Looking for piney, earthy character in hops

Beer Recipes
1

Hey friends! So I’m feeling like brewing an American Amber. Let me paint a mental picture for you. You just got off the mountain bike trail somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Everything is wet and smells like earth and pine. The sun is just peeking out from behind the clouds and warms you up as you sit on the tailgate of your truck and crack open a delicious homebrew.

I want to brew something with a slightly malty, bready backbone and a nice piney, earthy hop character. My new go-to bittering hop is Magnum simply for its versatility and clean bittering quality. Will probably use pale malt, dark crystal and a touch of carapils/dextrine.

So what are your favorites in the pine department? I’m not opposed to using spruce tips, as it is spring time here in Colorado! Late hop additions and dry hops are a must!

2

I think Chinook and Simcoe are a good place to start. Both have a pungent pine character.

3

I was thinking Northern Brewer.

4

Sometimes I get a more minty character out of Northern Brewer. My favorite for piney character is Columbus.

5

I say bitter with Nugget and go 40/40/20 with Mosaic, Simcoe, and Nugget for flavor and aroma…I might actually do this myself. I like the idea!  8)

6

Chinook was my first thought. Maybe a little CTZ if you want extra pungency. Willamette has a pretty subtle combination of earthy and citrusy flavors IME.

7

Chinook & Simcoe for pine. UK Fuggles and/or Willamette for earth. A touch of Columbus to kick up the dank.

8

Great ideas! Anyone have experience with Aurora or the eastern European hops? Wondering if I could get some earthy hop complexity with those. Although, my philosophy is that simpler is usually better so I might just stick with Simcoe and Chinook, as this could turn into an IPA quickly if I’m not careful. Thanks for the suggestions!

9

I use Styrian Celia quite a bit, and get earthy with a touch of lemon. Otherwise, I was drinking Great Lakes’ Alchemy Hour the other day, and it was very earthy with some pine and tropical fruit. The hop combo is apparently Mosaic, Nugget, and Cascade.

10

I am surprised that no one mentioned some of the english varieties for earthy…I always think earthy with EKG or Fuggles…but then it wouldn’t necessarily be an American Amber…but combine with the piney hops, and you might just have the PNW in a bottle.

EKG reminds me of tobacco…or some sweetness and musty.

11

I use Chinook / Simcoe in my amber. It’s like being smacked in the face with a pine tree…

12

This is where I was kinda going with my suggestion. Alchemy Hour is certainly an earthy tasting IPA that is very amber in color. I wasn’t aware of the Cascades in it. I thought it was an even blend of Nugget and Mosaic…Then I threw in Simcoe for the piney flavor.

13

I was surprised their was Cascade in there myself, but I got the info from their website.

http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/uploads/Beer/2013%20Beer%20Profile%20-%20Alchemy%20Hour.pdf

14

Well there it is! lol I don’t know where I read that it was an “even blend of mosaic and nugget”. Nevertheless, it is a very different “earthy” tasting IPA. I like it for it’s nice change of pace in taste.

15

So I decided to keep it simple and go with Chinook and Simcoe. I bought some extra whole leaf hops to dry hop with ~1/2 oz of each. Like I said above, I don’t want this to turn into an IPA, so I’m going to restrain myself from adding all 2oz! Will post with updates once I actually taste it. Brewing got shot down this weekend, as there is over 6" of snow on the ground and I don’t really want to deal with it.

16

If you want earth and bread, you need to get 30-40% rye malt in there.  Nothing else like it on earth (no pun intended!).  Then follow that up with a little Chinook and Northern Brewer, maybe some Willamette.  Yum.