The Hop You Hate

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.

Yes, you are crazy.  Saaz is my favorite hop.  :wink:

I do not get cat urine out of Cluster.  I get herbal and lemon.  Chinook and Simcoe are hardcore tomcat.  Citra is like day old cat urine.

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. :slight_smile:

+1

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.

It must be that new proprietary hop… Mr Bigglesworth

I’ve never picked up cat pee from a hop or a beer. I’m guessing that I just detect it as something different, blackcurrant possibly.

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 knew it was Mr. Bigglesworth all along. bad kitty, no beer for you

I have traced beers I don’t like back to too much Chinook. It’s interesting how our palates work – and how they change over time.

To be fair, my wife tasted the same beer and didn’t get cat pee. I’ve heard that the “cat pee” thing is genetic, wondering if that is true.

SN’s Celebration will be out soon! (although I’m sure they changed the recipe this year ;D )

I don’t hate any hops, but I won’t use Belma or Calypso again. Calypso had a strange bitterness to it and Belma didn’t seem to have any flavor.

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

One hop I totally despise is the one you have to have but they are out of them!

I hate sorachi ace the most.  Tastes like Pledge.

I also don’t pick up cat pee in beer but I sure as hell wish I detected my cat’s litterbox as black currant!

I see several posts about onion flavors. Isn’t onion a sign of mistreated hop or hops that were left on the bine too long?