Looking to do an American wheat with Sorachi Ace. First time using this hop. Right now my hop schedule is .5 oz FWH, .25 oz at 60 min, and .25 oz at 0 min.
Looking around it seems like this hop can be a little overpowering but I’m intrigued by the “lemon/dill” description.
The base beer is a 1.044 American wheat using wheat malt, 2 row, and flaked wheat.
Thanks
Let us know how it turns out. I am planning to use 1/2 oz in a German-style Hefe - bittering hop only.
I concur with the ‘overpowering’ aspect. I like the ‘lemonyness’ but this one gets out of hand pretty quickly. A light hand with this hop is in my playbook.
If you find you overdid it, you can always blend this beer with another to extrapolate what level of Sorachi you prefer.
Martin, in your opinion does the proposed hop schedule constitute a “light hand?”
Thanks
I think your hop schedule is “light” enough.
I like FWH to test the flavor of a new hop.
If the flavor is too strong, you could either blend per Martin or dryhop with Centennial, Citra, or Simcoe. These work well with Sorachi and are bold enough to mellow it out.
I’ve made great APAs with Citra and Sorachi Ace. One thing that I found very interesting is that as the beer aged, the “dill” character became more pronounced. I think I liked the beer far better fresh than I did as it aged in the keg. It didn’t stay around long enough to see how far this would have gone but it was very evident over the course of 6 or 8 weeks that the dill became more apparent. Maybe the other hops faded faster but I don’t think I’d be a big fan of a highly hopped Sorachi Ace solo hop beer.
I have never tasted the “dill” when using sorachi ace, but I haven’t used it in large quantities. That said, Brooklyn Brewery makes an all sorachi ace saison that is fantastic. There was a recipe in BYO several issues ago.
I made one of these a couple years ago… I hopped at 60m and 10-5m. Kept the bitterness around 30IBUs. But I went a little ‘heavy handed’ on the late addition… I wanted lots of flavor with it. I thought it was great but was a little disappointed more lemon didn’t come thru… never got the dill either…
I guess “dill” is sort of the term I used because that’s what everyone else uses but it definitely took on a more harsh, vegetal flavour as it matured. I think it probably depends on what batch, how old the hops were etc.
Uinta brewery makes a delicious summer ale with sorachi hops. One of my favorites of theirs called sum’r ale. The guy at my lhbs tried to clone it by dry hopping it without success. I tried dry hopping with it on another beer without success as well but that recipe was a complete flop. I’m going to try and clone sum’r ale as soon as some ipa’s will hurry and get done so I have room in my fermentors.
I would like to hear how it turns out. I plan on adding sorachi 1/2 ounce at 10 min and 1/2 ounce at flame out.
It’s been in primary for 9 days. I haven’t checked but I imagine fermentation is about done. I’ll post when I tap the keg.
I made a wit recently with only one hop addition at -10min. It turned out awesome. Used Nelson, FWIW, for about 10 IBU.