Summit Hops in a Wheat Beer

[tom sawyer]

I got some Summit hops from Northern Brewer, thought I'd give them a try. This was before I read the threads on here about an onion off-flavor.

I used nearly an ounce in 3 gallons of beer. The recipe was pretty basic, 3lb of a light wheat DME and some crystal malt. I only boiled 30 minutes, and added a fair amount of the ounce at 15 minutes and again at flameout. When I tasted it as I put it into the primary I thought it was going to be really hoppy, wasn't surprised since the Summit is 18% alpha acid.

I racked to the secondary last night, and tasted it of course. The hoppiness had really died down and I got a VERY pronounced tangerine flavor which is what I was wanting in this wheat. Didn't notice a green onion note, hopefully it won't show up either.

I thought the tangerine might be a good marriage with the spiciness of the wheat. So far so good, I'll let you know in a month or so when some keg space is due to open up.

[tom sawyer]

Sorry to be so slow in geting back for a report.

The beer turned out very well, I called it an IPA because it was pretty hoppy. The wife didn't care for it for this reason, but I found it to be a good summer beer. The tangerine flavor was very pronounced, I didn't detect anything oniony but I could see where it might become that way if a lot of the hops were used.

Anyway, the beer is almost gone. Looking forward to another brewing season.

[ryan6458]

I've used this hop in quite a few beers. It seems like the more hops you use, the less onion flavor/aroma you get. My Griffin Spit clone had no onion aroma, only tangerine and it's a hopburst IPA! I'm becoming more of a Summit fan the more I use it.

[nicneufeld]

It seems like the more hops you use, the less onion flavor/aroma you get.

Interesting...tsawyer's beer used 1oz, spread out, and reported no onion aroma, and when I did an IPA I used 3 oz, spread out, and got a good stout whiff of green onions (scuttled it and made it a chili beer).

So I used more, but still got hit with the onion problem...I was thinking it might be the other way around (use with sparing touch, less onion aroma) but your experience says otherwise. Perhaps there is a good deal of variance in the hops themselves? Some crops are oniony, others more tangerine?

Beats me. I'll give it a shot again sometime, but the onion beer I had wasn't very good. Had that sort of wild onion, garlic plant flavour and aroma.

[ryan6458]

It seems like the more hops you use, the less onion flavor/aroma you get.

Interesting...tsawyer's beer used 1oz, spread out, and reported no onion aroma, and when I did an IPA I used 3 oz, spread out, and got a good stout whiff of green onions (scuttled it and made it a chili beer).

So I used more, but still got hit with the onion problem...I was thinking it might be the other way around (use with sparing touch, less onion aroma) but your experience says otherwise. Perhaps there is a good deal of variance in the hops themselves? Some crops are oniony, others more tangerine?

Beats me. I'll give it a shot again sometime, but the onion beer I had wasn't very good. Had that sort of wild onion, garlic plant flavour and aroma.

I hear ya. It kind of seems counter intuitive to use more hops to get less onion aroma. I've also wondered if this aroma varied from crop to crop. FWIW, the recipe that had the most tangerine and least onion was a hopburst IPA. That also seems counter intuitive. I've used Summit hops from my LHBS in pellet form and Summit hops from Freshops in whole form and couldn't tell a difference between the two. I think they were from the same crop though, as they had the exact same alpha acid percentage. All the recipes I've brewed with Summit start out with an onion aroma and with age the onion seems to fade away and the tangerine becomes more apparent.

[JimInNJ]

If I read Tom Sawyer correctly his hops were all in the last 15 minutes, essentially a hopburst. Ryan6458 also did a hopburst and reports tangerine without onion.

Could the onions be resulting from boiling Summit hops more than 15 minutes?

- Jim

[Germ]

Summit has a very high oil content. To me, those oils tend to give that onion flavor, however they are quickly volatized with a little bit of boiling leaving the nice tangerine flavor behind. If you can use Summit with restraint and/or blend with something else like Amarillo or Centennial at the very end of your boil or for dry hopping then you should be fine. For the full analysis, go to

http://www.brewerssupplygroup.com/hops/summit.php