Getting Hops to be more prominent?

[jmarr]

I am trying to improve my performance to style in competitions. For two of my stouts a common theme was the judges wanted/expected more hoppiness. While both had mid-range IBUs for their style, the comments indicated there was not as much hops both for flavor and aroma for representative of the styles. One was an American Stout the other was a Russian Imperial. The imperial was young and dry hopped, But young (1 month) was not noted specifically. A lack of "complexity" was cited. The American was not young and not dry hopped.

Suggestions on what I might do - other than simply increasing the amount, Alpha, or time for Hopping?? I have been considering trying to lower the PH during boil with 8-9 gm of Gypsum.

[Bill Lawrence]

You need to be a little careful when acting on suggestions from scoresheets as not all judges are created equal. What I like to do if I can is get my scoresheets and sit down with a glass of the beer to see if I agree with the comments. I am particularly poor at scoring my own beer I guess because I know what is in it and the processes involved in making it, in other words I tend to taste what I want to taste. I have gotten score sheets back and wondered "where the hell did that come from?" but upon tasting the beer many times I admit they are correct, but not always. After you have been around awhile, you also get to know which folks are good judges so you tend to weight their comments more heavily, Don Trotter comes to mind. Many of the guys are also very good at particular styles so for instance if I want feedback on a heffe, I go to Richard Harris for a sour, Grumpy Beyer, the "Smoke King" is Anthony etc. Also, if you can get a couple of data points that is good also so enter your beer in more than one contest. Consider entering your stuff in the club only contests, it's free, costs you only one bottle and you get objective feedback. Some judges will give you glowing comments then give your beer a 35, in my opinion those types of scoresheets are worthless. Maybe it feels nice when somebody blows smoke up your ass but it won't help you make better beer. Sometimes it hurts a bit but I would rather somebody tell me what the faults in the beer are and hopefully also makes some suggestions for improvement. Finally, if you are trying to perfect a recipe, keep good notes and maybe even keep your scoresheets. One reason you see the same guys winning every year is because they have a library of recipes proven over several years. Once you know the recipe is good then all you need to do is execute, it takes one variable out of the equasion.

Now on to your specific question. If you determine that indeed the guys that judged your beer knew what they were talking about then more late hopping will get you both more hop flavor as well as aroma. Especially for the American Stout, use alot of "C" hops, the judges are looking for the distintive grapefruit/pine deal those hops bring to beer. Generally really hoppy beers are better young because the hops will tend to fade with age. Finally, in regard to ph, if you make dark beers the ph will tend to be lower due to the presence of the roasted grains. Water around here has both temporary as well as permanent hardness and is naturally somewhat alkaline. As such, it works pretty well for dark beers. The problem you get into however is that when making ligher beers you can't get the ph low enought for optimal mashing. I use that 5.2 buffer stuff to avoid problems, it seems to work ok for me. Finally, the hard water will affect the way the hops come across in your beer, it tends to sharpen them up and makes the bitterness seem harsh if you are not careful. I personally like low cohumolone hops because they come off smoother, your milage may vary.

[kingsbrew]

Jim,
I had trouble getting the hop character I wanted in my beers until I started using RO water and building my own water profile based on the style of beer I am brewing. My water seems to work fine for porters, stouts and the like but is not correct for hoppy pale ales etc.
Now I use RO water and have about 6 different water "recipes" that will fit any beer I brew.

[RobDrechsler]

Jim,
I had trouble getting the hop character I wanted in my beers until I started using RO water and building my own water profile based on the style of beer I am brewing. My water seems to work fine for porters, stouts and the like but is not correct for hoppy pale ales etc.
Now I use RO water and have about 6 different water "recipes" that will fit any beer I brew.

what type of water do you typically have coming out of your pipes?

[Bill Lawrence]

We have moderately hard water which has both permanent as well as temporary hardness. Because of that, it tends to be alkaline which is why Leroy correctly states it works well for Porters, Stouts etc (highly roasted grains tend to acidify the mash thereby correcting this situation). The problems start to pop up when you start making the lighter beers. Actually, for many of the lighter styles you can still use it but you need to acidify the mash somehow, I personally use the 5.2 stuff which is a buffer but there are other stratagies you can employ as well. Also, you need to be careful when sparging with alkaline water because you will start to extract tannis from the grain hulls, especially if you let the sparge water get too hot and especially if you fly sparge.

The other thing about using hard water is that it affects the way hops come across in the finished product. The minerals will tend to make highly hopped beers taste somewhat harsh if you are not careful. I am of the opinion that you can still use the water around here for say IPA's and APA's but you need to taylor your hops to the water. I personally think using low cohumolone hops helps a lot, the beer will be bitter but the bitterness will be smooth. If you want to dump a bunch of Chinook hops into your beer, well I wouldn't use the water out of the tap because you are going to have issues (but then in my humble opinion, using Chinook hops is rather like dating girls on Harry Hines, they get the job done but they are not terribly refined). If you want to make a German pils or a Dortmunder you can use this water because both those beers have a sharp character to them. If you want to do a Bohemian pils, Standard American Lager or something similar then you should consider employing at least a good percentage of distilled water. I know I am going to catch it for saying this but many German style beers can be made using this water because many of them are not hopped heavily so once you get around the high ph issue you are pretty much good to go (heffe and helles come to mind). Now it's time to get flamed by the "water chemistry guys" in the club, bring it on.