LP has this hop available now, just picked up a couple oz's to give it a try. Here's an article on AHA about it.
Sounds like an interesting hop. From the AHA link (Stan Hieronymus) "I had a chance to smell HBC-438 during Hop Union’s Hop & Brew School in 2013. Perrault put out several unlabeled varieties, including commercially available hops and experimental ones. It was one of two that “popped” at first whiff, Simcoe being the other. On that day, at least, I preferred the aroma to Citra and Mosaic (which were also on the table). I gave it high marks for the tropical fruit, stone fruit, herbal and spicy, and liked a subtle cedar note. But I also gave it five (out of seven) for onion/garlic (less than Mosiac, more than Citra). Of course that’s only the aroma of the raw hop. At the time, Perrault called it a “love it or hate it” hop, so perhaps one that would work better blended with others. Nonetheless, the version of “Ron Mexico” Russian River made as one of the commemorative beers for the 2015 National Homebrewers Conference was hopped only with HBC-438 and very well received. There are a few reviews of it at Beer Advocate and Rate Beer, but soon homebrewers will get a chance to find out what it tastes like in their own beers.
I really liked the Ron Mexico beer, had it at the presentation, had it from the bottle. I only have 2 oz. and this is tempting. I will see if my LHBS is going to get some in before I pull the trigger on this one.
I grabbed a couple onces of this today, will probably use them to do my first SMaSH beer. I've been meaning to do one of those for a while anyway, might as well be with these hops.
Brewed this weekend, SMASH IPA, everything went really smoothly. 100% 2 Row and used a total of 4 oz (small amount for bittering and mostly late boil and whirlpool additions) to bring IBU to around 60. Fermented with US-05. Its vigorously bubbling away right now, and smells really great coming out of the airlock at least. When I opened the packages, I definitely got the tropical fruit in the aroma, and some herbal, especially mint, which was noted in the descriptors. Have a few more ounces I am going to dry hop with this Saturday and plan to bottle the weekend after. I was unfortunately not able to take a gravity reading because I forgot that I broke my hydrometer earlier in the week after taking a reading on the Irish imperial stout that I was racking to secondary, but my process is pretty dialed in, so I am going to trust what Beersmith says in that regard. I'm really looking forward to trying this one when it's finished though.
Brewed a DIPA with it a week ago, not a single malt beer though. Had to use a grain bill I had for a pumpkin ale that I decided not to brew due to not being able to find any US Hallertauer hops. Used 2 Row, victory and some carmel 60L and us05, 1.072 og and 70 ibu's. Used the hops as fwh, 5min and fo for 15min. Dry hopped in the primary today, will also be keg dh in another week.
I just dry hopped a DIPA with this hop this evening. Smelled nice and looking forward to what it tastes like with 2 more oz in dry hop until next weekend.
Jeff, I look forward to hearing how it turns out. I will be brewing an Equinox IPA later this week (or next); my first time brewing with this hop. Cheers!
Just now getting back around to this, but I had a pretty nasty cold for a couple weeks, so I didn't think I could provide a really good impression, but I've been drinking this beer and sharing it with people I know that are all into beer, and everyone is really impressed with this hop. It is pretty heavy on the tropical fruit, a bit of citrus, I don't really get any stone fruit that is in the description, and I get the grassy/herbal/minty on top of the fruit, but it's subtle if that makes sense. It's a really fantastic beer, and I want to stock up on a couple more ounces of this to try in combination with other hops to see how well they play with others.
I am drinking my HBC-438 clone based on the RR recipe. Seems a little lighter in body than I remember. Aroma is citrus, lots of grapefruit, followed by stone fruit. Stone fruit in the flavor, followed by "hoppy favors" and only what I will call "wild hop" flavor for lack of a better term. This will be fun to drink.
