My wife is a huge fan of this flower. The slightest sign of spring (read: 50* in Rochester, NY) and our house is full of them. I’m pretty sure the flower itself is (at least somewhat) toxic.
I wanted to make her a beer with an intense (but still complex and balanced) floral aroma like the flower. Google led me to a Ratebeer review of Achel Blonde (tripel), in which one reviewer notes it in the aroma.
I am thinking that this aroma largely comes from fresh noble hops (Styrian and/or Saaz, according to this thread on NB viewtopic.php?f=4&t=82219).
I have brewed a trip in awhile and tend to not seek them out all that much (I am really developing a preference for beers that are 5-7% ABV maximum).
So I suppose I have 2 questions:
-it doesn’t seem like I need to brew a tripel to get this sort of heavy floral aroma, but MAAAAAYBE the booze and other Belgian esters balance out the floral notes in the hops so the beer doesn’t smell like a flower shop. Could I perhaps get a balanced aroma profile (but heavy toward floral) in something like a patersbier or other session-ish Belgian?
-Are my hop intuitions accurate, or are there any others that could deliver?
[quote=“Pietro”]My wife is a huge fan of this flower. The slightest sign of spring (read: 50* in Rochester, NY) and our house is full of them. I’m pretty sure the flower itself is (at least somewhat) toxic.
I wanted to make her a beer with an intense (but still complex and balanced) floral aroma like the flower. Google led me to a Ratebeer review of Achel Blonde (tripel), in which one reviewer notes it in the aroma.
I am thinking that this aroma largely comes from fresh noble hops (Styrian and/or Saaz, according to this thread on NB viewtopic.php?f=4&t=82219).
I have brewed a trip in awhile and tend to not seek them out all that much (I am really developing a preference for beers that are 5-7% ABV maximum).
So I suppose I have 2 questions:
-it doesn’t seem like I need to brew a tripel to get this sort of heavy floral aroma, but MAAAAAYBE the booze and other Belgian esters balance out the floral notes in the hops so the beer doesn’t smell like a flower shop. Could I perhaps get a balanced aroma profile (but heavy toward floral) in something like a patersbier or other session-ish Belgian?
-Are my hop intuitions accurate, or are there any others that could deliver?
(one more): WLP 500?[/quote]
I would think that the yeast would play at least as big a part. but I agree that I can’t see why it would have to be an alcohol heavy beer. I think you’re on the right track with the hops but I don’t think it’s exclusively die to them. WLP500 might be a good place to start. That’s Chimay yeast which has always reminded me more of bananas and bubblegum, but you’ve got to start somewhere. This is the kind of thing that will likely take multiple trials.
