That Lagunitas "tropical" flavor

Took the words right out of my mouth! Love their beers!

 

my thought is to not drink too much lagunitas at a time, and it will be just fine, for the beer is good in limited quantities.

 

another vote for: it's their house yeast not fermenting as clean as others.

that said, does lagunitas really not use a lot of centennial, or other hops with lightly tropical overtones? when they go big on the dank (waldo's) which i can only assume is a ton of chinook and simcoe and mayyyyyybe summit (and citra?), it doesn't come out very tropical fruity. i rarely taste the new zealand pineapple-y flavor in their beer, and fresh lagunitas IPA is just straight dank.

i always thought the hop stupid sweet fruit flavor was like tones from centennial and/or amarillo, plus not-very-clean yeast and mayyyyyyyybe some crystal malt. i think it's the high ABV (not a lot, or probably not even any crystal) plus the way their yeast ferments.

and yeah, i'm in the "keep doing it the way you're doing it, lagunitas" camp.

 

All of their original 90's recipes use a lot of the same hops:

Censored: Horizon, Willamette, Cascade, Centennial, Liberty
IPA: Summit, Horizon, Willamette, Cascade, Centennial
Maximus: Horizon, Willamette, Cascade, Centennial
Shugga: Nugget, Willamette, Liberty, Cascade, Centennial

So they might love C hops lol.

I'm pretty sure Lagunitas does not tweak their recipes, so the original beers will stay the same. I know they changed the pale ale though, as that got a rebranding as New Dogtown.

Oh and as for Stoopid: Nugget, Simcoe, Chinook, Cascade, Columbus

 

Aha! When the summit comes through for me in their regular IPA, i don't think any other readily available hoppy beer can beat it.

 

I notice this and I love it!

 

Malt forward and sugary yes, tropical no

 

About 7-8 years ago, Lagunitas' beers went through a change. I used to love their stuff, and one day it went all weird. I chalked it up to the yeast. All I know is the great majority of their beers taste very similar, and are not pleasant to drink. I try one every so often, but they all still taste funky, in a bad way, to me.

 

Don't tell this to Daytime IPA.

@tri-x

Define "tropical fruit" here specifically. This may help some of those contributing to this thread.

Also, even if we know the overall hop profile, we don't know the details of their methods and other brewing specifics. We have hop and malt profile, yeast type, abv, and IBUs in their beers....but in no way does that tell the entire story.

 

It's a combo of English ale yeast and a high finishing gravity. However they get there whether it be through the attenuation characteristics of their house yeast or a high mash temp.

 

Agreed

 

I wouldn't assume that any of those recipes are the same. Unless you work at the brewery or trust someone that does, I would never assume you know what the real recipe to a beer is. Those could have completely changed by now. Brewers are constantly changing recipes in general as hops change.