Just wondering if anyone has recently purchased Amarillo pellets from Yakima Valley Hops. I purchased some (a little over a month ago), and it looks (actually smells and tastes) like they are bad. 
I have never purchased bad hops before. The IPA I made with them and with Citra pellets (also from YVH) is horrible, undrinkable for me. To try and figure our what went wrong, I first soaked some Citra pellets in RO water and that smells and tastes fine. I did the same thing with the Amarillo and it is awful. I can’t describe the aroma. When I opened the bag on brewday I really didn’t notice any off aroma, but I had never used Amarillo before. Now that I have brewed with this batch I can definitely smell the badness. I am not raggin on YVH, its my own fault. Just curious if anyone else experienced this. I had read the 2013 amarillo crop was bad.
I seriously doubt that something would go bad with hops. They get old after a while but they get a cheesy aroma. Have you worked with Amarillo before? It could be that you just don’t like the hop. Some people are very sensitive to very specific flavors. Can you describe the bad flavor?
Personally, I thought last year’s Amarillo hop crop was bad. I bought a pound and every beer I’ve made with them wasn’t right. It’s kind of grassy and bitter, I thought.
I think it is a stretch to say the entire year’s crop of a hop is bad based on a pound that you’ve gotten.
You should take the beer to a homebrew club meeting to have others smell it.
Does it smell like cat pee?
Onion? Garlic? Cheese?
I have been amazed at the difference between of hop lots within the same variety. Different blocks in the same farm, different age of hop plants, different farms and different weather in a given year. All of these things make for dramatically different aroma/flavor profiles. That is why brewers go to the hop companies during harvest to evaluate different lots and choose which ones they want for the flavor profile they want in their beer. What one doesn’t want, another brewer does.
My experience with simcoe (I know, different hop) is that it’s qualities vary greatly depending on usage. I hate it as a bittering hop. Dislike it later in the boil. Love it in whirlpool. I don’t dry hop anymore, but have dry hopped simcoe in the past and thought it was good, but in my opinion it really shines in whirlpool
So I wonder if Amarillo is similar
I also wonder if the OP just doesn’t like Amarillo
i wonder if you didn’t get a mixup with Apollo - they’re close in name.
Apollo as a dryhop smells like wet garbage to me.
I love it as a bittering hop though.
I’ve made all Amarillo IPAs and Ambers and it works fine for all additions, IME (bittering, late, dry).
My 2104 Amarillo pellets from YVH are nice and pretty true to the character I’ve gotten from Amarillo in other years. I also wonder if the wrong hop got shipped.
I personally only like Amarillo in small additions in the whirlpool and dry hopped. I’ve done single hop beers with Amarillo and did not like it. Different strokes for different folks though.
Thanks to everyone that replied. I wish I could describe the aroma, unfortunately i don’t have any words for it. It is not cheesy or oniony or garlicy. I have smelled cheesy old hops before. I don’t have any experience with onion or garlic type hops. On another forum someone stated they get a BO aroma and cat pee. I don’t really get that, but perhaps BO is the closest descriptor.
From the HopUnion website regarding Amarillo
Aroma
Floral, tropical, and citrus (lemon, orange and grapefruit) characteristics
I get none of the above.
Thanks again.
And yet my experience with Apollo is quite different - navel orange with a nice dank undertone. Just goes to show how much variation there can be between one crop and another.
I’d be willing to test it out again - I did about 1 dozen different dryhop tests using Bertus’ Budweiser method. The Apollo was disliked by everyone at my club meeting, and I’ve never used it as a dryhop in a full batch as a result. Given your opinion, i’ll test try it in a bottle one more time.
No experience with 2014 Amarillo, but I had a pound of 2013 that were terrible. Amarillo was one of my favorite hops to that point, so it took a while before convincing myself it was the hops. They had a harsh character when used for bittering, an almost meaty flavor and a weird musky, sweaty aroma when added late. I actually received judges comments that said it smelled “like sweaty old man.” With short supply and high demand for the hop, maybe what makes its way to the homebrew market is whatever is left. I’ll happily drink commercial beers showcasing Amarillo, but when brewing myself, there are plenty of other hops I like that are easier to get and (so far) have been more consistent.
There is unfortunately often times a difference between what a commercial brewer contracts and what is left out on the spot market.
And variation from palate to palate. What Eric describes lovingly as dank could be hell for someone else.
I just ordered some 2015 Amarillo from YVH; I hope they don’t suck.
I just bought a pound of citra from YVH and im not liking them much- the difference from last years crop is significant and not in a good way. I realize these are plants but man the difference in just sniffing the bag is really noteable. Not much you can do about it though.
Yeah, crop and vendor differences can seem huge some years. I bought a lb of Cascade from Farmhouse last year - a normally steady, reliable hop - that seemed pretty sub par to me. The aroma and flavor were dull and seemed only a little Cascade-like. Pretty disappointing.