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Finding the right combination of hops that play well together is a fun part of building beer recipes. For inspiration you can contact breweries that make the beers you like and ask them what they’re using (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all). But keep at it — the value of combining and pairing hops is every bit as great as pairing foods with beer, and other beer ingredients with each other. You can even blend the same hop varieties from different growing regions. BYO’s Technical Editor Ashton Lewis shares his thinking of blending different hops for your brewing.
Adding hops to your mash is an old technique that is getting renewed interest thanks to the fact this step can increase thiol precursors from the action of malt enzymes. Yeast then
Join Brew Your Own Magazine’s Technical Editor Ashton Lewis as he demonstrates dip hopping — letting hops soak at about 170 °F (77 °C) for an hour just before fermentation — which has been shown to boost pleasant hop aromas while suppressing or removing unpleasant off-flavors, like myrcene, and aromas that are derived from fermentation.