I've always laughed at recipes with strange, hyper precise hop schedules. I mean what's the difference between a 1 and a 2 minute hop addition? I certainly don't have the pallet to tell the difference, I don't think many do. Now I believe these are the creator's attempt at understanding hop aroma/flavour. Is there a magical time for a Flavour additions? Aroma? Not sure but at least Bittering is easy... but then there's First Wort Hopping... but wait, is that for bittering or flavour?
Not long ago, in the interest of simplicity and efficiency (perhaps a blog mantra), I decided to try and nail down a hop schedule which would utilize 4 additions (or less depending on the style) in all my recipes. We'll start with an easy one, bittering.
(60 minutes) Widely accepted as the ideal time for a bittering addition. A 60 minute addition will achieve near maximum Alpha Acid isomerization from any hop, any longer the improvements are negligible. I've used a 60 minute addition in every one of my batches, never fails to deliver. I wasn't going to screw around with this one. 60 minute stays.
(30 minutes) Old school flavour addition. Pickup any brew book dating pre-2008, I'm pretty sure the majority of recipes contain at least some hops at 30 minutes. Lately however, the 30 minute addition has fallen out of favour mainly because we are developing a better understanding of hop chemistry. The science is well above my head, I won't pretend to know everything about the subject, the gist is, flavour compounds and hop oils are far too volatile to withstand 30 minutes of boiling. Most agree a 30 minute addition can be used as more of a bittering addition and because this serves my purpose of simplifying the hop schedule, cut!
(20 - 10 minutes) A balancing act. We're into flavour territory. The mythical "FWH flavour" complicates things, more on that later. I imagine different hops will impart flavour differently. Unfortunately, I don't believe there's any one size fits all. Most texts I've read on the subject suggest one or more flavour additions at some point in this range. I gather this time range is ideal for the flavour compounds to bond with the boiling wort, but not so long that the alpha acids fully isomerize. I suppose the easiest thing to do would be decide on a flavour profile for any given recipe, determine the amount of hops required to achieve that profile and divide the amount in three, adding hops at 20-15-10. Damn, I've locked myself into a maximum 4 additions! Alright, lets split the difference and call the flavour addition @15 minutes.
I've tried FWH instead of a flavour addition and all I got was bitterness. Some suggest only certain, low AA hops are appropriate of FWH. Other suggest the FWH isn't a flavour addition at all and should be used in lieu of a bittering charge. Bah! I've leave the FWH QA testing to someone with more time and money. 15 min seems a simple route to desired flavour results.
(10 - 0 minutes) Aroma addition, no one trick pony! I'm sure aroma additions impart a fair amount of flavour (and bittering) as well. I saw a chart once that suggested "maximum aroma at 7 minutes". I can tell you that I brewed an ale with an aroma addition @ 7 minutes remaining in the boil, no dry-hopping, it was not very aromatic. The most aromatic and flavorful beer I have produced thus far has been the Sleepy Time Porter in which I dumped 57g of Willamette hops at flame-out and dry-hopped with an additional 57g. I don't know if the aroma was a result of the flame-out or dry-hop, but I suspect the secret to ultimate aroma and flavour lies somewhere in the combination of the two.
I was reading some analysis on the aforementioned chart and someone suggested it could be interpreted as 7 minutes total time, from addition to pitching temp. This makes more sense. With my wort chiller, this would mean a hop addition, after flame-out, while chilling (since it takes me about 20 minutes to hit pitching temps). I believe this would be a homebrewer's equivalent to a commercial breweries "hop-back" or "whirlpool" addition.
Using the noted chart as a point of reference, assuming the 7 minute mark was intended to mean from addition to pitching temp, my Sleepy Time's flame-out addition would have actually been in wort greater than pitching temperature for ~25 minutes. Perhaps if I move this final hop addition to sometime during the chill, I would achieve even bigger hop aroma? But then would I lose some of the flavour? The flavour compounds wouldn't be able to react to the wort in the same way as during the boil. There must be a sweet spot as far as temps go for maximum aroma extraction but I suspect this may be at the expense of flavour.
For my third hop addition, I think the flame-out or 0 min addition is a nice compromise. Maximum flavour with some residual aroma. The remaining aroma can be made up with dry-hopping, my fourth and final hop addition.
To summarize, appropriate to style, I would implement the following hop schedule:
1) Bittering @ 60
2) Flavour @ 15
3) Flavour/Aroma @ 0
4) Aroma @ Dry-hop
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