do hops determine what I brew

[bangers]

First question I recntly purchased a pretty interesting book that alot of people on the forum have spoken about its called Clone Brews by Tess & Mark Szamatuiski.As I've been reading up and looking at the recipes and discovering that the different methods of brewing a beer in the book have variations in the hops used such as bittering hops in an all grain method are different to their main extract brew method e.g.Edelweiss Dunkel Wwissbier in the extract calls for 28gs german hallertau hersbrucker @3.5aa 3.5hbu bittering hop yet in the all grain method it states add 2.5hbu 29% less that extract recipe.My question is this when I go to my H.B. store I ask for what hops I need to make my brew ,(havent put much into hbu's to be honest) His stock of all the various hops are in his fridge I dont think he carries all types of hops with various hbu readings so having said all that do I ask the store owner what hbu that paricular hops at and determine what I brew or just buy the hops I need and get stuck into brewing ? Now that winter is upon us and I start making my pilsners lagers ect am I better off bottling my beers and storing them in a cool dark place till warmer months or am I better off lagering the bulk amount for say 5 weeks then bottling ?

[earle]

If the hops they are selling are any good they should have an aa (alpha acid) percentage. The bitterness units you get out of them depends on the gravity of your boil and how long you boil them for. Check out a hop calculator such as http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/Calcula ... p_calc.htm
to work it out.

As for the 2 recipes having different HBU/IBU it could be that the author ij adjusting the bitterness up for the extract recipe to counter the extra sweetness you can sometimes get from spec grains. Hard to tell without seeing the recipes. Do they both have the same OG?

[rwh]

Could you please use some paragraphs? My brain is incapable of comprehending what you're talking about otherwise.

[Boonie]

Could you please use some paragraphs? My brain is incapable of comprehending what you're talking about otherwise.

....I managed to get lost in the middle too