Help with hop ideas for an IPA

[ChrisHughes]

I'm planning an IPA (English style) but want to use up a lot of my existing supplies. Malts will be marris otter & a little crystal malt I have. I have a load of challenger so will use this as the main bittering hop but need some ideas for late addition hops & potential dry hops. Anything to compliment the challengers and something to add an interesting aroma taste?

Or do I try a single hop IPA with the challengers?

[Barley Water]

Well I'm not English (Texan actually so take all this for what it's worth) but the English IPA I do has Challenger for bittering, some Kent Goldings for flavor and a combination of Kent Goldings and Strian Goldings for dry hopping. I'm really a great big fan of the Strian Goldings late; nice flavor. As far as the grist goes, I actually cut out all the crystal malt in my recipe and have maybe 15% or so corn in there to try and lighten and dry the whole thing out. I am also a big believer that English beer should have that nice cracker/bisquet flavor so besides using the standard Maris Otter base malt I also like to add some bisquet malt to accentuate that whole deal. Oh and I guess I should mention that I go for about a 1.065 O.G. beer; it's a bit of a throw back.

[ChrisHughes]

Thanks for the tip, styrian holdings have been on the potential list so might plump for those

[Padalac]

admiral is nice!

[Rookie]

I had an all challenger pale ale at a Beerfest that was pretty good. You could go all challenger in the boil and add something else via dry hopping if it doesn't suit you.

[seymour]

admiral is nice!

+1

If you're looking for an ultra-modern English hop which holds its own against bold and fruity New World varieties, Admiral is great to experiment with.

[ChrisHughes]

Some great ideas, I'll add them to the list

[Francois]

Wonder how admiral and challenger might work together? Equal additions for bittering and late additions maybe?

[Francois]

Looking at profiles, it would come out as spiced orange in theme in keeping for the festive season, might have to try it even if you don't! maybe get some target in early boil too for the IBU's...

[ChrisHughes]

Looking at profiles, it would come out as spiced orange in theme in keeping for the festive season, might have to try it even if you don't! maybe get some target in early boil too for the IBU's...

The spiced orange is what appeals. I was thinking challenger to bitter, late addition of challenger & admiral & a big dose of admiral dry hopped.

Might up the crystal to increase the colour & caramel flavour!

[Padalac]

How did it turn out?

[ChrisHughes]

How did it turn out?

Brew day planned for Xmas week. Will let you know

[Wonkydonkey]

admiral is nice!

+1

If you're looking for an ultra-modern English hop which holds its own against bold and fruity New World varieties, Admiral is great to experiment with.

I could not agree more, as I have almost got a brew just about finishing in a wks time, I've had a few tastes, and yeh those orange flavours are nice, I think I should have added some dry hops as the Orange flavour has mellowed a bit since comming out of FV.

[ChrisHughes]

Bought admiral hops yesterday so plan brew tomorrow or weekend. I'll do a mini biab IPA, but was thinking of using challenger for the main bittering hop (15g @ 60 & 15mins) & then 20g admiral @ 10mins & dry hop with 30g for a couple of days. What do you think?

[seymour]

sounds delicious!