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Message: <blockquote data-quote="donner" data-source="post: 1913669" data-attributes="member: 277">I think most, if not all hops, are interchangeable to a degree in terms of bittering and such. The thing that comes into play is that some hops are better suited for certain things (bittering, aroma, flavor) than others. To really get the bittering aspect out of hops you have to boil them and the longer they are boiled the more bitter your beer becomes. The higher the alpha acids the more bittering you can get, as well, which is why hops like magnum are used more for bittering. It requires much less magnum at 14% aa to get the same 'bitter' from another hop at 5% aa.Also, keep in mind that some varieties of hops are used both for bittering and for aroma and flavor. A beer that only has one type of hop might still call for some at 60 minutes and some at a later time (often even 30, 20, 10, 5 and 0 minutes) and some only call for a 60 minute bittering addition. Really, though, it sounds like you'll be fine. The hard part about beer is that you wont know what it will taste like until you're several weeks removed from brewing. Adding and changing things after the fact is more akin to adding salt to a dish you haven't tasted. You could improve it or you could screw it up. Brewing beer is as much art as science. Two brewers will take the same recipe and come up with different beers.</blockquote>