cascade, citra & amarillo together

[barry44]

Hi guys,

i have just got into extract brewing and so far have made the brewuk 'way to amarillo' and my own recipe using magnum bittering, citra for 30 minutes and cascade at 15, 5 and flameout.

The amarillo was lovely and i bottled the other one today and the taste from the sample jar was lovely, really citrusy.

My next recipe is to combine amarillo and cascade together as i have read about the coopers fruit salad ale which uses both of these hops together.

However, i was wondering whether it would be worth combining the 3 of the above with magnum as bittering or would this be too much of the same thing, too much citrus

What other hops complement these hops in 2 hop, 3 hop brews?

[killer]

Hi Barry,

Amarillo and Cascade work unbelievably well together.
You can always bitter with something like Magnum and leave the flavour/ Aroma hops for later additions. There are lots of people who reckon that it is a waste to use the more expensive hops on bittering... (I'm not one of them)
Other hops I have tried with Cascade/ Amarillo and work - Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, NZ Cascade....
But you could throw in lots of different types that will go with them - Chinook, Simcoe, Athanum
Citra will certainly work too - I'm planning a Citra/ Cascade/ Amarillo/ Nelson Sauvin/ Chinook IPA for my next beer.
Let us know how you get on.

[6470zzy]

What other hops complement these hops in 2 hop, 3 hop brews?

Centennial and Summit will work well with Cascade and Amarillo and Magnum is great as a nice clean bittering hop.

Cheers

[barry44]

gents, many thanks for your responses.

I would love to get my hands on Nelson Sauvin, Motueka & Athanum but i can never find them in stock anywhere!!

i have read a review of chinook on BYO.com, 'Mild to medium-heavy, spicy, piney, and grapefruity' which sounds very interesting.

Centennial also sounds nice and Summit sounds fantastic!

time to order some hops....

[barry44]

Hi all,

i have ordered centennial, 13.5%, chinook, 12.5% and summit, 17.5% as a result of the above recommendations.

I now have a hop stock of the above along with amarillo, 10.8%, cascade, 7.2%, citra 15% & magnum 14.4%

I would really appreciate it if you could give me some proposed hop additions to get the best from these hops, especially the new additions.

I brew extract with generally 3kg of DME and 350g of Crystal.

So far i have made a single hop amarillo brew, an amarillo and magnum brew and a magnum/citra/cascade brew.

I welcome any ideas.

[Jocky]

Hi all,

i have ordered centennial, 13.5%, chinook, 12.5% and summit, 17.5% as a result of the above recommendations.

I now have a hop stock of the above along with amarillo, 10.8%, cascade, 7.2%, citra 15% & magnum 14.4%

I would really appreciate it if you could give me some proposed hop additions to get the best from these hops, especially the new additions.

I brew extract with generally 3kg of DME and 350g of Crystal.

So far i have made a single hop amarillo brew, an amarillo and magnum brew and a magnum/citra/cascade brew.

I welcome any ideas.

If you just want a hoppy pale ale to show off these hops don't bother with the crystal. Use 10-20% dry wheat extract instead.

Crystal is really something for your British style ales which have subtler hop flavour and more malt in them, the caramel notes crystal provides just doesn't go well with fruity American hops when you want the hops to be the main show in your beer.

But in terms of hop additions - I really recommend you get some brewing software and work it out. Aim for 30-40 IBU, getting half of them from your 60 min boil hops, and the rest from equal additions of hops at 15, 10 and 5 mins.

The only thing I'd advise regarding hop selection is that you avoid Cascade as an early bittering hop in large amounts as it can be rather harsh. This is what Magnum exists for.

[critch]

i do a beer with these hops it aint too bad. cascade and amerillo in the boil ,citra dry hopped in the fv......

[Paddy Bubbles]

All those hops will work amazingly well together, have no fear. One thing you might want to consider though, is whether you will still be able to enjoy the individual characteristics of each hop if you add more varieties. My latest thing is to use a maximum of two varieties in all of my pale ales and IPAs. 3 varieties is certainly not excessive, but if you add lots of different varieties I think you end up with an indistinct hoppiness.

Slightly off-topic, but I find the really fruity varieties like amarillo and Citra pair very well with the cattier/pinier varieties like Chinook, Simcoe and Columbus.

[barry44]

many thanks guys for your comments.

Jocky, with 3kg of light DME i would disregard the crystal and use 10-20% wheat DME, this would be 10-20% of 3kg roughly 300 to 500g? Would i reduce the light DME to incorporate the wheat DME?

I reckon using magnum to about 20 IBU then combinations of Centennial/Chinook/Summit and Amarillo/Cascade/Citra to about 40IBU, does this sound like a plan?

Critch, my next one is a magnum/amarillo/cascade brew, looking forward to that one!

With regard to dry hopping, i haven't tried that yet so may look at incorporating it in future brews.

thanks guys

[Jocky]

Jocky, with 3kg of light DME i would disregard the crystal and use 10-20% wheat DME, this would be 10-20% of 3kg roughly 300 to 500g? Would i reduce the light DME to incorporate the wheat DME?

Yes, 300-600g out of 3kg could be wheat extract. Actually, looking at my favourite recent blonde recipe I used 24% wheat extract. You can reduce the light DME if you want, but the main thing here is you want to figure out what gravity you want to hit.

For an OG of 1.045 in a 23 litre batch, my recent (35 IBU) blonde contained:
2.2kg extra light dry extract
0.65kg wheat extract (added 10 mins from end of boil, to keep the finished beer nice and light)

This had a really nice rounded bitterness, and I reckon that the fruity hops you have would work fabulously

I reckon using magnum to about 20 IBU then combinations of Centennial/Chinook/Summit and Amarillo/Cascade/Citra to about 40IBU, does this sound like a plan?

Sounds good - if you want to keep the recipe simple, quantity wise, use 3KG of Extra Light DME, a 500g bag of Wheat DME and you'll get an OG of 1.056 in 23 litres, which should give you a ABV of around 5.6% and be suitable for 40-45 IBU.

Dry hopping is the 'cherry on the top' of the cake - it'll give you the full hop experience, but you will still have an ace brew without it.

[critch]

Critch, my next one is a magnum/amarillo/cascade brew, looking forward to that one!

With regard to dry hopping, i haven't tried that yet so may look at incorporating it in future brews.

id just use the magnum as a bittering hop, ive not been impressed with any experiments ive done with it as a late addition

dry hopping? wait to the ferments dying off and do it!, worth every flower or pellet imo