CTZ. A little of it in an IPA, blended with others, is okay, but as a showcase hop the “dank” character just makes me want to set my glass down.
I am a huge fan of Clusters and never can see why people don’t like them. They are alright as a bittering hop, much better than (yuck) Galena. The real cat piss hop is Pride of Ringwood. Just drink a Foster’s.
I’m about to try a new experimental organic hop called only X17. Cross between Fuggle and Cascade. I tasted a beer made with them and they remind me a lot of Amarillo.
Most people are going to say I’m crazy, and it pains me to say this, but I am not a fan of Saaz. Every time I have used them in a Pilsner (twice), I get a soapy flavor. The last two times I tried the same recipe, I substited Polish Lublin and Sterling and got much better results. I doubt it is my water. It is very soft (Chattahoochee River / Lake Lanier source) run through a charcoal filter. I use no adjustments for a Pilsner. I can post Ward Labs test specs.
I’m with Denny on hating Fuggles and for the same reasons I don’t like Willamette - metallic flavors, like biting a dirty coin.
I find Clusters to have a currant flavor, which doesn’t taste good to me as a hop flavor, but I find it totally authentizes a CAP.
Beers hopped with all simcoe are not pleasant to me.
Im finding that, once you rule out a bad crop, that it also depends on the way they are used. Simcoe can be catty at 60 minutes, but grapefruit in the whirlpool.
I have a certain amount of agreement with the idea that all these cool new IPA hops will one day be replaced by the cool new old school hops (cascade and centennial etc).
I wouldn’t say I hate any particular hop, but a couple I would hesitate to use again are Pheonix and TriplePerle. I liked Pheonix at first, but the combo of herbal, molasses, and chocolate kind of wore me down. I could see it being good in a stout or porter though.
The TriplePerle heavy brew had a menthol aftertaste that I did not care for, which is a shame because it otherwise had a really nice fruity aroma. It tasted like what people always describe Perle tasting like. I love Perle though. I also love Fuggles, and Cluster.
Put me in this group as well! Fuggle is one of my favorite hops, and so is Cluster. Cluster has to be a terroir sensitive hop because the cones on my first-year E-2 Early Cluster bines were the nicest smelling of all my hops this year. They had a bright lemony aroma. I am willing to bet that all of the lemony proprietary hops have Cluster in their parentage.
Put me in the fuggle-loving camp as well, to me it reminds me of a pipe-tobacco earthiness.
As for least favorite hop, so far it’s mosaic. Perhaps it’s the beers that I’ve had that feature it, but it just comes as abrasive. Really resinous in a bad way.
That being said, I recently had a beer that tasted strongly of cat piss. Still trying to work out what hop caused that.
I have similar feelings as Denny with Citra. Nice when treated like a spice, but when it’s a dominant flavor, it just kills a beer for me. I try and use just enough of it in IPA’s to get a hint of flavor, but not so much that I can pick out the Citra flavor on it’s own. I’ve found it can also overpower everything else. Even when I use it in smaller doses compared to other hops. Definitely one to be careful with.
3 months ago I would have said Comet. Then I had Russian River’s single hop APA (Hop 2 It) made with it, and realized I’m just doing it wrong.
I haven’t run into any that I can say I hate. In reality though, I have not used anything too crazy. I did use Nelson last year in a saison and liked it, Citra is blended into my IPA with 4 others and I am not able to specifically pick it out. I am sure that when I do some smash brews to evaluate, I will find something I don’t like. I just hope it’s not Galaxy or Mosaic, as I just pre-ordered a pound of each in Label Peeler’s pre order sale