I hate hop flavor

[O-Ale-Yeah]

From what I have learned since diving into brewing a few months ago, hops act as a preservative so that's great! Hops act as a counter to balance the sweetness of beer and that's awesome because I don't like sweet things but, I don't like hop flavor either. So does that mean for my next brew I should:

1) Shoot for a .3 on my BU:GU ratio?

and

2) Add my hops at 60 minutes?

Brew will be
40% dark munich,
30% pils,
30% dark wheat,
WPL300,
6 gallons,
Hallertau Mittelfruh Hops (Pellets) 3.75 AA

 

[mongoose33]

This depends on the percentage of alpha acids in hops, but adding them early (60 minutes) will give you more bitterness, and you'll lose almost all of the flavor/aroma that comes from them. Unless you like more bitterness, that's not an answer. Just eliminate them is probably a better option unless, again, you like more bitterness. And if that's what you're after, there are probably better hops to use for that.

I have some beers where the hops go in at 60 minutes and that'sit. I brew a Pils where the hops go in at 60 minutes and that's all there is.

You can certainly try to limit them in your beer.

It is also possible that you don't like certain flavors/aromas of hops. One of my great lamentations is that so many beers use Mosaic, which is a very popular hop. I don't like it. I perceive it as adding a sort of sourness to the beer, and that is not a feature (to my palate), it's a bug. So I avoid it. If all I had were beers using Mosaic, I'd hate them.

So make sure that it's just not some hop varieties that you don't like.

 

[kh54s10]

So make sure that it's just not some hop varieties that you don't like.

Try some recipes that don't have much hops. Try some different hops. Try adding aroma/flavor additions in small amounts at different times. Possibly adding a little more each time.

You are new, maybe it is not even the hops, but brewing procedure that is producing unwanted flavors.

For me, I have developed a taste for hoppy beers. I always liked them now I prefer them. At least over low hop flavor pale ales. They seems so bland now, almost as bad as a Coors. I do like a good low hopped Stout.

Or maybe you just don't like beer.

But, experiment. Find out what creates a beer you like and work on that.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Don't like hop flavor? That's easy, just add them early in the boil (60 minutes).

Also, low cohumulone hops provide a more smooth bitterness.

Just add enough bitterness to balance the sweetness in your recipe.

Cheers

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

Don't like hop flavor? That's easy, just add them early in the boil (60 minutes).

View attachment 614556

Also, low cohumulone hops provide a more smooth bitterness.

View attachment 614557

Just add enough bitterness to balance the sweetness in your recipe.

Cheers

Thanks! This looks like an excellent guide!

 

[IslandLizard]

So, let me get this right.

You don't like hops but you do like yeast.
You don't like sweet things.

Hops act as a counter to balance the sweetness of beer

Not exactly, it's the hop bitterness that counterbalances sweetness and creates a different sensation.
What's your stance on (hop) bitterness? Any (commercial) examples?
How about alcohol content?

I'd say, look for styles/recipes (or tweak recipes) that make dry (not sweet) beer that are low hopped.
Most traditional German styles fit that profile. But so do a lot of Belgians while Saisons are among the dryest, often low hopped beers around.

Bitterness is still undetermined.

 

[ncbrewer]

What's your stance on (hop) bitterness?

Exactly what I was wondering. Do you dislike the hop "flavor" (from late additions) or the bitterness (from early additions)? Since you mention trying a low BU:GU ratio, it may well be the bitterness that you don't like.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

simple solution....make lagers

 

[Kirkwooder]

I have the perfect short term solution:
1. Take all the hops in your possession and place them in a plain brown package.
2. Address them to me.
3. Attach postage.
4. Ship immediately for proper disposal.


After completing the above, proceed directly to the nearest medical facility and get this issue addressed before this condition spreads like the plague, as this must be a dire medical condition. I'll pray for your speedy recovery. Hopefully they can develop a treatment that will cure this condition.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Like @IslandLizard said, there are a lot of great, interesting styles that will fit the bill. Since you like yeast flavors (as I do) Belgian ales and specifically saisons are awesome and broad styles that encompass a lot of variety. Also, try brewing a dry hefeweizen.

When I first started brewing I really had to make an effort to acquire a taste for hoppy beers and IPAs, but my wife is a hop head so she helped me through it and now I love hop-forward styles. Try to expand your palate.

 

[Lefou]

simple solution....make lagers

Yes, and do first wort hopping in the beers with low AAU noble varieties as bittering hops.
For me, I like Saaz, Liberty, Hallertau, Styrian Celeia, Tettnanger, and others if I can get them. It means using just a bit more and adding a late addition for aroma. Not much for sharply bitter beers if they aren't balanced properly but a noticeable hop aroma is nice. For my beers I will adjust the bitterness to gravity ratio from .3 - .5.
If you hadn't guessed I'm not much for the IPA styles but do tend toward heavier porter and stouts above 40IBU once in a while - if they're balanced beers.

 

[bracconiere]

From what I have learned since diving into brewing a few months ago, hops act as a preservative so that's great! Hops act as a counter to balance the sweetness of beer and that's awesome because I don't like sweet things but, I don't like hop flavor either. So does that mean for my next brew I should:

1) Shoot for a .3 on my BU:GU ratio?

and

2) Add my hops at 60 minutes?

Brew will be
40% dark munich,
30% pils,
30% dark wheat,
WPL300,
6 gallons,
Hallertau Mittelfruh Hops (Pellets) 3.75 AA

just want to say, i'm not a hop head either.....i like ballsy/gritty malt a lot more than, shrill IPA's too! (but they are fun occasionally, as a novelty) i only use about 1.5oz's of hops in my 10 gal batches, and boil for probably 90 min's....

 

[deadwolfbones]

Get into gruits.

 

[mongoose33]

Exactly what I was wondering. Do you dislike the hop "flavor" (from late additions) or the bitterness (from early additions)? Since you mention trying a low BU:GU ratio, it may well be the bitterness that you don't like.

I think there's something to this, at least with a lot of people who don't like "hoppy" beers. They've come to associate it with high levels of bitterness, and that, to them, is what "hoppy" means.

Interesting to see people like that try a NEIPA, or a hazy little thing (like SN has) and see that "hoppy" can also mean flavor and aroma.

 

[IslandLizard]

When I first started brewing I really had to make an effort to acquire a taste for hoppy beers and IPAs, but my wife is a hop head so she helped me through it and now I love hop-forward styles. Try to expand your palate.

Exactly!

My wife didn't like beers as varied, or hoppy or bitter as I did. And none of the malty beers for that matter.
Or any dark beers, none darker than an Amber, basically.

So it was Wheats, Saisons, Pale Ales, some IPAs, non-dark Belgians, and an Amber here and there. Oh, and Sours.

After a few years she had grown into IPAs, the hoppier the better, later NEIPAs, but still, nothing malty... until 2 months ago she's came home with Evolution's Secret Spot Alt and is digging it. It's on my brew list now.

Dark beers are still on the outer limits for her. As are Barleywines and lots of barrel aged goods. She got really sick in her younger years from over-imbibing on Bourbon once, that bad experience is almost impossible to overcome apparently. She loves Margaritas though, real ones!

 

[Moose_MI]

Got Milk?

 

[FunkedOut]

Brew what you love and love what you brew.

Earlier additions make more bitterness and less flavor/aroma.

Find the BU:GU ratio range you like and stay there.

Try different hops and see which ones you like.
German noble? English noble? American? Aussie?
Earthy? Flowery? Spicy? Citrusy? Piney?

Just because you think ox tail sucks, doesn’t mean you don’t like beef. Grill a steak, try some meatballs.

 

[IslandLizard]

Got Milk?

Yeah, Devil's Milk and Dragon's Milk.

 

[bracconiere]

Yeah, Devil's Milk and Dragon's Milk.

Chocolate milk stout? or coffee milk stout!

 

[MaaZeus]

What is with hops that you do not like? Because I have hard time understanding that anyone would not like a drink dryhopped with Citra because that is the same as saying he does not like tropical fruits like Mango, which is exactly what Citra tastes like. Even my sister who does NOT like beerat all said about my Citra Smash, where all focus was on late hop additions and dryhopping, that if she would drink beer this is what she would drink because it was surprisingly good.

Now if you do not like bitterness, I agree full heartedly. I do not care about bitter either. I either want very malty beers OR hoppy beers where the hops are mostly late additions and pronounce the fruity, flowery or spicy aromas they give. Sometimes I do encounter a bitter beer that is quite decent but bitter beers will never be my beer of choice.

 

[Jeremydc]

What is with hops that you do not like? Because I have hard time understanding that anyone would not like a drink dryhopped with Citra because that is the same as saying he does not like tropical fruits like Mango, which is exactly what Citra tastes like. Even my sister who does NOT like beerat all said about my Citra Smash, where all focus was on late hop additions and dryhopping, that if she would drink beer this is what she would drink because it was surprisingly good.

Now if you do not like bitterness, I agree full heartedly. I do not care about bitter either. I either want very malty beers OR hoppy beers where the hops are mostly late additions and pronounce the fruity, flowery or spicy aromas they give. Sometimes I do encounter a bitter beer that is quite decent but bitter beers will never be my beer of choice.

Do you have a link to your Citra Smash recipe? My wife is not a beer fan, but maybe I can convert her

 

[mongoose33]

What is with hops that you do not like? Because I have hard time understanding that anyone would not like a drink dryhopped with Citra because that is the same as saying he does not like tropical fruits like Mango, which is exactly what Citra tastes like. Even my sister who does NOT like beerat all said about my Citra Smash, where all focus was on late hop additions and dryhopping, that if she would drink beer this is what she would drink because it was surprisingly good.

Citra has never presented to me that way. If I had to characterize how I perceive it, it would be closer to grapefruit.

Different people taste things differently. In the HOPS book the author indicates there are some hop flavors some people can't perceive. Makes me wonder if there's something in Citra I can't perceive.

Now if you do not like bitterness, I agree full heartedly. I do not care about bitter either. I either want very malty beers OR hoppy beers where the hops are mostly late additions and pronounce the fruity, flowery or spicy aromas they give. Sometimes I do encounter a bitter beer that is quite decent but bitter beers will never be my beer of choice.

I'm the same way.

 

[mongoose33]

Do you have a link to your Citra Smash recipe? My wife is not a beer fan, but maybe I can convert her

It's not that SMASH, but I do one with Maris Otter as the malt and Styrian Celeia as the hops. My wife, who also does not like IPAs or hoppy beers, likes that one.

 

[MaaZeus]

Do you have a link to your Citra Smash recipe? My wife is not a beer fan, but maybe I can convert her

There are several Citra SMaSH recipes around the internet and this is the one that I used. The recipe is for 19-20l / 5 gallon batch


4kg 530g Pale Ale Malt, like Maris Otter
14g Citra @ 60 minutes
28g Citra @ 5 minutes
42g Citra Dryhopped for roughly 5 days

The recipe said to use Safale US05 but I used S04 for that batch because it was what I had on hand. I mashed at 68C for an hour. As you can see, there is barely any bittering hops and a ton of late hops. Even if I did a no-chill method so those 5 minute additions did contribute to bittering slightly the result was still a delicious fruit bomb.

 

[MaaZeus]

Citra has never presented to me that way. If I had to characterize how I perceive it, it would be closer to grapefruit.

Different people taste things differently. In the HOPS book the author indicates there are some hop flavors some people can't perceive. Makes me wonder if there's something in Citra I can't perceive.



I'm the same way.

Citra does have a lot citrus too but it is more sweeter tasting than, say, Cascade which is another citrus tasting hop.

 

[mongoose33]

Citra does have a lot citrus too but it is more sweeter tasting than, say, Cascade which is another citrus tasting hop.

To you it tastes that way. And I would agree with you if you're meaning that generally these are flavors that many people perceive. But....

People perceive flavors sometimes the same, sometimes differently. There are very few absolutes in this.

 

[NGD]

If you really don’t like hops you can go off script with the recipe and try things like Mugglewort and/or juniper for bittering.

Aaand I just saw that someone mentioned Gruits already, but if your fairly new to brewing you may be unfamiliar with the term.

There are certainly many ways to make a beer, and not all or even many of them need eye-watering amounts of hoppy bitterness

 

[Home_alone1]

I don’t like a lot of hop flavor either , I like just a hint , that’s why I will never Ever brew a pale ale or ipa , I have good fun brewing lager , cream ale , and Belgian styles. I do like a hint of saaz in my Pilsner though , just a hint I’m glad to see I’m not alone

 

[Apimyces]

What is with hops that you do not like? Because I have hard time understanding that anyone would not like a drink dryhopped with Citra because that is the same as saying he does not like tropical fruits like Mango, which is exactly what Citra tastes like. Even my sister who does NOT like beerat all said about my Citra Smash, where all focus was on late hop additions and dryhopping, that if she would drink beer this is what she would drink because it was surprisingly good.

Now if you do not like bitterness, I agree full heartedly. I do not care about bitter either. I either want very malty beers OR hoppy beers where the hops are mostly late additions and pronounce the fruity, flowery or spicy aromas they give. Sometimes I do encounter a bitter beer that is quite decent but bitter beers will never be my beer of choice.

I absolutely loathe Citra, and am relatively irate that it is in almost every craft brew product I pick up. Incidentally, I agree that it is like saying one "does not like tropical fruits like Mango": I despise tropical fruits like mango. Given how I'm not overly fond of actual tropical fruit juice or grapefruit juice, I'm rarely delighted to taste a beer that tries to simulate that.

That said, it is possible one does not like hops, and there are many classic styles of beer that use little or no hops. However, more likely, is that one does not like certain flavors of hops. Citra, Nugget, and Saaz are quite different hops. For example, I like Saaz, I love Nugget, and I hate Citra. Taste preferences will vary among people. Maybe you just mostly tasted brews that used generous amounts of certain varieties that don't work well for you.

Someone also mentioned palate, and it's true that you can get accustomed to some things that seemed repulsive at first. I like sour beers, for example, as I like sauerkraut. First time I tasted sauerkraut, though, I did not like nearly as much. Similarly, I'm OK with Cascade now, but when I first tasted it, I did not like it at all.

 

[kh54s10]

I don’t like a lot of hop flavor either , I like just a hint , that’s why I will never Ever brew a pale ale or ipa , I have good fun brewing lager , cream ale , and Belgian styles. I do like a hint of saaz in my Pilsner though , just a hint I’m glad to see I’m not alone

A pale ale does not have to have a lot of hops in it...

 

[MaaZeus]

I absolutely loathe Citra, and am relatively irate that it is in almost every craft brew product I pick up. Incidentally, I agree that it is like saying one "does not like tropical fruits like Mango": I despise tropical fruits like mango. Given how I'm not overly fond of actual tropical fruit juice or grapefruit juice, I'm rarely delighted to taste a beer that tries to simulate that.

That said, it is possible one does not like hops, and there are many classic styles of beer that use little or no hops. However, more likely, is that one does not like certain flavors of hops. Citra, Nugget, and Saaz are quite different hops. For example, I like Saaz, I love Nugget, and I hate Citra. Taste preferences will vary among people. Maybe you just mostly tasted brews that used generous amounts of certain varieties that don't work well for you.

Someone also mentioned palate, and it's true that you can get accustomed to some things that seemed repulsive at first. I like sour beers, for example, as I like sauerkraut. First time I tasted sauerkraut, though, I did not like nearly as much. Similarly, I'm OK with Cascade now, but when I first tasted it, I did not like it at all.

There are always exceptions to the rule.

 

[MaaZeus]

A pale ale does not have to have a lot of hops in it...

Indeed. Pale Ale is just that, an Ale that is pale in color. It can be very lager like.

 

[Parrothead1]

without hop flavor or aroma its not a pale ale, its a blonde ale. You might want to try one of those, just a small 60 minute hop edition. To each his own, but there’s a couple local breweries that I think put too much gypsum in their beer. It makes the hops harsh so I don’t drink any of their hoppy beers but the other ones they make are really good. If you never tried a late hop addition without adding gypsum, you might want to give it a shot

 

[Apimyces]

There are always exceptions to the rule.

Yes I can be peculiar in many ways. Liking beer that tastes like beer, instead of tasting like fruit juice.