1. Stop lurking! Stay logged in to search, review beers, post in our forums, see less ads, and more. Thanks! — Todd

Hop Bill Mysteries

Discussion in 'Beer Talk' started by purephase, Aug 20, 2022.

  1. purephase

    purephase Initiate (174) Feb 23, 2008 Connecticut
    Trader

    I was having a discussion with a friend tonight trying to remember or determine if a particular hyped IPA ever had its specific hop bill released and thought this might make for a fun thread for favorite IPAs (or otherwise) with undisclosed hop bills and/or speculation about what those hop bills may be.

    Here are some heavy hitters from New England that I know of to get started.

    Alchemist Heady Topper: Meant to feature Simcoe but no complete hop bill has ever been released as far as I'm aware.

    Alchemist Crusher: All Citra in the dry hop and at least at one point had a little bit of Summit, but no further info that I know of has ever been released.

    Fiddlehead Mastermind: I believe at the very least it features Mosaic but I have no clue if there's anything else. I'm actually unsure of any of their distributed IPA hop bills.

    Fox Farm Burst: I believe this and Double Burst are the only two hoppy beers they've done not to have any hops specified publicly. I thought I may have heard at one point from someone there it had lesser hyped hops like Falconer's Flight and/or Idaho 7, but having found no verification online I can only assume that was most likely a (drunken) delusion.

    Hill Farmstead Society and Solitude #5: Even with the website update, it remains: "American and New Zealand hops. Think grapefruit."

    Lawson's Sip of Sunshine: This may be a controversial choice but I've long been dubious of the idea that it's all Citra a la Double Sunshine since the initial description when it came out talked about hops they have regular access to and Citra was harder to acquire at that point in time. Super Session 2, which was the other giant Lawson's contract brew when Sip came out, was all Amarillo and I wouldn't be shocked if that was prominently featured in Sip as well.

    Tree House Julius (and relatives): They're a common target for being too opaque about their hop bills and I figured the flagship and family were the most obvious case. The original was a descendant of Nate's Citra and I suspect it has Amarillo but I have no idea if there's anything else.

    Honorable mention to NEBCO Sea Hag, which some of my friends and I speculated after the Fuggles English IPA era simply consisted of whatever hops the brewery happened to have on hand whenever it was brewed.
     
    #1 purephase, Aug 20, 2022
    AElfwine_Nerevar, smutty33, beer_beer and 2 others like this.
  2. Resistance88

    Resistance88 Defender (657) Apr 9, 2015 California
    Trader

    Well damni thought Stouts were complicated
     
    #2 Resistance88, Aug 20, 2022
  3. Rug

    Rug Poo-Bah (2,234) Aug 20, 2018 Massachusetts
    Society Trader

    Man, this is a thinker. I wish I could more easily identify particular hop varieties instead of the notes they give off
     
    #3 Rug, Aug 20, 2022
    BeerGeekExtraordinaire likes this.
  4. BeerGeekExtraordinaire

    BeerGeekExtraordinaire Initiate (61) Mar 6, 2020 Illinois

    Me too. I am horrible at determining the varieties, and a lot of timesI do good just to pick up the notes...
     
    #4 BeerGeekExtraordinaire, Aug 20, 2022
    Rug likes this.
  5. DrStiffington

    DrStiffington Poo-Bah (1,875) Oct 27, 2010 New Jersey
    Society

    This has to be an impossible task, given that many IPAs have several different hops in the boil: and then sometimes even more different hops used in the dry hop. Now single hop IPAs are a bit easier (still tough for my palate), like Nelson hops are very distinctive.
     
    #5 DrStiffington, Aug 20, 2022
    beer_beer and BigIronH like this.
  6. woodchipper

    woodchipper Poo-Bah (1,594) Oct 25, 2005 Connecticut
    Society Trader

    Where are the master Cicerones? (probably have better things to do).
     
    #6 woodchipper, Aug 21, 2022
    beergoot and Rug like this.
  7. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Poo-Bah (5,828) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Society

    At Happy Hour!?! :beers:

    Cheers!
     
    #7 JackHorzempa, Aug 21, 2022
    beergoot and ilikebeer03 like this.
  8. DCH

    DCH Disciple (315) Jun 12, 2013 New York

    Haven’t seen a lot of fuggles hops in a while. I distinctly remember the shipyard English ipa with primarily fuggles hops and it smelled just like dank weed.
     
    #8 DCH, Aug 22, 2022
  9. Jaycase

    Jaycase Poo-Bah (1,917) Jan 13, 2007 Illinois
    Society Trader

    [​IMG]
     
    #9 Jaycase, Aug 22, 2022
    SFACRKnight, unlikelyspiderperson, JackHorzempa and 1 other person like this.
  10. BigIronH

    BigIronH Poo-Bah (1,935) Oct 31, 2019 Michigan
    Society Trader

    Most of the IPA’s I drink have the hop bill listed on the can or online. They take the “thinking” out of it in this regard. Cheers.
     
    #10 BigIronH, Aug 22, 2022
    SFACRKnight and beergoot like this.
  11. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Poo-Bah (5,828) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Society

    Less thinking and more drinking! :beers:

    Cheers!

    P.S. Do you think the above would make for a good bumper sticker? :thinking_face:
     
    #11 JackHorzempa, Aug 22, 2022
    SFACRKnight, beergoot, budsNpils and 1 other person like this.
  12. beer_beer

    beer_beer Crusader (726) Feb 13, 2018 Finland
    Society

    They should all be as frank as the BRULO Azzaca single hops I rated yesterday. Tasted citrus, wish I could be more specific.
     
    #12 beer_beer, Aug 22, 2022
    PapaGoose03 likes this.
  13. BigIronH

    BigIronH Poo-Bah (1,935) Oct 31, 2019 Michigan
    Society Trader

    I would buy one!
     
    #13 BigIronH, Aug 22, 2022
    budsNpils and JackHorzempa like this.
  14. StJamesGate

    StJamesGate Poo-Bah (5,080) Oct 8, 2007 New York
    Society

    We need a parallel thread for all the IPAs that have changed their hop bills over the years...
     
    #14 StJamesGate, Aug 22, 2022
    BigIronH likes this.
  15. BigIronH

    BigIronH Poo-Bah (1,935) Oct 31, 2019 Michigan
    Society Trader

    #15 BigIronH, Aug 22, 2022
    budsNpils and JackHorzempa like this.
  16. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Poo-Bah (5,828) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Society

    #16 JackHorzempa, Aug 22, 2022
    budsNpils and BigIronH like this.
  17. smutty33

    smutty33 Champion (804) Jun 12, 2009 Connecticut
    Trader

    I love seeing the hop bill when listed. When it’s a mystery it’s fun to guess and geek out a little, but would be more geekery to eventually get some info.

    Great examples @purephase
     
    #17 smutty33, Aug 23, 2022
  18. AElfwine_Nerevar

    AElfwine_Nerevar Devotee (497) Nov 16, 2018 Connecticut
    Trader

    Sea Hag has the hop and malt bills listed on NEBCO's website.

    Hops: Kettle Hops - Columbus, Centennial, Amarillo & Citra; Dry Hops - Amarillo, Centennial, Citra, Simcoe & Columbus

    Malt: pilsner, munich, and crystal malt blend
     
    #18 AElfwine_Nerevar, Aug 23, 2022
    beer_beer likes this.
  19. beer_beer

    beer_beer Crusader (726) Feb 13, 2018 Finland
    Society

    How much of each hop? :wink:
     
    #19 beer_beer, Aug 23, 2022
    AElfwine_Nerevar, BigIronH, PapaGoose03 and 1 other person like this.
  20. SFACRKnight

    SFACRKnight Poo-Bah (2,103) Jan 20, 2012 Colorado
    Society Trader

    I'll be that guy, I think it's a cop out for brewers when they hold those cards too close to their chest. Vinnie has released the Pliny recipe, @erway has been transparent in regards to elevated as well. Both of those beers are still at the top of the heap as far as ipa and dipa is concerned. I would suspect, after over a decade of Pliny being such a great beer and the recipe being ubiquitous, if all a brewer needed was a hop bill to replicate a beer, shouldn't accurate Pliny clones flood the store shelves? But we all know that a well crafted beer, while always imitated, will always rise above the poorly crafted look alikes. Brewers, if you gotta hide your ingredients, there's more going on with your beers than you think.
     
    #20 SFACRKnight, Aug 24, 2022
    Rug and PapaGoose03 like this.
  21. PapaGoose03

    PapaGoose03 Poo-Bah (3,729) May 30, 2005 Michigan
    Society

    Or I'd be curious to at least know whether the proportional amount of each hop is consistent with the order that they are listed, largest amount to smallest. I have a feeling that when Citra is listed first that it's more of a marketing thing since it's a popular hop, and that the Citra could actually be the least amount of the various hops used in that particular beer.
     
    #21 PapaGoose03, Aug 24, 2022
    beer_beer likes this.
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)