Can someone tell me which hop varieties give a more floral aroma and not a grapefruit flavor?
I find Styrian Goldings gives a great floral aroma with no grapefruit. My favorite hop in fact. I made a really great SMaSH with it, MO, and 1469. Good times.
Huh, interesting. I found this about Styrian Golding “is thought to be Fuggle introduced to former Yugoslavia circa 1900” ( https://www.crops.org/publications/cs/articles/44/2/411 ) My wife is from that neck of the woods. Small world…
Most of the really floral hops to my nose have some grapefruit to them. Amarillo, Centennial, columbus. Citra, in spite of its name, has no grapefruit to my senses. It is all Mango sweet tea to my tastes - but very floral. Aurora is a very floral hop to me (assuming you can still find it - I haven’t seen it in a while), crystal has some nice floral characteristics. I think hallertauer mittelfrüh is very floral as well, perhaps a bit herbal as well depending on what you get and/or what year you get it (I actually haven’t used it in a few years.)
I’m sure others can fill in the gaps I am missing, but those are places to start.
I find Strisselspalt to be pretty floral without a hint of citrus.
Did I not say that? I meant to say that. definitely a good choice, similar to mittelfruh.
Bravo
East Kent Goldings
As Keith has said, Hallertau Mittelfrueh is very floral. It you buy “Hallertau” it can be Hallertau Gold or Hallertau Tradition, which are nice hops but not Mittlefrueh. Just make sure you are buying Hallertau Mittelfrueh.
Sterling and Saaz are the two that give me the most floral aroma.
masswinhester - I’ve been experimenting with Styrian Goldings and 1469 as well. Did a Timothy Taylor Landlord, a “masterpiece” according to my British friend. Yesterday I repitched the slurry into an English Mild using Styrian Goldings. I love the combination of that hop and yeast. Have you done much else with 1469?
ncbluesman? I detect copyright infringement!
Lots of the New Zealand hops (NZ Halleratuer, Pacific Gems, etc.) seem to be real floral with no citrus.
Challenger adds pine and flower power.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I’m definitely going to have to brew up some small batch, single hop beers so I can learn each variety. There’s a local brewery who makes great beer but their IPA tastes like grapefruit juice (Intuition I-10 IPA). The can says they use Columbus, Summit, Cascade, and Centennial.
It’s interesting that Citra and Hallertau Mittelfreuh were suggested. I just read that Citra is a blend of Hallertau Mittelfreuh and some others. I’ll certainly check out both of those.
Am I correct in noticing that the finish of a beer and change how I taste the hops? So could a more sweet beer impart a more fruity hop taste?
Absolutely. I definitely find that sweeter beers (as well as more acidic beers) really bring out the fruity hops flavors. Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA is a prime example of this. It’s a little sweet and pretty juicy and I get all kinds of fruit like OJ, lemonade, peach and berries in the flavor.
On the flip side, I find that dryer beers do bring out a bit more spiciness and floral/herbal notes from the hops, but to my palate I think it’s just more because the fruitiness tends to be a bit muted in dryer beers so the other hops notes show up a little better.
Indeed I have. It has pretty much been my house yeast for the last two years, so I am very happy that it is a year round strain now!
In fact, I was thinking about this thread, and thought that my Landlord clones tend to have a slight orange/citrus taste to it, so perhaps the styrian goldings do lend some citrus notes. However, with the smash I did not get that at all, and instead got this incredibly floral flavor and aroma.
Other than that, a little of topic, so apologies, I think 1469 makes a great dark mild, bitter (obviously), English pale, a good porter (not great), and a very very good barleywine.
Conversely, some hops (EKGs, Cascades) seem to add a candy-like sweetness to the finish of a beer, IMO.