Good Hops to stockpile/always have on hand?

[bluelimbo]

Hey Guys -

After buying 9 1oz packs of Citra for a Zombie Dust clone for 2.50 a piece, I am now pretty interested in just doing a bulk buy of a year's worth of hops, or smaller bulk purchase every six months or so.

Right now, I am brewing about once or, if I am lucky, twice a month and I do 5 gallon batches.

My main focus is to get the best deal possible and buy smart. While the LHBS has quite a variety on hand... $2.50 an oz for hops is insane... ($40 bucks a pound at the LHBS when I could get it for half that and without tax online).

That said:
Q: What do you have on your hop-stockpile list? What is good to stock up on that you use in a lot of your recipes?
Q: What hop staples do you always have on hand or make sure is a part of your bulk buy list?


*I know folks will ask as it does factor into the response; I like a nice hoppy beer. I almost always have some kind of APA, IPA, or DIPA on hand. I am also very fond of saisons as well as a good porter. I don't have any hard leanings/preferences toward regional styles (German, English, etc) and I enjoy a pretty wide variety of beers but I always seem to gravitate towards hoppy beers.

 

[Yooper]

I buy bulk US hops once a year, after the harvest. I buy from two places mostly- hopsdirect.com (pellets) and freshops.com (whole leaf).

Since I make mostly US hoppy style beers, I buy a pound or two of neutral bittering hops (magnum, usually) and then a pound of simcoe, amarillo, centennial, and cascades. Sometimes, hops like willamette are super cheap ($7/pound) so I pick those up as well.

There are imported hops available as well, and if I plan on making some UK styles, I buy EKG hops. I rarely buy German hops in bulk, but they are available as well.

 

[jefftravis17]

Yooper- This is my first year home brewing. When is harvest usually completed with inventory ready for shipment? Assuming mid to late October.

 

[bluelimbo]

@Yoooper - Very cool. I will check out those sites.
@jefftravis17 - It looks like harvest is early fall (late Oct - Dec) based on info gleamed off of hopsdirect.com

 

[BinghamtonEd]

If you have a local micro or nano, you can always talk to them, too. My local nano will tack my order on with his when he sends it in, and adds a couple bucks for himself. Bout $15/lb. I can get it for the same amount online, but I'd rather they get the extra couple bucks.

 

[Marchborne]

It sounds like my preferred styles are similar to yours and Yoopers. :rockin:

I don't buy in the bulk Yooper does, but I always make sure I have Cascade and Citra on hand. I love me some Citra in a saison.

 

[motorneuron]

I only just started brewing a year ago, but I did buy in bulk from a few sources last fall, and I'm very happy I did. I tried to focus on versatile hops. I have brewed a lot of American-style beers, but also Belgians and English beers. Fortunately, I think the range of hops for Belgian and English is much smaller.

*Willamette, which is basically just Fuggle but grown here (like Styrian Golding) is a great hop to have for a whole range of English and Belgian beers, as well as for darker American beers.
*EKG is also great (read: often required) for English beer aroma and flavor.
*a number of American hops will work really well for IPAs, but can also be used as the single bittering addition in Belgians--Magnum definitely fits there. High-alpha CTZ or Summit is useful for bittering and also for aroma/dry hop additions, if you like those kinds of flavors (I do).
*but I feel like the most hops I use are for hoppy American beers, and for that, I just got whatever struck my fancy. You can easily go through a half a pound of hops in a 5-gallon hoppy beer, so if you make a few of these, it's okay to order a few different 1-pound packages.

One thing I have started to do is dry hop with whole leaf hops. It's more annoying to handle them than pellets, but I find (with limited data here) that I get less vegetal flavors.