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Hop profile question

Painter

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I purchased Beersmith2 and I think that it is OK, so far, but only OK. I don't have time right now to write a complete report on everything that I feel should be looked at, but I am going to ask about something that came up as I was working on recently, trying to refine a recipe.

I am trying to decide on what hops to use in a recipe. I often order my ingredients from Midwest and they have pretty thorough descriptions of the hops that they have for sale. One of the problems that I have with Beersmith is that there is some discrepancy between the descriptions of hop characteristics on Midwest, compared to the descriptions on Beersmith. Are hop characteristics subjective to the point that Midwest might describe a hop as a hop with aromatic characteristics, while Beersmith categorizes it as only a bittering hop?  For example, Chinook, in the Midwest catalog, is described as "pleasant, but intense aroma," while Beersmith categorizes it as a bittering hop.  It looks to me as if Chinook might be a really good aroma hop, but I wouldn't know that if I followed Beersmith.

Also, there are many hops that are listed in the Midwest catalog that are nowhere to be found on Beersmith. Does Beersmith do any kind of upgrading to keep abreast of offerings from major suppliers like Midwest?
 
In my experience, this is something that is pretty subjective.  Lots of people use lots of different ingredients is completely different ways with great results all around.  I, for one don't strictly rely on beersmith to tell me what hops are to be used as what, but for the most part (again, in my experience), the software has been pretty accurate and I personally think the main difference for me in use is Alpha Acid content.  I typically use higher AA for bittering, and lower AA for flavor and aroma.  But that's just the way I do things.  There are whole books on hops and their uses, so IMO to rely on Beersmith to be completely spot on about the use of every hop is asking for quite a bit, especially considering that brewers all around do things from time to time simply to "break with tradition."
 
The whole boil - aroma hop concept is something we inherit from the major breweries. Most craft brewers pretty much ignore the distinction, as do most experienced homebrewers.

The distinction comes from major breweries buying hops for IBUs, rather than flavor or aroma character. High alpha hops tend to have a correspondingly greater amount of aroma oils, and the majors don't want/need that. The have a very select, narrow range of "acceptable" aromatic qualities.

The rest of us have figured out that not only are the aromatics of high alpha hops interesting, they're delicious!

With BeerSmith, use the bittering - aroma values for boil - post boil additions. For any hop. In any beer.
 
Also check your add-ons. There is a 2013 hops update.
 
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