My first IPA. How sorachi ace?

I have never had an IPA with Sorachi Ace, I have had several Saisons and loved them, so normally think of them when I think of that hop. Below are some threads discussing this
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/sorachi-ace-hops.123517/

 

Those 2 oz could potentially lead to a batch of beer going to waste. Have you had beers with sorachi ace before? They seem to be a love/hate type of hop.

 

I brewed a single hop sorachi ace IPA with a butt load of it a few years ago but I was fairly new to brewing. It was ok but the bitterness was too much. If you do use it I would only use it for finishing hops

 

You can probably use 1/2 oz of either Magnum or sorachi ace for bittering and get the rest of your IBUs from late additions.

If the SA is only being used at 60 minutes there shouldn't be much character that survives the boil.

 

I am one of those people who would just throw away the 2oz of Sorachi Ace.
I noticed it even when just used as a bittering hop, horrible

I bought a pound 3-4 years ago and tried it in 4 or 5 beers and as bittering, flavor, aroma additions and by itself and with other hops. Nothing I did worked and I tossed the last 4oz vs. using. Disgusting hop, don't understand it at all

 

LOL!

All that I could think here was a portion of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry made Newman eat a piece of broccoli. Newman ‘swished’ it around in his mouth and promptly spit it out with an exclamation of “Vile weed!!”

It appears that Sorachi Ace is your broccoli!?!

Cheers!

 

Good thing about Sorachi (Lemon Pledge) Ace hops is that it will make every subsequent batch of IPA taste better

 

God awful hop in my opinion. Not as bad as Nelson but close.
Don't take our word for it.

3 gallons with 2 ounces of 11.9% AA, you don't need any the Cascade or Centennial.
Go with 1 ounce at 60.
0.5 ounce at 10
0.5 ounce at 0.
Or move to dry hop with the 0.5 ounce instead of 0.

That's just one guys way to evaluate hops. If you want to get fancy, use Magnum or Herkules to bitter at 60 and save the SA for the last 20 minutes at different intervals.

Cheers.

 

Not a hop for IPA as far as I am concerned. I'll second the use in Saison, though. Great example would be Brooklyn Sorachi Ace. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45/51480/
Best use of the hop I have encountered yet.

 

At least it's not expensive. Oh wait....

 

Never was willing to pony up for that beer given my experiences with homebrewing.

I should have mentioned that I tried it in an APA with 1056, in a tripel with 3783 and in a saison with 3724. I think I ended up blending the APA with another APA to make it drinkable. Don't remember about the saison, I think there might have been two. I dumped almost 5 gallons of the tripel after about a year on tap. I kept going back and hoping it had improved, it never did.

It truly is a vile weed

 

I made a Sorachi Ace IPA last year. It was great. All gone now. You do need to love dill to enjoy it though. Not for everyone.

 

As I posted above, I love this in a Saison, but what I didn't state was that I don't think I can even imagine what this would be like in an IPA. I just don't associate that hop with an IPA profile. Because of the lemon component I think it works best in a Saison or Berliner Weisse

 

In an IPA, it will never score well in a competition, never. But that's just the judges being unfamiliar with the uniqueness of Sorachi Ace. They need to get more edumacated. And if they just don't prefer the hop in general, well that ain't fair, not until they get to the mini-BOS table anyway. Damned BJCP judges, grrrrrr........... and I'm Certified, so ironically I feel most qualified to point all that out as well.

 

Because Sorachi Ace imparts such a delicate, spicy, lemony aroma, I like to use them at the end of my boil and not for bittering. In fact, I just brewed a Japanese themed pale ale using Sorachi Ace hops for aroma. Turned out great! If you do decide to use them for bittering, let us know how it turns out.

Cheers!

 

Mark me into the 'hate' group.