Tropical Fruit and Hops

Give me spicy, floral, and bitter German hops to balance and complement my Pilsner. Or earthy and delicate English hops in my pale ale that are present just enough to add some bitterness and keep things interesting during my sessions.

Silly hop heads, Citra's for kids.

Disclaimer: I like tropical fruit IPAs too. Just not for sessions, and I love Celebration just as much, if not more, than those fruity IPAs.

 

both styles of hops have a lot to offer. Standard IPAs of yesterday and modern IPAs as well as traditional stouts and bitters or brown ales are all made at my brew station. Guess I like the old and new, just no mosaic for me, nope,.

 

That has me thinking: Are there any notable examples of English or German hops being employed like the aforementioned tropical hops; i.e. using huge amounts of 'em to dry hop instead of regular additions to the boil. I'm thinking along the lines of Trillium or Treehouse juicy haze bombs, but with Fuggles or East Kent Goldings, etc.

 

I like both. The new fruity hops are the rage, but a good old pilsner loaded with Saaz is hard to beat.

 

I love the tropical hop bombs, would love to try more...I'm sure it's a phase for me though

 

That is why I posted: "Better yet, maybe start homebrewing and make your own."

I homebrew a batch of CAP every year.

Cheers!

 

I tend to prefer my APAs and IPAs on the tropical, citrusy end of the spectrum, but I'm not a fan of citrusy american hops in many other beer styles. I would prefer styles like pilsners, stouts, saisons, browns, vienna lagers, milds, etc. use more traditional piney/grassy/earthy types of hops.

 

I love the different flavors that are coming about with hops. More tools to work with which open up new avenues of possibility for what beer should be. How to approach your drinking of it as well. Just new angles for the mouth to enjoy. They have changed the way brewers approach brewing with them to a slight degree as well. Not a bad thing. Just another tactic to employ with hop usage.

 

I like them all but I've really been into the new tropical fruit hop flavors lately. I'm working on a recipe right now for a session IPA using Hull Melon, Mandarina Bavaria, Mosaic, and New Zealand Hallertau.

 

If they're good, I really like the new wave hops. But too many people especially over here in Europe overuse Mosaic and the likes which, for my palate, always gives some sweatsocks and onions/shallots, sometimes even buttery flavours that overpower the tropical fruits. And that's a pain in the ass.

 

Personally, when I think about new wave hops, I'm thinking of new New Zealand and South African varietals. I quite like those. I also really like the new-ish ones you mention. I also like the classics. So many great options nowadays. If you asked me last week about fuggles and EKG, I would have told you I'm a little bored with them based on a lot of mediocre cask bitters I've had lately. But last week I had a freaking amazing dark mild that was pure fuggles/EKG...so I'm back in.

@JackHorzempa, I've only used methods like massive post-boil hopstands in order to get N.E. IPA juicyness with hops like citra/mosaic/etc. Just curious if you've ever gone that far (in terms of quantity of hops in post-boil and dryhopping) with saaz or other noble hops. If so, does it work or is it just too much green matter with the low-alpha varieties?

 

No, I have never massively aroma hopped (including dry hopping) with European hops. When I homebrew my Bitter Ales I use 4 ounces of EKG for flavor and aroma, 2 ounces are added to the kettle (1 ounce for a 30 minute hop-stand) and 2 ounces of dry hopping for 14 days. In that beer there is just a bit of EKG aroma. EKG is just not a potent hop as compared to hops like Citra, Galaxy, Mosaic,...

FWIW I am inclined to agree with you that adding the amounts of European hops to obtain a big aroma/flavor would likely also result in a 'green' flavor; not worth it IMO.

Cheers!

 

NEBco gold stock is pretty well hopped with some German/ euro hops. Latest batch (first on new brew system) needs some work imo. Love the old batches though. And enjoy most hops, esp galaxy and nelson.

 

I'm a Hop Head. I like Tropical/Fruity and I like Resinous/Floral. It's nice to switch between the two though.

 

This whole "tropical fruit" flavor from hops made me do a 180 on IPAs. It's a style that was getting boring to me, but now I rarely make a beer run without getting something hoppy. In a nutshell, I love the influx of these hops

 

Personally, never was a fan of resinous or piney IPAs. However, I love Galaxy heavy tropical noted IPAs.
Also really love Saaz hops, and continental pilsners with said hops. Just for whatever reason West Coast IPA hops, what I am assume are mostly Simcoe or Cascade, aren't really my thing.

 

I used to adore super juicy and dense IPAs. But it's nice to have some depth. The piney-ness of Chinook and Simcoe, the earthy and bright fruit complexity of Mosaic, cannabis-like Columbus, wine-like notes of Nelson and Hallertau Blanc....there's so many hops to explore! Not just the most fruit-forward ones.

 

I do like them when they are used properly. There's too much of a trend to juice up and make these beers not even taste or resemble beer though to me and I am not really interested in that.

Even an IPA should have some sense of malt presence. If I want pineapple juice I'll go to the grocery store.

 

@smakawhat
I couldn't agree more with your post. I like all hops and am a huge fan of tropical notes in beers. At the end of the day though I wanna know and feel like I'm drinking a beer. This hazy sunny delight IPA craze is getting a little old imo. There's nothing wrong with balance in an IPA and malt contrary to the belief of "new school craft"..I mean solely orange juice IPA drinkers isn't the devil. If you need your beer to taste that much like fruit juice why even drink beer? I do not wish to bash the opinions of others..but I see so many reviews/forums bashing the classics of the IPA/DIPA style bc they aren't turbid enough or do not taste like fruit juice. Drink whatever you wish but there are other world class quality IPAs outside of NE and the wannabe brews inspired by this trend.