Hop Schedule For Smash

[MarkA]

My next 5 brews will be smash, as I think it's about time I started tasting individual hops rather than trying to pick out flavours in a 3 hop beer.

I'll be using;

4KG Lager malt mashed at 66 and;

Challenger x2 using S04 & Windsor yeast to see what the differences are
Amarillo
First Gold
Chinook


I'll be boiling for 90 mins and was wondering what times to add the hops to bring out their best?

I'd ideally like to use 100g so I don't have a few grams of hops left here and there

[boingy]

Almost all the bitterness will come from the 90 minute boil so your target IBU will dictate that quantity, then split the rest between 10 minutes and flame out and maybe keep a handful back for dry hopping, depending on the style.

Or you could just add the 90 minute lot then chuck the remainder in at flameout. I've done that plenty of times and it gives decent results.

[Charles1968]

I like to put a lot in just before flameout and then multiple small amounts during the chill between 80 and 50 Celsius. This is a great way to extract the nicest aroma compounds (such as linalool) without having to dry hop, which gives slightly different flavours and adds haze. Any hops added after flameout but before the temp has fallen to 80 will add bitterness, which can muck up your IBU calcs. You have to stir or agitate the hops during the steep to get the flavour out, and a hop/grain bag will make things much easier.

Amarillo is overrated in my opinion. I'd try Citra and Mosaic, they're both incredible.

[MarkA]

Thank you for the suggestions, I usually add at 90/10/0 minutes, I'll have a go at adding multiple additions during cooling.

Amarillo is overrated in my opinion. I'd try Citra and Mosaic, they're both incredible.

I have heard both good and not so good things about Amarillo so I thought making a smash with them will help me decided which side I'm on Citra is on my list for the next brews after these (MM has sold out at the moment) and I'll definitely be trying a Mosaic smash at some point as I had great results recently using Mosaic and Magnum in a blonde ale.

[Charles1968]

Give it a go but make sure you get hops no older than 2013. My problem with Amarillo has been getting any flavour from it at all - seems to be one of those hops that loses flavour quickly. I found it smelt great on opening the packet but had vanished by the time I drank the beer. Mosaic and Citra on the other hand have an insane amount of flavour and you can skip dry hopping if you do a good post boil steep

[MarkA]

That's interesting, thanks Charles, I'll bear that in mind.

[boingy]

Yeah, a bit off topic but +1 for the Citra.
In a world where it seems a new hop variety arrives every couple of weeks, Citra is the only one that has made me go "wow!"
I'm probably close to double figures for single hopped beers with Citra.

Stick it on your list (actually I'd forget the Challenger too...).

[legion]

Almost all the bitterness will come from the 90 minute boil so your target IBU will dictate that quantity, then split the rest between 10 minutes and flame out

Chinook can be pretty high alpha, these can give a lot of bitterness from 15 / 10 min additions if your hopping at 3g/l or so.

[Padalac]

My 2 cents: shift the bittering forward to 10 mins and up the quantities to get your desired IBU. Let's assume you want to do a 45 IBU beer. Put in a miniscule amount at 90mins to get to say, 10 IBU. Then get say, 20 IBU from 10 min additions and and 15 IBU from steeping additions. Then you could even dry hop as well. This way you'll get a lot of hop aroma and flavour, without too much bittering.