I want to brew a hop-forward beer for a mate called Rudi. Having found out there’s a hop called Dr. Rudi (used to be called Super Alpha but I lack friends named Super or Alpha), the choice is obvious.
I’ve no previous experience with this hop and information on the internet is rather sketchy. “Piney, with hints of lemongrass” seems to be the consenus.
Question now is what to pair it with, if anything.
I could go single hop or even SMaSH.
But I’m also tempted to do something a bit more ambitious, like fruity Munich-based IPA fermented with Brett trois.
Anyone have any experience with Dr Rudi and advice on pairing/complementation?
I think the flavor combination of Dr Rudi would cover both sorachi and chinook but you could include some of one or the other to accentuate the lemon or pine character. You could also use it in recipes using sorachi and chinook in place of both of those hops and keep whatever other hops are used in the recipe.
If you really want to figure out these hops and let your friend know what these hops taste like then a smash beer might be the best option.
It’s hard to judge without the oil content, but the description combined with the fact that it’s from New Zealand reminds me of Motueka plus some pine. I’m thinking an APA using Pils malt as your base malt would be a good start to get a drinkable beer and learn a bit more about how the hop works at the same time. Something like:
85% Pilsner
10% Caramunich I
5% Munich
1.050 OG, ~45 IBU at 60 minutes, 1 ounce as a hop stand at ~170F and 1-2 ounces as a dry hop. Use the Dr Rudi all the way through. And be sure to report back with your results
PS - I picked the continental malts here only because Motueka works really well with them. If you have American malts it would work, too.
I would go with a 1.060 saison with it, using it for bittering and flavor additions, with a big floral hop addition like Pacific Gem at the end for aroma.
Excellent suggestions, and probably a whole lot more sensible than my current everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink approach
A single-hop APA sounds like a good start. That Rudi saison plus PacGem (and, why not, SorAce to boot) will probably be for later, once I get a good whiff of what Rudi’s all about.
Let us know how it turns out. I bought some for a single apa myself. I planted Super Alpha, and would love to know what it has going for it. It gave me only a dozen or so cones last year, but was an insanely gigantic bine.
