I have a racking cane stuck into a picnic tap to fill from. I just let go of the trigger, pull the cane out out and put it in the bottle right next to it. It might drip a few drops, but nothing big. It’s faster than bottling a carbonated beer off a keg since there’s no need to fill under pressure and keep burping the bottle, and there’s no need to cap on foam. You can fill a bottle in 15 seconds or so and be on to the next one immediately after. Plus, you can do it all standing up over your sink rather than on the floor under your bottling bucket.
I can officially confirm that this method works with Star San 
I finally tasted my first beer from this round of brews. I’ll probably get to the rest at the end of the week, since this one could have used a bit more carbonation. I hate to cut and paste straight from my blog, but I have a lot of respect for what Pat is doing over at the Oregon Hophouse and thought a lot of the brewers here would be interested. I figured I’d share in full detail here as well:
The first hop that I’ll be tasting from this batch of trials is X-17. X-17 is an experimental hop cultivar bred by The Oregon Hophouse. The Oregon Hophouse is a certified organic hop farm, and their hop breeding program is targeted at developing pest resistant hop cultivars. I had the pleasure of exchanging a few emails with Pat, who runs the farm where X-17 is under development. Even through a few short emails, it was quite clear to me that Pat is passionate about what they’re doing on their farm.
Downy mildew is a serious concern in the Willamette Valley where Pat’s farm is located, and a major barrier for organic crop production in the region. X-17 was bred for its tolerance of downy mildew. Not only does this allow for reduced fungicide use, which is a worthy benefit on its own, but it also allows more options for cover crops to help fix nitrogen in the soil. This type of “big picture” thinking is refreshing, and is the sign of a farmer who truly understands the barriers and benefits of organic farming.
Developing cultivars that thrive under organic farming practices is certainly a noble goal. I know I struggle with pests and disease just in my small home garden, so I can only imagine how challenging it must be on a commercial scale. But to me the most important feature in any food, organic or not, is flavor. So let’s get to my tasting notes.
The aroma of the beer had a distinct orange and lemon zest aroma. The hop aroma was moderate in strength and did allow some of the toasty Munich malt aromas to peek through as well.
On the palate, the flavor followed the aroma very closely. Orange and lemon peel were the main flavors I was getting. Again, the hop presence was moderate and allowed the malt to show through as well. Also of note, I didn’t pick up any significant pine or dank flavors that many C-hops bring along with their citrus character. Bitterness was crisp, but smooth, leaving a touch of resin on the finish.
I am really liking the X17. It’s probably not bold enough to carry an IPA by itself, but it would certainly work as part of a blend - comparable to hops like Motueka or Mandarina Bavaria. It definitely makes one hell of a pale ale. X-17 also seems like the perfect hop for a wit, or maybe even a White IPA. It will probably be amazing paired with EKGs or other English hops in an ESB. I think it would make a great dry-hopped sour as well. The flavor profile of this hop makes it extremely versatile. To be honest, it’s hard to think of a style that X-17 wouldn’t be good in.
Sounds tasty. Glad to hear at least some parts of the industry are focusing on organic breeding.
Thanks for the info. Sounds like a nice hop.
I kegged my X-17 APA a couple weeks ago. I get orange, tangerine, lemon and lime from it. I bittered a 1.056 beer to about 60-65 IBU, but it doesn’t come across as that bitter. I also didn’t do anything extreme with water for it…I used a balanced profile because I didn’t want to artificially exaggerate the hops. I really like these hops and hope they make it into commercial production.
Same here! Pat had mentioned that he had 60 plants last year and will be up to an acre of production this year. I think this hop has a lot of potential.
I got around to tasting my Armadillo beer last night. These are leaf hops from the 2014 harvest from Yakima Valley Hops. To be honest, the raw hops left a lot to be desired right out of the gate. There wasn’t much aroma to them at all. On its own, that’s not necessarily a bad mark for whole hops. But the pound of hops I got reminded me of the bottom of a bag of chips. There were few whole cones; it was mostly loose bracts. There was very little of the stickiness and springiness that I often feel in good-quality hop cones.
In the beer itself, I picked up a rather mild hop character in the aroma. There was some herbal character with notes of citrus and lime. The flavor was even milder - there were faint citrus notes, some resinous pine and faint floral notes as well. The bittering character was a clinging resin on the back of the tongue. It’s not as abrasive as something like Chinook or Columbus, but it’s not particularly smooth either.
Overall, my experience with Armadillo is a swing and a miss. I’m sure some of this may be attributable to the quality of the hops I received, but I don’t see much good use for the hops I have on hand. They could possibly be a decent bittering hop for an IPA, but that’s all I got.
I’d be curious to see how the pellet form compares. Not curious enough to buy any right now though. Thanks for the info.
My next tasting is HBC 438 (aka “Ron Mexico”) from Hopunion, which also supports the Ales for ALS charity. In contrast to the Armadillo hops, the HBC hop pellets had a great aroma before they even made it to the beer.
The Ron Mexico beer had a very distinct, aromatic nose. The main aromas were passionfruit and blackcurrant. There was also some juniper in the background.
On the palate I found that the blackcurrant character took the lead, chased by passionfruit and citrus. I picked up just a fleeting hint of dank/onion at the tail end that gives way to a smooth juniper-resin bitterness on the finish.
HBC-438 is going to be a solid IPA hop for sure. It has a solid oil content (2.5-3.5 mL/100 g), and a distinct flavor profile. It should be able to hold its own with other hops in a blend quite well. I look forward to playing around with this one a bit more.
That one is coming up in the rotation for small batch trials. Heard a lot of good things. Thanks.
I had a very similar experience with 438. I experienced more of what I thought was a minty/sage aroma in the background, very similar to a pure neomexicanus but less intense. The citrus and passionfruit are huge, and definitely a little bit of dank as well. Very nice hop, I’ve got a bunch in my freezer waiting for me to brew my next IPA. It also played nice with (and still stood out from) 2oz each of Amarillo, Cascade, Columbus, and Simcoe in a 15 minute whirlpool for my last rye IPA.
My next tasting was Enigma. This is a new Australian hop that I got through Farmhouse Brewing Supply. The pellets clocked in at 18.1% AA.
The nose of the beer had a bright citrus/fruit aroma up front. There was a lot of complexity in the background, with woodsy, spicy, dank and piny aromas all present to one extent or another. The aroma was really big and bright, and had a really familiar “hoppy” character, for lack of better description. It reminded me of really peak quality Simcoe.
The flavor had big citrus and pine notes, almost giving the impression of fresh spruce tips. I did pick up some onion - nothing comparable to Summit, but still over my taste threshold. The bitterness seemed smooth, with some resin notes that fade out on the finish.
The descriptors I’ve read for Enigma lean towards red fruit (raspberries, red currants, etc.), but I’m not getting much of that. What I am getting still tells me that this is going to be a killer IPA hop, though. Although I did get a bit of the dreaded onion in the flavor, the bright hop aroma is too good to pass over. I’m looking forward to brewing an IPA with this in combo with some other hops in the near future.
I think Enigma is a crappy name for a hop. “I liked it this time, but who knows what will happen next?”
The ‘Mystery wrapped in a riddle’ hop. ;) Regardless, sounds pretty good to me. I’ll probably pick some up.
Right. It was an Enigma before, but now I think I have a decent handle on it. Plus, who wants to be reminded of crappy new age music every time they brew with it?
I think using “crappy” to describe some new age music might be redundant.
The final beer from this run was brewed using Vic Secret hops, which is another new cultivar from Australia.
The aroma of this beer was dominated by a big passionfruit note. I also got mango peel and tangerine notes from it as well. The aroma intensity was good, but not quite as high as the Enigma and HBC-438 beers from this group of trials.
The flavor of the beer was more of that big passionfruit that was on the nose, supported by some pine undertones. The intensity of hop flavor was moderate and let some of the malt character show through. The bitterness was smooth, with some lingering resin character through the finish.
I am a big fan of Vic Secret. That passionfruit character is distinct and intense. It makes me think of Galaxy, but it isn’t quite as intense and doesn’t have as much of the stonefruit or citrus I get from Galaxy sometimes. Vic Secret will definitely have a home in IPA’s, but its lower intensity would also let it work in some other styles that may get overpowered by something like Galaxy or Citra. The ubiquitous “hoppy American wheat” would be a nice summer sipper with some Vic Secret in the dry hops. I could also see this working well with estery English yeasts if you’re looking to get creative. A Landlord-style pale ale with Vic Secret in the whirlpool has a lot of potential.
Although it’s not quite as potent as some of the others (it’s not mild by any means, just not crushingly intense), I think Vic Secret is my favorite of the hops I’ve used on this run. I have an IPA coming up soon, and I think it will feature some heavy doses of Vic Secret and X-17, paired with some Meridian to complete the fruit bomb trifecta (tropical, citrus and stonefruit).
I just received 8 oz. of Vic Secret yesterday. They are like 17.4% AA.
Mine are 16.5, so that sounds about right. I didn’t have my AA%'s in front of me when I wrote these up.
Vic Secret - 16.5% AA
Enigma - 18.1% AA
X-17 - 9.6% AA
HBC438 - 16.6% AA
Exp. Armadillo - 5.5% AA