Hops, hops and more hops!

With brewday planned for Sunday, we've ordered up all of the requisite ingredients and are just awaiting delivery.  After a bit of discussion, we've decided to brew two IPAs - one this Sunday, and one in a couple of weeks once the first one has fermented out.  We'll barrel each of them and see how they taste before deciding on the recipe for our third brew later in the summer which we intend to bottle.

More detailed ingredient information will follow on Sunday once we've finished brewing, but suffice it to say that I'm excited about the hop choices.

For this week's brew we're going for an English IPA, using Target hops to bitter it and a combination of Fuggles and Golding to add aroma and flavour.  They're great hops, but I've always thought them a little boring since they're used in so many fairly traditional beers.  What we're hoping is that by adding enough of them it'll result in a nicely smooth and flavoursome IPA which restores a bit of faith in good old English hops!

The second brew, however, is a bit more exciting - we're going to throw in a bunch of New World hops and aim at a mightily bitter and hoppy IPA which is just the kind I tend to enjoy drinking.  Alongside the ever-reliable Cascade - which is used in some of my favourite beers - we're also using Green Bullet, Kohatu and Pacific Jade.  I'll be honest, it's a total experiment - I've read a lot about the hops but it'll be the first time we've used any of them so hopefully the combination works.

I tell you, Sunday can't come soon enough - can't wait to get brewing!