I have had 3 oz of sorachi ace hops lying around that I haven’t been able to come up with a great idea for. Never used them before. I was curious what everyone’s thoughts might be on potential styles, good hop pairings, etc. I have heard they can lend an oily, diacetyl type flavor to beer- is this anyone else’s experience? Are there ways to avoid this such as limiting it to early or late additions?
The only beer I’ve had that I can remember this hop was Brooklyn’s Sorachi Ace which I enjoyed.
I was thinking maybe a belgian IPA or a lighter beer such as an off-style kolsch (but with more hop flavor aroma). A traditional IPA would also be good but I’m unsure what hops may go well with it. I’m all ears
I have some in the freezer that I keep intending to use in a saison. Perhaps soon.
I use them to dry hop Saison in honor of Brooklyn’s brew. It was quite good. In fact a fellow Homebrewer tasted it without knowing what was in it and remarked that it tasted like Brooklyn Sorachi. It definitely has the lemony bite associated with it, but I found it goes well with the Saison profile if not overdone. I have never boiled these hops, maybe that is where the diacetyl flavor is coming from.
I think they would do well in a Hefeweizen.
I had a beer at Sierra Nevada a while back that was one of their Beer Camp beers. It was called Cosmic Haze and it was a blonde rye ale that used Sorachi Ace and Galaxy. It was really good and had a very pronounced passion fruit character with just a light pepperiness from the rye. I’ve tried to clone it, but my first batch wasn’t quite there.
I brewed an American Wheat this summer with some. Used Centennial for bittering and Amarillo/Sorachi through the last 15 minutes to flame out and was a pretty tasty beer!
I had the Brooklyn Sorachi brew at Savor a couple of years ago. Thought that it was so good that I bought a lot of Sorachi Ace. I used it in some IPAs but now have abandoned them for good.
I find them to be overwhelming Dill tasting. Once you identify Dill as the flavor its hard to enjoy it. I was disappointed since I remember the Brooklyn brew to be very lemony, not dill (I might have had too many tastings by then…). But looking at the description on the hop packaging, it clearly says “dill” …
APA’s with Sorachi Ace and Citra have been nice. I also like them in American wheat as posted above.
I agree that APA and Saison are great choices for this hop. I would also suggest that they would work well with Saaz or Celeia in a Gratzer, or perhaps a Belgian Pale.
I tried this - didn’t like the lemon/dill and banana/clove combination. I thought the flavors conflicted.