I’ve seen a lot of new varieties (or at least new to me) show up at the places I buy from this year. I’m always interested in trying new stuff. So far I’ve brewed with Whitbread Goldings, Pacific Jade, and UK Pilgrim. I have several more in the freezer waiting their turn. Herkules is one I’m anxious to use. Last year I tried the Falconers Flight blend and liked it, I just used it again as well.
Anybody taking advantage of the new varieties? I really haven’t tried any of the beers above jus yet, most are bottled and will be ready in a couple of weeks.
And on a related topic, I’m not sad that theres a shortage of certain hops and I think by the time the growers ramp up production we brewers will be on to the next hot hop.
I just tried some FF as a dry hop in an IPA. I like it. It’s very citrusy…like a fresh grapefruit flavor, yet it’s not a citrus bomb. I would like to use it for a late addition as well…maybe on the next round.
I have a beer made with X-369 that I really like. The beer made with this is the Pliny the Elder clone with X-369 subbed for Simcoe. Bells sold what they didn’t use in the the brewery through the General Store’s homebrew section, so I picked up 18 Oz after tasting the commercial beer they made with that hop in the Cafe. This is called “Son of Simcoe”, and has most of the Simcoe character minus the Cat Pee.
I also made a Barleywine with some of this X-369, and it is not packaged yet.
I’ve ben using X-366, which kinda tastes like a blend of Columbus, Amarillo, and Citra. If you;re going to NHC, Stan Hieronymous will be doing a seminar on new hops varieties and there will be sample beers made with them.
I just tried my Rakau Pale Ale last night. Very pleasant. It wasn’t overpowering, and I didn’t pick out any distinctive flavor, but I’ve only had one bottle so far. Otherwise, I am a big fan of FF, and am going to use Zythos soon.
Denny, Stan gave a hops talk (no doubt an abbreviated version of what you’ll get) at the KCBM contest a few weeks ago. Really informative! A fair amount on breeding history and the current state of hops production in major growing areas, plus of course some stuff on hop characteristics. I’d met Stan last December at another contest in St Louis where he now resides. The wife and I got to sit at his table at dinner. Great guy, and not just because he likes my sours. But that does help.
As for the new hop varieties, I’m buying retail by the ounce (NB, Something’s Brew’n in Galesburg IL) for a lot of them. A little more expensive than pound lots but for single batch trials it works out well enough. Much of the new stuff is more reasonably priced than the old standbys like EKG and noble hops.
Another site that’s nice for bulk hops is freshops. The nice thing is that you don’t need a full pound of any particular hop variety. As long as your total order is 12oz, you can buy in 1oz increments of various varieties. I haven’t seen many of the new hop varieties in stock, but they do still have Amarillo and Citra right now. (They had Simcoe in stock a couple of weeks ago when I ordered mine, but it looks like they’re out now)
I’ve ordered from Freshops and they have good stuff, though I didn’t see anything terribly unusual last time I visited the site. I tried Citra and Amarillo, love them both and still have some I think.
Really I haven’t gone through all the tried-and-true varieties yet, I don’t know why I’m so anxious to try out new stuff. I’ve never used Fuggles, Cluster, or Galena to name just a few.
So far, a couple pales. Used some D90 from candisyrup.com in one of them. I’ve been using them for FWH and dry hopping to get the most out of them. I was thinking of doing an IPA with them and Falconer’s Flight, but I’m concerned the FF might overpower them.
Whitbread Goldings (AKA WGV) and Pilgrim hops have been around for a long time. You can find a number of recipes which use them.
I’m not familiar with Pacific Jade or Herkules. My guess is that you’d use Pacific Jade as a late hop in ales, while Herkules could be a substitute for Perle, assuming that it’s aroma and flavor aren’t all that.
One of my absolute favorites, although I haven’t had it for a while, is Sorachi Ace. One of the best beers I’ve ever tasted was a single hop Sorachi Ace beer modeled on a German pils. Sadly, it wasn’t one of mine.
I’ve just tapped a keg of single hop pale ale using Zythos. Lots of citrus with some tropical fruit, with background notes of pine and wood. Complex and interesting - I like this blend.
I made an IPA with all zythos. FWH, 60 min, 15 min, 10 min, 5 min, 0 and then dry hopped with 3 oz. 7 oz all together I think and it turned out really well. flavor and aroma was awesome. As the previous poster said citrusy, fruity. Friends and family liked it alot. I picked up some more of this hop for later. I think I will up the bittering additions as it was a little too smooth in that deptartment. Might try adding some citra too.