help with hopping schedule

[trub quaffer]

I'm putting together a Widmer Drifter clone recipe using just Summit hops (18% AA). Widmer website says Drifter bitterness= 32 IBUs. According to Brewsmith I can hit the target using 0.25oz for 60 min. and 0.5oz at 15 min. I'm doing a partial mash adding all but 1lb of my DME 15 min. before end of boil. Will 0.5oz flavoring hops give me much flavor? Usually I need to add around 1.5 ounces of flavoring hops to get the level of hops flavor I like but I haven't used Summit hops before. I'm not a hop head and don't want to overdo the bitterness but I do like a good,strong hop flavor. I'm tempted to forget the 60 minute addition and just add all my bittering/flavoring hops at 10-15 minutes to maximize the hops flavor. Beersmith says 1oz for 15 minutes would get me almost the same amount of bitterness as the above schedule. What do you say? Has anyone tried this kind of 1 step hop schedule?

 

[gxm]

Looking at Widmer's website, I see:

hops
BITTERING: ALCHEMY
AROMA: SUMMIT, NELSON SAUVIN
DRY HOPPED: SUMMIT, NELSON SAUVIN

They use 3 different hops, and at least 3 additions.
So, do you actually want to clone Drifter, or just make a similar beer?

If you just have the summit hops, I'd use them in 3 separate additions, 60 min, 5 min and dry hop. Not having used Summit (18% is enormous), and not knowing your boil gravity...I'd SWAG 1/3 oz for the 60 min addition, 1 oz at 5 min, and 1 oz dry hop.

Also, this is an interesting read about late hopping - http://www.mrmalty.com/late_hopping.htm

 

[trub quaffer]

Thanks for the link. That's exactly what I needed to encourage me to forget the early hop additions in this recipe.

What I really like about Drifter is the grapefruit flavor that seems to come from the Summit hops. The "alchemy" hops referenced on their website is a proprietary blend of bittering hops Widmer uses for bittering all of their beers (that's what I read in another post on this board). Nelson Sauvin aren't available at my local brew shop so that's why I'm going with just the Summit. I'm brewing on Sunday and my schedule will probably end up not being determined until the wort starts boiling but I am really leaning heavily towards going the all late hops addition route.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Budzu]

I use summit alot in my beers and a little bit definitely goes a long way, even in late additions. Your addition should give a great flavor, but go the extra mile and throw some in at flameout for the yum of it. It's a delicious hop. Very unique!
Cheers, good luck and enjoy !

 

[trub quaffer]

At the moment the plan is 1 ounce at 15 minutes and 1 ounce at flameout. Hopefully should give me great flavor and aroma while still giving me moderate bitterness.

 

[gxm]

Sounds like a good plan. If your boil gravity is around 50, that should work out to about 30 IBUs.