I was curious what people’s experiences have been with this hop. I used it in an IPA recently, mainly because I had it on hand and it fit the theme of the brew, and the beer has developed a distinct ‘cheesy’ quality. It’s the exact same recipe I made before except I added an ounce at flame out and an ounce dry hop. Anyone have this experience with Horizon?
Sounds like the hops were oxidized. Horizon is a clean, higher AA bittering hop. I never used them but Cheesy does seem to be a characteristic of any hop. But I have heard that term used for hops that were bad , old or oxidized. How did they smell in the packet before you used them?
Maybe cheesy isn’t the best term, but that’s all I can really come up with. And it’s not bad enough to make it undrinkable. As far as out of the packet I can’t really remember other than they didn’t smell as the beer does now.
Cheesy character is common to old, oxidized hops. Were the hops kept vacuum sealed in the freezer ? How long since you bought them ?
They were from my lhbs, used them within 3 days of buying them. They were still sealed in their Hop Union packets. I guess I might have just gotten an old batch.
Any chance a prolonged dry hop could have caused this? I just tossed the hops in my keg as I carbed.
I dry hop in keg and leave the hops in there, and don’t get that character. It sounds more likely that the beer got slightly oxidized in the racking to keg. Hop character in hoppy beers is very easily oxidized. Do you purge your kegs before and after racking ? Oxidation is my guess.
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I did not purge my keg before racking this beer. Something I’m sure I should know but still fairly new to kegging and it slipped my mind.
We’ve all been there. Hop character gets oxidized really, really easily.
Lesson learned. I’m actually kind of glad to hear this. I have a silly theme in my IPA, aptly named ScifIPA with Apollo galaxy and challenger hops. I was hoping to add horizon to the list (or maybe millennium or comet or pioneer or any other hop that fits the theme and tastes good).