Combination of hops to create an "orange" flavor

Ingredients
1

I am planning on brewing an APA next week.  I am trying to come up with a blend of hops to be more “orange/citrus” than pine or grapefuit, passionfruit, etc.  Going to hop burst it late.

Hops that I know give an “orange” type flavor from experience and reading various hop profiles are:

Amarillo
Cascade (probably more grapefuit?)
Summit (orange/tangerine, hoping to avoid the garlic/BO/Onion)
Motueka
Pacific Jade

Tenatively planning on using a 2:1:1 ratio of Amarillo:Cascade:Summit, but could possibly substitute one of the NZ varieties.

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks,
Brian

EDIT:  I will also be adding some fresh orange zest at 5min before flameout.  Probably 2-3 oranges?

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I get quite a bit of orange from NB’s surly bitter brewer clone.  IIRC it has a 2.5 oz dry hop with glacier.

3

I find summit to be oniony - I wouldn’t use it.  If you like it though, have at it.

4

It has been said that the Bells house yeast is responsible for the orange flavor in Oberon. I might agree with that, but have never tried to do an Oberon. It is a fruity yeast.

Just wanted to say that yeast is something to consider.

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The effect of the yeast has crossed my mind.  Not enough time to culture and propogate yeast from a Bell’s bottle.  Thinking of using WY 1272 American Ale II…

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The only hop that gives me an unmistakable, dominant orange flavor/aroma is Summit. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to get the orange without the garlic/onion/asiago. If you want a big orange flavor in your beer, and I’d definitely go with some zest.

If I were hopping an orange beer I’d probably go with Amarillo and Glacier in the boil and use them with a small amount of Summit in the dry hops.

7

I remembered this link from Nathan Smith’s destroy.net site/rate beer…

It looks like the strongest orange from the experiment are as follows:

  1. Ahtanum
  2. Simcoe
  3. Glacier

So maybe 2 parts Amarillo, 1 part Ahtanum, 1 part Pacific Jade?

I do have some ideas on how to avoid summit’s “savory” attributes, but maybe I’ll save that for another time.  Obviously some of this is also based on the quality of summit at harvest and out of the brewer’s control.

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K-97 yeast gives an orange flavor. Some tasters in my decoction experiment described it as “orange marmalade.”

9

Coriander is what gives Wit much of its orange character. I’vE heard to be wary of the store bought stuff though and find plump indian varieties.

10

Warrior hops have an orange character I think.  That and Amarillo.  I don’t get orange from Glacier really.  More of a super-mild peach flavor, but it is slight.

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I’ve heard if you briefly dry roast the coriander, in a pan, that takes some of the chlorophyll edge off of it. I haven’t verified that, though. I also read in the Hops book that coriander needs to be fermented to display certain citrus flavors. So adding in the keg won’t work as well as a flameout addition.

12

That’s interesting - coriander smells really citrusy to me when I grind it.

13

Yep, I agree.

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Me, too.  I sometimes add it in the keg for more citrusy aromas.

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Well, maybe I shouldn’t have said “won’t work as well,” what I meant was “will be different.”

The passage in the Hops book talks about a study of beer brewed with coriander compared to beer with Citra hops. Both had a lot of geraniol and linalool, but neither had citronellol. In both beers, the geraniol was converted to citronellol, and tasters perceived the beers as similar. “The results suggested the importance of citronellol and an excess of linalool in the hop-derived citrus flavor of beer, but because there was little citronellol in raw hops, the generation of citronellol depended on the geraniol metabolism by yeast.”

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Don’t forget that there are different varieties of corriander.  The Indian corriander is yellow and smooth skinned.  It does tend to provide citrusy components.  I find them to be more on the lemon side.  But then there is the Mexican or Moroccan corriander that is brown and wrinkle skinned.  It has more of a peppery flavor contribution in my opinion.

I’ve found that since we add orange peel to Wits, I prefer the Mexican corriander in my Wit to provide a slightly earthy and spicy contrast to the orange flavor.  I didn’t like what the Indian version did for the flavor.  But, I agree that it might add some citrus impact in the beer in question.

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Ok, we are getting a little off track here ;).  I am aware corriander provides “orange” character.  But, I am trying to achieve this mainly with hops.  Making a fruit beer for a local comp “pineapple/orange” to be specific.  Trying to avoid the spice/corriander.  Hence, the hops question.

Here is what Stan’s book says about the corriander experiment (abriged version)…

Sapporo researchers brewed 2 beers:  one with Citra, one only with corriander.  Both are rich in geraniol and linalool.  The finished Citra beer contained; geraniol, linalool, and citronellol.  The same transformation occured with corriander.  The concentraition of citronellol and geraniol were dependant on geraniol concentration.  Taste panels rated both beers as very similar. The research suggests the importance of citronellol and linalool in the hop-derived citrus flavor of beer.  But, since there was little citronellol in raw hops, it’s generation was dependant on geraiol yeast metabolism.

So, maybe using some combination of Citra is in order?

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I don’t find any orange flavor in citra. Tastes like “imitation” mango to me. But perhaps the right blend might get you what you are looking for. Amarillo,  … Maybe a touch of centennial and a hair of citra.

I have used ahtunum before and I can remember it having some slight orange character as well.

19

Maybe this can be achieved with aroma rather than flavor. Aroma is very influential on taste…

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You may also want to consider mashing higher to keep some sweetness in the beer. This might help fool the palette into thinking it’s tasting orange instead of grapefruit or other bitter citrus.