Onion bombs

In my experience Falconer's Flight was your description to a tee. Really never cared for that hop and when it came out, many breweries went nuts with it, and the beers were almost undrinkable. (Falconer's Flight IPA from Maui brewering is a prime example.)

 

As a FYI, Falconer's Flight is not a hop variety, it is a blend of hops.

You can read more here: http://www.brew-dudes.com/falconers-flight-hops/2646

Cheers!

 

Once you get beyond the physiology of taste, it certainly is highly subjective. Enjoy By is a highly rated DIPA, but it borders on drain pour for me as I get a huge amount of onion in that beer. And so do roughly 10% of BA reviewers (121/1256 to be exact), who used "onion" at least once in their reviews. Of course, taste and flavor ultimately resides in the brain, so it's no wonder that two people can perceive different flavors in the same food/beverage.

 

Thank you yes, I forgot about that, and probably on purpose. I still never liked that blend.

 

Sorry for belated reply, but for my palate, it is the Mosaic beers. Melcher and especially Double Dry Hopped Melcher. But those are also a couple of my favorite Trillium beers so it has been a great thing for me. Cheers!

 

I'm an IPA guy and I find this interesting. I didn't get that at all , actually Ruination 2 and Enjoy By I get a definite Muscadine Grape hit. It's not right or wrong just a perception. I also get this with Wicked Weed Pernicious as well. The only beer ever I get a bit of onion was Gubna, and I hated it.

 

I would understand if it were a rare genetic mutation in a gene expressed by sensory neurons that gave rise to the taste. But in this case, there are enough people who perceive the oniony taste in certain beers owing to a specific molecule-receptor interaction.

It's probably either an elevated concentration of a certain type of molecule from the hops or that people have different gene expression levels for the receptor.

 

I've had a ton of IPA's but never experienced the overwhelming onion/chive flavor until last week when I had Gavel Drop (Nelson IPA) from Council Brewing. It was a fucking mess.

 

The cilantro gene is said to be 10-15% of the population, not all that rare, so I'm genuinely curious as to just how many of us are getting onion. I see that Stone Thunderstruck is still rated over a 4, for example, so it can't be much higher than that. Hopefully it gets to being studied in the near future.

 

Has anyone mentioned this one? Didn't read whole thread.

Summit with black dirt onions added in too. The ultimate onion bomb.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29800/188548/

 

I get a lot of onion in grunion

 

This is indeed the case. Simcoe and Mosaic are big culprits here; if they're left on the bine too long and become over-ripe they will develop the flavors that a few people identify as onion/garlic. Summit produces a low level even if it's not picked late.

The trouble is, as @JackHorzempa already pointed out, is that these flavors are very specific to a relatively few individuals. These flavors are all polyfunctional thiols, and there's sort of a 2x2 response grid: some people are very sensitive to them (small population), some people are relatively insensitive. Of those individuals who are sensitive, some of them perceive them as tropical fruit, guava, etc., and others perceive them as garlic/onion (small population). The end result is that the portion of the population that is sensitive to these thiol compounds and perceives them as onion/garlic is actually quite small, but for those people these flavors can be overpowering because the flavor threshold is at the parts per trillion level. In other words, for the folks that are thiol sensitive, their noses are actually better detectors than the most sensitive scientific instruments that have yet been produced.

You can see that because these flavors depend both on the terroir/picking date of a given hop as well as a sensitive individual, it's a highly variable response and can be maddening for brewers who don't personally perceive hop thiols as oniony.

 

I got a ton in Hill Farmstead - Harlan. Might just be me though

 

That doesn't necessarily mean that people don't get a vegetable/oniony/garlic sensation from the hops (they might just like it anyway). For example, there are plenty of people who get onion from "Little Sumpin' Extra" who rate it higher than a 4. I'd wager that at least 50% of the IPA-consuming population has gotten at least an oniony taste from certain beers (to different extents, again, probably based on gene expression levels).

 

Where does that 50% number come from? That seems insanely high to me, though my experiences are admittedly anecdotal.

 

1492 by Toppling Goliath. When you use Columbus early as the bittering hop, it gives off an onion flavor, I couldn't finish a full class it was so strong.

 

Peter, do you have experience with Azacca hops? Where do they fall on the polyfunctional thiols (oniony type flavor) scale?

Cheers!

Jack

 

I have no idea; I have zero experience with them.

 

WRONG!!!!!!!!!
Pliney is 100% Columbus Hops