Any recommendations for good pairings of American and Noble hops? When referencing ‘American’ I am thinking more along the lines of Cascade and Amarillo not Sterling, Crystal, or others that may have some noble characteristics or can be used as subs.
I recently brewed a batch with Spalt @ FWH & 20 minutes and Amarillo @ 5 minutes. The beer still needs some time but has a very interesting hop character where the noble character is very present but is backed by a nice citrusy kick at the end.
Columbus and Mt. Hood (not really noble, but in the ballpark)
Cascade and Tettnang
Pairing American and German hops has kinda become a signature of a lot of the beers I make
Thanks Denny! I have yet to use Mt. Hood but the combination with Columbus sounds interesting. Do you use that in your Rye IPA?
Yep, I do. I recall when John Maier first tasted the beer he said he never would have thought of that combo. It inspired me to try other pairings.
Though not truly noble, I’ve liked Mt Hood with Centennial as well as Columbus as Denny mentioned.
I’ve tossed in some Citra to pair with Mittelfruh at the end of the boil for an Altbier and thought is was delicious.
What kind of ratio did you use? I assume you had to be pretty light handed with the Citra so not to overpower the MF completely.
Looking at the recipe… I used an ounce of HM @5 min, and an ounce each of HM & Citra @0 min. I have a plate chiller so they didn’t sit hot for very long, 10 minutes maybe?
It was a 5.5 gallon, 1.060 Sticke.
I like to take this approach with saisons. Just keep in mind that the American hops are more aggressive and need to be used in far less than a 1:1 ratio.
Hops with a citrus flavor tend to work well with noble character. Take a look at recipes using styrian goldings with noble hops and you could easily sub in amarillo or any other citrusy American hop.
Piney or herbal hops will work well with saaz where the earthy spice of saaz is an easy fit.
There are quite a few non-noble European hops both old and new that also work well with American hops. Many can be bought cheaply because there isn’t great demand for them but they have some of the noble-ish character with other unique flavors.
Cluster and Liberty and Cascade and Liberty are good combinations. Liberty is the closest triploid to Hallertauer Mittelfrüh from an essential oil point of view. From what I understand, it is also the most difficult to grow Hallertauer Mittelfrüh-derived triploid.
Tettnanger and Crystal are a big winner for me! Lots of other good ideas here, thanks for sharing!