Getting into HBing again and would like some 'street smart' advice on hops. I know there is a GREAT guide here on BA;but I'm looking for a maybe more simple breakdown of flavors/aromas that a particular hop may impart to a brew-citrusy,grapefruit.pine.etc...I'm big on IPA's,stouts and ambers. and would love to know some of your fave hops when brewing these styles. We can talk malt flavors next time.
You can download the Hop Variety Guide from Yakima Chief here: http://yakimachief.com/index.php/varieties/ I would very highly recommend that you get the book For the Love of Hops by Stan Hieronymus. Cheers!
this is not too bad. http://beerlegends.com/hops-varieties This is good. https://www.hopunion.com/hop-varieties/ https://www.hopunion.com/aroma-wheel/
That 'aroma wheel' is the deal! Probably could have found that myself but this place is my 'beer google'....THANKS!
What others say about hop flavors is a good place to start, but as you taste them yourself, you will find some descriptions as wildly inaccurate.
"What others say about hop flavors is a good place to start, but as you taste them yourself, you will find some descriptions as wildly inaccurate to your palate. Cheers!
I feel like I often see inconsistencies among the different sources. Like one source describing HopA as earthy and another describing it as fruity or floral. Given that hops are an agricultural product, so that place and time matter, it might be that there is just a lot of variability within any given variety. However, it makes it difficult for me to cultivate a working understanding of what particular hops bring to the beer, compared to malts. I suppose that with malts, the process helps to normalize some of the agricultural inconsistencies.
Peter, have you personally tasted drastic differences of a given hop variety from the same recipes? For example, I regularly homebrew a Centennial IPA (at least once a year and sometimes twice a year). I do notice a bit of variability from batch to batch but Centennial hops always taste like citrus to my palate. Cheers!
I have noticed more than "inconsistencies" when purchasing hops: packages being short a few oz.; supposedly German Spalt hops that smelled and tasted strongly of grapefruit; huge variations in AA% (though this is more understandable); etc. I have yet to find a U.S. supplier that I truly trust.
The other thing I should have added is that I also don't brew enough to cultivate a strong sense for hops. In practice, there is also the added issue of teasing out the age variables and the packaging variables. I have definitely seen inconsistencies with kent goldings products, which could derive from age, packaging, origin, etc. However, my comment was really meant to imply that the descriptions of hops vary, and that makes it more difficult for me to learn. Describing flavors is inherently difficult. As for Centennials, yes, they have always seemed consistent to me.
For me, Centennial is approximately equal parts citrus similar to orange and stone fruit similar to peach/apricot. It also has a nice floral quality when used as a dry hop. I find the descriptors provided by some hop growers are often fairly accurate, but many of the qualities are extremely light. Most hops have a small number of prominent qualities. For example, I'm drinking a beer with Lemon Drop hops. The most prominent quality is lemon and maybe some grapefruit. I get faint whiffs of something like black licorice. This inspired me to do a search and sure enough licorice is one of the descriptors for Lemon Drop. It's subtle enough that it isn't always present every time I sniff. There are several other descriptors for Lemon Drop that I can't smell or taste. When they determine the descriptors, they probably make a mega hopped tea or beer and include every note their panel mentions.
