkable first beer!  It was a chocolate porter that we spiked at bottling with just a bit of bourbon for flavor and increased ABV.

We've only completed our second brew now (an extract IPA kit to which my wife Olivia added zest from a Buddha's hand fruit), but I'm already feeling ambitious for our third: a gimlet IPA.

I'm starting with a recipe similar to Two-Hearted because it is lighter and might take to the lime well.  To get the gin and lime flavor, I'm adding juniper berries and lime zest at the end of the boil.  Maybe that's all off, but that's the fun of brewing is finding out. 

Now for hops, I am thinking Simcoe and/or Citra.  Which one should I use for bittering and which for aroma?

Thanks in advance!
Zach
 
I suppose I'm missing some introductory stuff here.  My apologies for going straight into a question in an introduction thread!

My wife Olivia and I are new to the forum, and because we are learning together, we share the Willards account.  We'll sign with our names when we post so you know just who you're talking to :)

We are brewing in the heart of Indiana, where the daily weather changes make fermentation a challenge in a poorly insulated home. We're excited to learn from all of you and gain enough experience that we can help out some new brewers on this forum!
 
I started to respond to your question yesterday, but I was kind of in a quandary about how to answer it.  Both of these hops have a pretty high Alpha acid content and are primarily used as bittering hops.  This is not to say that you can't use them in another way as that's what brewing your own is all about (experimentation and trying different things.)  Normally, Aroma hops are of lower Alpha Acid content and impart different things to the brew.  But again, you can do whatever you want.  Citra have a really great pine aroma and could be used to help with the aroma of the beer.  I'm not a big IPA guy, but when I do make one, I use Cascade (just my personal preference).  Good Luck and happy brewing!
 
I too was hesitant to respond. It seems like you know what your tastes are, which makes your question difficult to answer since it is so subjective.

Take a couple varieties of hops side by side, put each one into a bag, and huff each one.  The one which suits your pallet best should be the one you use for aroma.

Better yet, brew some SMaSH beers. That's what I did. Made a half dozen over a season, then another half dozen over another. Learned a sh*t-ton.

For IPAs I like Fuggle for aroma, and any old high-alpha for bittering. Used Chinook for bitter and Goldings for flavor for a nice run.  Good beer.  Personally I'm not a huge Cascade fan, though many people view that statement as blasphemy.  I prefer Kent Goldings or Fuggle for my ales. Not big one the whole citrus notes thing.

Like I said, it's subjective.

Just goes to show how amazing and almost magical it is that so many different things can be made with so few ingredients.
 
Thanks for the responses!  Our second brew was an all-chinook (does that count as a SMaSH?), which tastes kind of like a sessionable IPA from a local brewery here that we love.

We're thinking about bittering with simcoe and dry-hopping with citra. Same original plan for juniper in the last 15 minutes of the boil.  Then for lime, we're thinking about steeping the zest of two limes in 170º water for 20 minutes for an extreme lime kick.  Any fans of gimlets out there?  Would this give us a similar kick to a gimlet's lime juice?  Would it overpower the juniper?

-Zach
 
Willards said:
Same original plan for juniper in the last 15 minutes of the boil.  Then for lime, we're thinking about steeping the zest of two limes in 170º water for 20 minutes for an extreme lime kick.  Any fans of gimlets out there?  Would this give us a similar kick to a gimlet's lime juice?  Would it overpower the juniper?-Zach

Hi Zach,
I am planning to brew a "Fjelløl" (Mountain Beer) with ingredients collected from the area of our mountain hut here in Norway. One of those ingredients is Juniper. I collected both berries and small twigs this weekend.
Question: How much Juniper are you going to use and what is your batch size?

Regards,
Slurk
 
Good evening Slurk!

We're adding 1 ounce (≈28g) of dried juniper berries.Our batch size is 5 gallons.  I have read that others who added .75 ounces (≈21g) of dried berries at the last 15 minutes of a 5 gallon boil thought it was not enough for a defining flavor.
 
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