Anyone ever made an all Zythos beer? I’ve got a pound unopened in the fridge, trying to figure out what I wanna try first with them.
I think my next beer is going to be a Munich-Zythos SMaSH. Gonna shoot for about 35 IBUs doing a 60, 20, 5 and 0 min addition. I have not used Zythos at all so I thought this would be appropriate to get a feel for what they are like
At risk of being overly pedantic, A beer with Zythos is not a SMaSH. Zythos is a blend of hops.
but an all munich pale ale is lovely.
Yeah you’re right I just never thought about it. I associate one name with one hop although that is incorrect in this case…
I don’t think it’s being pedantic, just principled! I agree with you Mort!
I’ve got ten pounds of Munich, as I’ve never done an all Munich beer, I think I’m going to do an all Munich/Zythos. Thanks for the inspiration, Mort!
Awesome, I was also going to do Munich/Zythos beer here soon as well. What yeast are you planning to use? I was thinking either 1450 or 1469 myself, but then, those have become my go to yeasts for pretty much everything.
My go to is US-05, but I also use Nottingham alot. I still have one pack of BRY - 97 left too. Probably go with the US-05
I just (around Thanksgiving) brewed a Belgian Imperial IPA using Zythos and Citra. It turned out fairly good, but if I think it was under-hopped. I went for mellow bitterness (accomplished) and lots of flavor/ aroma (under-accomplished). I tell you this as it may influence your hopping rate. Here is my hop bill/schedule:
2 oz. Citra whole leaf in the mash
1 oz. Zythos First Wort
1 oz. Citra 15 min.
1 oz. zythos 15 min.
3 oz. Citra 5 min.
2 oz. Zythos 5 min.
2 oz. Citra dry hopped for 7 days
I thought I would have a major hop bomb. Maybe it was the Imperial part (10.5 ABV) that changed the hop impression, but the alcohol is integrated, so I don’t know…
Steve
Let us know the results of your Munich/Zythos APA. I just picked up a pound of Zythos (along with several others) and have plans of a Pale Ale marathon here in a couple months.
If I wanted to up the hop presence on this recipe I’d move the 5 minute additions to flameout and do a long hop stand. I’d also double the dry hops.
Also, if you aren’t already at the upper limit of your mash pH, you can try bumping it up 0.1 points. There have been reports that low pH can mask hop expression.
Anyone have any recommedations on what type of Munich to use for an all Munich APA? I was planning to use Weyermann Munich II
I think that would be fine. I use NA munich mostly and I use the 10L stuff which is consistant with what weyermann has to say about munich II (8.0-9.9L)
Just kegged this beer. Not fantastic. I don’t think Zythos is intended to be an IPA/APA hop. It does have pronounced garlic/really dank ish flavor and aroma. It’s not a bad beer, I’m sure it will be better when it’s carbed up but not really what I was expecting. This is what I brewed:
10 # Munich
1.2 # Maris Otter
.50 # Carapils
1 oz Zythos @ 60, 30, 15, 0, Dry
Safale US-05
OG 1.060
I’ll post some more notes when it’s carbed up in a few days. If it doesn’t taste great, the problem is I’ve still got 10 ounces left. Maybe it’ll surprise me with a little age. Hopefully. Rebel describes them as: Description: Tangerine, Citrus, floral, pine and Grapefruit character (the best of the best) I don’t get any of these flavors/aromas.
Your conclusions are interesting up to this point. My all zythos beers is sitting in the fermenter now. Our beers are strikingly similar. I overshot my efficiency quite a bit so I ended up with a higher OG than planned.
100% Weyermann Munich I
Hop additions: 60, 20, 10, 5, 0, dry
US-05 yeast
OG 1.060
IBUs ~38
When took my first sample, the only aroma that I noted was slight garlic. When dumping in the dry hops the other day I couldn’t detect this but I find it interesting you’ve noticed the same thing. I thought the aroma from the pellets themselves was pleasant but also mild.
I have never gotten any garlic/onion from Zythos hops. I have a batch done that had 60, 30, 0, dry, dry and it tastes/smells great. I’ll be kegging some of it tomorrow.
Just chiming in now that the beer is starting to carb. It’s actually really good. To me, I should say, It is really dank, not citrusy like the “descriptors” describe it, but very good. It’s funny how beers change, some beers taste great when I keg it, then not good when it’s drinkable, and vice versa. I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Tastes great!
Bring some next week! We’ll judge it.
Definitely! Got the apricot puree in too, so we’re good to go!
I just finished botting my all Zythos APA so I thought I would post my impressions up to this point. Definitely no garlic like I sensed after brewing which is good. The aroma is pretty subtle though pleasant. I get pear, kiwi, and perhaps some other tropical fruit that I cannot put my finger on. The taste is similar and I get some similarities to Columbus with pungent bitterness. For having an OG of 1.060 and 37.5 IBUs it packs a lot more punch than I was expecting. The description for Zythos that I have is citrus-grapefruit which I don’t taste or smell.
At this point, am getting a lot of similarity to Lagunitas hop profile. I definitely like this blend and will be using it again but probably not by itself. It is a very different character than I am used to in brews. I would use Zythos for bittering in an IPA but not necessarily an APA as it is more pungent than expected. Next time, I might bitter with Magnum then use a combo of Zythos and something else for flavor/aroma.
B+
Disregard these notes. The 100% munich malt bill has completely overtaken this beer. All the earlier impressions I had of Zythos have all but disappeared. Bummer…