OK, thanks to this forum I am now the proud owner of a number of Yakima Valley hops relatively unknown to European mankind, and completely unknown to yours truly. Could you suggest nice hop combinations to try out in American Blonde/APA/IPA/…? For at least part of the brews I will be using Conan yeast. This is the list:
Jarrylo, Azacca, El Dorado, Pekko, Hallertau Blanc, Buzz Bullets, Equinox, Lemon Drop, Galaxy, Comet, Mandarina Bavaria. Obviously I also have the usual suspects Mosaic, Citra, Columbus, Centennial, Warrior and a few more to blend in.
My current favorite IPA is an homage to Stone Delicious, at a lower ABV. I use an ounce of Galaxy at FWH, a half ounce of Lemon Drop with 15 min left in the boil, whirlpool with an ounce each of Lemon Drop and El Dorado, and dry hop with an ounce of El Dorado and half ounce of Lemon Drop (I’m sure you can do the conversion math to grams…). The base beer has an OG of 1.058 or so with nearly 80% 2-row plus some Munich and a touch of 40L Crystal for color. Theoretically it’s about 75 IBU, but has a very nice balance between malt and hops.
Sounds delicious. Is there independent corroboration that Delicious is delicious?
I think so.
Too much eldorado seems to make it too sweet, though.
+1, to Delicious and to too much El Dorado getting sweet. I’d use less El Dorado than Lemon Drop to balance this. Just personal preference.
OK, the Delicious recipe but with less El Dorado. That leaves Jarrylo, Azacca, Pekko, Hallertau Blanc, Buzz Bullets, Equinox, Comet, Mandarina Bavaria. Shoot!
I assume that Mandarina Bavaria and Hallertau Blanc would only make sense in single hop beers?
Yeah, I’ve heard this, but I don’t perceive it as too sweet. Balanced hops/malt, yes, but not too sweet. Must be an issue of personal taste.
This was a tasty beer that I could of had another pint of.
http://www.sunriverbrewingcompany.com/beers/details/india-session-ale
“Our 2015 Session IPA is built around newly released hop varieties from the Hop Research Institute in Germany - Hull Melon, Mandarina Bavaria and Hallertau Blanc, all daughters of Cascade. Bright flavors of honeydew melon, tangerines and passion fruit wine burst from this crushable IPA.”
Try taking your favorite C-hop IPA or Pale Ale recipe and then sub in Galaxy for some of late additions.
I think they named it right- Galaxy is out of this world! I LOVE that hop.
Yep. Or Equinox.
Meanwhile, by the grace of the notorious Innocent Hand, I now find myself in possession of 2oz of each of the following:
- Pekko
- Jarrylo
- Azacca
- Galaxy
- Comet
- …and another one but I forget…
Looks like I drew all three deities from the lot 
Here’re my embryionic plans with them. Feel free to advise for or against; apart from Galaxy, these hops are pretty much unknown in Belgium (or in fact Europe) at the time of writing.
Galaxy will pimp a DrRudi brew I made just before summer. On its own, DrRudi works well enough, but it needs a bit of complexity. Doesn’t need to become a whalloping IPA, but it needs more to make it remarkable;
Comet will make a great addition/substition to my all-Simcoe black IPA (apologies, I meant Cascadian Dark Ale or was it hoppy porter again?). I hear conflicting reports about it being either super-dank (as in “bong-scented waft of reefer doobie”) to massive grapefruit. Not exactly matching reports, but “dank” seems to be part of the consensus.
Pekko looks like it will do great in a farmhouse ale, or even in a proper saison. Yes, I think there’s a distinction but never mind that for the moment: I reckon the mishmash flavour descriptions I find (from mint to cucumber, from sage to lemon) would work well in a quencher. Possibly use it in this year’s Siason Cul-de-Chien edition.
Jarrylo, likewise, would do well in a saison. A hoppy farmhouse ale, more like. I also believe it could work well with Mandarina Bavaria, maybe even together in a hopfenweizen.
Azacca is likely going to provide a fruity nose to a seabuck thorn ale I currently have in secondary, munching on the berries. Depends on how the beer evolves, and if I don’t need them, I’m thinking abiyt using them in an actual pink grapefruit ale. Might be too much of a grapefruit thing though.
Hooray for brewing, and for friendly brewers sharing the spoils of their internet shopping sprees!
Follow-up.
Brewing a farmhouse ale with Jarrylo and Lemon Drops which will get a dose of quince in secondary. Follow-up on that will be in another thread.
Follow-up.
Brewed a farmhouse ale with the Pekko.