How Many Hops Are Too Many?

We polled three professional brewers, all craft and of varying size, for viewpoints. Edan Valkner, head brewer at Harper’s Ferry Brewing in Purcellville, Virginia said, “From a home brew perspective, when you're using small amounts of hops, I mean economically, you're already purchasing a lot of excess products that you're either not going to use or may go stale in the refrigerator. There’s oxidization and a litany of problems that may go on down the road.” “In the actual brew, once you start introducing those separate hops over the course of the boil, you're going to lose a lot of those individual characteristics because first, you're introducing a very small amount, and over the course of that 60-minute boil you're not going to have enough differentiation in your extractions or your utilizations to make as much of a difference as one might think. So, using a little more distinctive hop to try to give your final wort a little more distinction is probably a better bet. I think the result will be a cleaner flavor than what you would experience if you added several small additions.” From this viewpoint, we suggest deciding on the flavor and aroma characteristics you desire and use three, probably two hop varieties that best deliver what you want.”

 

 

Edan, right and associate brewer Sean Foley

 

Edan spoke about the trend to late additions, saying “you are getting more flavor out of your whirlpool additions and you're not going to have as much difference in your utilizations because you're really extracting those terpenes and those volatiles. So, I don't see a big benefit in muddying up those flavors because we're only capable of tasting so much at any given time. If we overwhelm our tongue, we're going to gravitate to the thing that is most prominent in that particular profile.” “We limit the number of hops in any given beer because I'm looking for something that's going to have distinction, and if it comes off as a muddy or with an indiscernible flavor the average person may say,” Oh—well it tastes hoppy.” But is that hop oniony? Or is that hop citrus seed? Does it have more floral characteristic? And they may not be able to pick up on any of those nuances because there's just too much going on. So, if I can use two or three hops over the course of the boil, in the whirlpool, and have something that shows up distinctively and somebody says it was a kind of cool utilization or use of Mosaic or Citra or Azacca, then that's something that it may attract them to that beer. Or guide them if they're in the home brewing realm to use something that may be a little more distinctive and a little more flavor forward.”

Rob has a somewhat contrarian viewpoint, favoring malt over hops for his brewery and his beers. “I don't like the fad you get in London and Manchester now for these hop teas where there's almost no hop added in the boil or in the whirlpool. It's all dry hop, and I think they all just taste similar. But there's a few hops we've never used that I'd like to try, like Centennial. Mostly, my big hops are Mosaic, some British hops, and Bobek from Slovenia.”