Golden Promise was the fair-haired base malt-choice for New England IPAs back in 2015-16 when they were exploding onto the home brew scene. Haven’t used it since though, nice malt.
Uh, since this thread is about hops I’ll get her back on track, have I said how much I like Motueka hops lately?
I am thinking I need to expand my hops horizon so was reading some flavor descriptions. I’m kind of interested in using some Sorachi Ace. I think they might be really good in a NEIPA. What’ve you folks used them in and what are your thoughts?
I found a newly emptied 20lb bag (I’m guessing because it was so big) that contained hop pellets in the snow near a local brewery. It must have blown away in the snowstorm. I picked it up and walked the remaining few block with my masked face in the bag. It was heavenly. My cloth mask smells like hops now and I’m finding it therapeutic.
HEY, now theres a cool idea… Seems the hops help keep bugs away from our brews… why not our in-take ports! I really like hop aroma…
Squeegee,you happened to stumble onto a grand idea!
Sneezles61
Alright… heres MY tasting notes…
X-B 1 was hops only with heat in the kettle… I could taste hops to the end…
X-B 2 other than bittering hops, the rest were post-boil… The aroma was awesome… but now about half a keg left… its quite boring…
MY conclusion: Use a heavy hand with hops in the last 15 minutes and less in the BK… Do use aroma hops… however you put them into your brew… I really think the first half of the keg will be great… but it will taper off (Think we’ve expressed this numerous times)…
Do you think being in a bottle, the aroma will last longer? I mean, in a keg, the head space gets more CO2… diluting the hop aroma? Maybe thats the next X-Beerment?
Sneezles61
Well, I’m prepared to brew today… but… I don’t have any MO to replicate this brew… I’m going to DV8 then… sub Vienna and keep the rest the same… I mean, MO and Vienna sure seem similar… I’ll do a bit of looking first, then get after it… combining the past 2 X-beerments…
Sneezles61
EDIT: Saturday…Thwarted!! Pump issues… wouldn’t hook up magnetically… took it all apart cleaned it… Ready for tomorrow!
EDIT: Sunday… nice brew day… Even spent time rehydrating the yeast… Now for the next brew adventure… Red Ale!
I’m becoming overwhelmed with all these experimental hops… How many different hops can be grown with these “stone fruit, melon” characteristics? Although, I must admit my fondness to Cascades, again… Wouldn’t it be nice if the hop growers chase other flavors and spices?
A local grower from here gave me 12 oz of their Centennial’s… I started dreaming about brewing a north coast IPA… I opened the “seal a meal” bag… it smelled awful… frozen together chunk… Well, that brew will need to wait until I get another order together… I appreciate their kindness… I’ll let them know… perhaps something gone awry with their process…
What hops do you use the most?
Sneezles61
I use a lot of Columbus, Centennial, Amarillo and Simcoe these days…and almost solely Magnum for bittering. I used to buy a lot of NEIPA hops(galaxy, Mosaic, Citra…) but less so as my tastes have gone away from NEIPAs.
I like the citrus… be nice to find a good spicy hop… The earthy hops aren’t one I chase after… but they seem to be a good base for lighter brews…
Sneezles61
I’ve used Sterling a while ago… I don’t recall it being spicy… But then, the keg probably went fast… didn’t give the hops oils and barley time to “meet and greet”…
I have some Gr. Pearle thats suppose to add spicy-ness… Miabock style I’m trying to give a spicy note too…
Sneezles61