The Hop Chronicles | Magnum (2016) Pale Ale

Author: Matt Del Fiacco

Buying hops in bulk is one of the most common pieces of advice I see given to brewers looking to cut down on the per-batch cost of homebrewing. Closely following said advice is to use high alpha acid hops for bittering, since this allows the brewer to use less hops for the same amount of calculated IBUs. Originally bred in the 1980s by the German Hop Research Institute, Magnum has made a name for itself as an incredibly efficient and smooth bittering hop thanks to its high alpha acids and low cohumulone content.

Alpha: 12 – 15.5%
Beta: 5.5 – 8%
Cohumulone: 23 – 28% of alpha acids
Total Oil: 2 – 3 mL/100g
Myrcene: 30 – 40%
Humulene: 25 – 30%
Caryophyllene: 7 – 12%
Farnesene: <1%
Linalool: 0.4 – 0.7%
Geraniol: 0.3 – 0.6%
ß-Pinene: 0.4  – 0.8%
Parentage: Galena mother crossed with German male plant

I use Magnum to bitter almost every beer I make. It’s cheap to buy in bulk, one pound lasts seemingly forever, and I’ve never noticed any contribution from it besides good clean bitterness. However, in addition to being heralded for its excellent bittering qualities, there are reports of an absent or bland contribution to the flavor and aroma when used later in the boil. After reading about the use of Magnum as a finishing hop in Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo, a beer I love, it seemed a perfect candidate for The Hop Chronicles.

| MAKING THE BEER |

Sticking to THC convention, I designed a Pale Ale with simplicity in mind to make sure nothing got in the way of whatever the Magnum might contribute to the beer.

Blue Steel Magnum Pale Ale

Brew day began by collecting the water for the full volume no sparge batch and adjusting it with minerals and acid to hit my target profile. While the water was heating to strike temperature, I weighed out and milled the grains.

Once strike temperature was reached, I slowly lowered my bag full of grains into the water, gave it a gentle stir with my comically large whisk, and made sure my mash temperature was correct.

I gave the mash a light stir 15 minutes in then pulled and cooled a small sample to make sure it was at my target mash pH.

When the 60 minute mash rest was complete, I slowly pulled the bag of grains out of the sweet wort then reignited the burner to start the boil. While the wort was heating, I measured out the hop additions.

Once the boil was reached, I added the first round of hops and got ready to wait out the boil, additional hop additions nearby.

At the conclusion of the boil, I chilled the wort and used my refractometer to ensure I’d hit the predicted OG.

I racked about 4.5 gallons of wort to my fermentation keg and placed it in a cool chamber to finish chilling to my desired pitching temperature, which took a couple hours. When the wort was at 64°F/18°C, I pitched a vitality starter of Safale US-05 that I had prepared with 500 mL of leftover wort after the boil. I attached a spunding valve and opened it completely so that no pressure would build up in the fermentor then let the yeast work their magic. After a week of fermentation, I took a hydrometer measurement that showed the beer had reached the expected FG.

At this point, I weighed out and added the dry hop charge to the beer.

I started cold crashing the beer 24 hours later, fining with gelatin once it dropped below 45°F/7°C, then allowing it to cold condition for 3 more days at 35°F/2°C before transferring to a serving keg.

The beer was burst carbonated overnight, after which I reduced the CO2 to serving pressure where it sat for a few more days before serving to tasters.

| METHOD |

Participants were instructed to focus only on the aromatic qualities of the beer before evaluating the flavor. For each aroma and flavor descriptor, tasters were asked to write-in the perceived strength of that particular characteristic on a 0-9 scale where a rating of 0 meant they did not perceive the character at all and a rating of 9 meant the character was extremely strong. Once the data was collected, the average rating of each aroma and flavor descriptor was compiled and analyzed.

| RESULTS |

A total of 24 people participated in the evaluation of this beer, all blind to the hop variety used until after they completed the survey. The average aroma and flavor ratings for each descriptor were plotted on a radar graph.

Average Ratings of Aroma and Flavor Perceptions

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being most prominent by participants:

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being least prominent by participants:

When asked to rate the pungency/strength of the hop, the majority of tasters perceived it as being moderately pungent.

Tasters were then instructed to identify beer styles they thought the hop would work well in.

Finally, participants were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the hop character on a 1 to 10 scale.

My Impressions: I’ve always bought into the idea that Magnum is a neutral hop with not a lot of noticeable contributions, thus I honestly didn’t know what to expect going into this beer. The first thing I noticed was some spice and floral notes with a resinous and grassy character, not at all what I expected. As time went on, the grassy and resinous characters died out a bit, leaving the beer with what I perceived as a smooth hop bitterness and mild aroma/flavor. A great easy drinking beer, but not exactly what I would want from a Pale Ale. It might work well as the primary hop in a pale lager, but based on this experience, I’ll continue using it in conjunction with other hops, relying on it primarily for bittering.

| CONCLUSION |

If nothing else, this experience reinforces my belief that Magnum is a great early addition hop that imparts a smooth bitterness with little impact on flavor or aroma. As the blind tasters largely agreed, later additions of Magnum seemed to add floral and spicy notes more characteristic of lagers. Not quite pungent enough to qualify for a leading role in my next IPA or Pale Ale, I gained a new appreciation for the flavor characteristics Magnum can contribute and will consider using it in combination with other hops when designing pale lagers in the future!

If you have any thoughts on Magnum hops, please feel free to share them in the comments section below!

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