Sorachi Blonde Hop Schedule

I've made a few batches of Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde and have been very happy with the results. A tweak I would like to make would be to get a more lemony twang from the hop profile, and push a little more hoppy, and so I would like to substitute in Sorachi Ace hops.

The original recipe calls for:

0.25 oz Centennial 45 min
0.25 oz Centennial 20 min
0.25 oz Cascade 10 min
0.25 oz Cascade 5 min

With 9.2% AA for the Centennial and 6.2% AA for the Cascade this gives me 21 IBU for the batch.

I have an ounce of Sorachi Ace with 12.6% AA. I was thinking about bumping the Centennial, moving the Cascade to earlier additions for bittering and putting the Sorachi in toward the end for flavor/aroma additions. Perhaps like this:

0.25 oz Cascade 45 min
0.25 oz Cascade 20 min
0.5 oz Sorachi Ace 10 min
0.5 oz Sorachi Ace 5 min

This gives me 24 IBUs for the batch which should still be nicely balanced (I kinda want to shift the balance slightly hoppy anyway). I also figure putting the high AA% Sorachi to later additions will make it harder to screw up the hop balance (something to worry about on such a small beer).

Has anyone worked with Sorachi Ace? Does the above schedule look good?

Anybody? Is this good, bad, ugly?

With so little Sorachi, the name of the beer doesn't really deserve the word Sorachi in it. If you want to highlight that hop, I'd aim for more like 40+ IBU with lots of finishing hops. Just my 2c.

SpeedYellow said:

With so little Sorachi, the name of the beer doesn't really deserve the word Sorachi in it. If you want to highlight that hop, I'd aim for more like 40+ IBU with lots of finishing hops. Just my 2c.

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I don't have my spreadsheet, but maybe up the late additions to 1/2 oz each?

EDIT: My modification actually was already putting 0.5 oz additions of Sorachi Ace in at those times, not 0.25 oz, to get those IBUs. The Cascade contribution is nearly maxed out and I don't have any more Sorachi Ace.

Maybe a mix of Cascade, Centennial, and Sorachi Ace? Basically using a similar hop schedule as the original Centennial Blonde, but with late Sorachi additions:

Centennial 0.25 oz 45 min
Centennial 0.25 oz 30 min
Cascade 0.25 oz 20 min
Cascade 0.25 oz 15 min
Sorachi Ace 0.5 oz 10 min
Sorachi Ace 0.5 oz 5 min

This gives me just shy of 40 IBUs. Pacific Rim Blonde?

Thunder_Chicken said:

Anybody? Is this good, bad, ugly?

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do not know about them hops but this a a great beer to add a little hop of your favorite choice to . I pour it through whole chinook or pour a little in a glass with chinook in it and swirrel it around a bit and then strain that and pour in my beer . great stuff . I will be dry hopping a batch of this with chinook soon I think

I'm actually going to back down a bit and just do straight Soriachi Ace for the next batch. 1/4 oz at 45, 20, 15 and 5 min. Gives me 30 IBUs which I think is fine for a 1.040 OG beer. I'll hold off on the blending when I really get a sense of the flavor of each hop.

That's my plan and I'm sticking to it.

SpeedYellow said:

With so little Sorachi, the name of the beer doesn't really deserve the word Sorachi in it. If you want to highlight that hop, I'd aim for more like 40+ IBU with lots of finishing hops. Just my 2c.

Click to expand...

I disagree. The amount of hops in the original recipe is low to begin with, but balanced considering the low malt bill. I am not saying that another ounce will make everything wrong, but SA is a pretty robust hop, I can't see someone who is a Centennial Blonde veteran not noticing the change, and being able to perceive/appreciate the difference.

Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out, Thunder Chicken...

woknblues said:

I disagree. The amount of hops in the original recipe is low to begin with, but balanced considering the low malt bill. I am not saying that another ounce will make everything wrong, but SA is a pretty robust hop, I can't see someone who is a Centennial Blonde veteran not noticing the change, and being able to perceive/appreciate the difference.

Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out, Thunder Chicken...

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I'll post updates when I brew this. If the recipe works the way I hope I'll post it to the Recipes database.

How did .25oz at 45, 20, 15 and 5 work out with the BM Centennial Blonde grain bill?