I just brewed another round of single-hopped beers today. Most of these hops had some really nice aroma to them, and I’m really looking forward to tasting the beers in a month or so. I didn’t really like how my last batches came out using steeped CaraHell, so I went back to my original recipe of 13 oz Light DME (2 1/3 cups by volume) and 5 oz Munich LME (1/3 cup by volume) in 1 gallon preboil volume. Hops were between 40-45 IBU (calculated as a 20-minute addition) added after the extract dissolved, 15 minute boil, 0.25 oz flameout hops and each will get 1/2 oz of dry hops.
Here’s the list of hops for this series of beers:
Vic Secret - a new hop from NZAustralia
Enigma - another new hop from NZAustralia
Armadillo Experimental - an experimental hop available from Yakima Valley Hops
HBC 438 (aka “Ron Mexico”) - a new hop from HBC, that is currently only available to homebrewers.
X-17 - a new experimental hop from The Oregon Hophouse, who were kind enough to send me a sample to review. I am really excited about these.
Here are links to my past years’ tasting notes: 2012 2013 2014
The two NZ hop pellets had really distinct aromas to them. I picked up a big anise note in the Vic Secret with some floral and apricot. I get a hint of anise from other hops (EKG in particular), but this was like opening a box of Good & Plenty. You never know how that translates to the finished beer, though.
Won an “insiders” tour at FX Matt Brewing in Utica (Saranac) from a competition I entered last year. Got a chance to smell some new experimental hops and the one that stood out the most was Vic Secret. Loved its aroma, just wish I could’ve nabbed a few ounces to dry hop a beer with.
I exchanged a few emails with Pat at Oregon Hophouse, and its obvious how much passion he has for what they’re doing over there. I have high hopes for the X-17. They were some really high quality cones.
Is it just the picture, or are those Vic Secret hops really that brown? From the picture, if someone gave me those, I’d assume they’re ancient and stored improperly and probably wouldn’t use them. Very interesting color.
Good eye! I noticed the exact same thing about the two NZ hops compared to the HBC 438 pellets. The thing is, the aroma was fantastic on those two - every bit as potent as the HBC, if not more so. There seemed to be less grassiness to them as well. I can’t help but wonder if there’s something going on with the processing on those. I’ve gotten plenty of import hops from Farmhouse, and they have never disappointed in their potency. I’ll have to keep an eye out with other hops to see if I notice a difference.
Anyone played around with a Azzaca in a single hopped beer? I’ve got a full pound that I’m trying to find a style that they will work in. I’ve heard they don’t play well with the more dominant IPA hops (Simcoe, Mosaic, Columbus, etc.) as Azzaca is more subtle.
Yeah, I love it in APA as a single hop. Works well in an IPA blend, too, you just have to match its intensity with stronger hops. As a reference I think it’s on a par with Centennial in terms of intensity, if that helps.
EDIT - The simplest way to balance with a stronger hop is obviously to use more of the weaker one, or less of the stronger one. Like 2 Azacca : 1 Simcoe or Columbus. It’s good stuff.
41 IBU Azacca - 60 mins
4.5 oz Azacca - added after cooling wort to 175F. Steep for 25 mins, stirring occasionally, then finish cooling.
3 oz Azacca - dry hop 5 days, room temp
It took a bit longer than I had hoped to carve out the time for it, but I finally got around to bottling these batches last night. I used a new method to bottle these rather than just tring to bottle straight from the fermenter. I used a keg as a bottling bucket and bottled from there. It saved me a little time, but it payed huge dividends in making my life a lot easier (and my kitchen a lot cleaner). I just racked a batch into a sanitized keg, then bottled under low CO2 pressure and added 1 Cooper’s carb drop per usual before capping. After a quick hot water rinse and re-sanitization, I was ready for the next batch. Really simple, and even better than using a standard bottling bucket since you don’t lose much beer in the keg, and you can just line up all the bottles in the sink and bottle a whole batch in minutes.
If these beers taste anywhere near as good as they smell, then there are several varieties that will probably make my regular rotation. I won’t name any names until I taste the finished beer, but one of these has the potential to replace Citra as my go-to base hop for fruit-forward hoppy beers. I’ll let that hang out there as a tease for now ;D
I’ll be back in 2-3 weeks with my results once these finish carbing up.
I’m about to keg and dry hop my X-17 beer. Tasting when I took a gravity reading, I got a huge orange flavor and aroma with background notes of tangerine, lemon and lime. I REALLY like these!
