I am scared to use my summit hops...

I have read so many mixed reviews about summit hops and people saying they've ruined entire batches of brew with a horrible onion flavor that I'm really hesitant to use them.

I just bought a half pound on my latest hop order and was pumped to use them in an American style wheat beer to get that extra orange kick into it.

Then I started reading a bunch of threads here on HBT with a lot of people swearing off summit hops and some people only saying to use them for a bittering hop or only dry hop and a lot of different things...

Help me out guys, what has your experience been with summit?

This is the first i'm hearing of this. I hope it's not true.

Dude, I have used them many many times and No onion flavors what so ever. Big Big citrus notes and I love this hop in my IPA's. Use them and don't look back and find out for yourself. I am willing to bet you will love these hops.

"Summit is said to have strong orange and tangerine citrus notes in its flavor, making it ideal for brewing American style IPAs (especially IIPAs) and Pale Ales."
I wouldn't be afraid, it is a fairly new hop, high in citrus and fruit - just make the beer with out regrets. Everything is bought right? You are still having fun in the hobby... you may be pleasantly surprised - don't cheat your self. I ues hops that are simular; I have sume Summit that smell great, just haven't had time to brew it yet... but I will.

I totally got onion soup when I used mine, and had to dry-hop with Simcoe to cover up the taste. I won't use them again. What I would suggest is warming them up to room temperature and doing a smell test. If you get orange/citrus notes, I'd use it. If you get onion/garlic notes, come up with a recipe for a savory tomato beer

ArcaneXor said:

I totally got onion soup when I used mine, and had to dry-hop with Simcoe to cover up the taste. I won't use them again. What I would suggest is warming them up to room temperature and doing a smell test. If you get orange/citrus notes, I'd use it. If you get onion/garlic notes, come up with a recipe for a savory tomato beer

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did you try smelling the batch of hops you used afterwards or did you use everything you had?

i was just browsing for some ideas in different recipes when i came across these couple threads...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/summit-hops-onion-flavor-161654/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/summit-hops-onion-garlic-flavors-130890/

inoticed most of these posts were at the beginning of the year and maybe there was jsut a bad or infected batch that got distributed. i don't know.

I have used them with no bad out come yet. I have always used them in combination with other hops though never on there own.

some say simcoe hops give a cat piss smell, but I use/love them,so you wont know till you try them. just do it!

Summit are some of the best hops ever.

I traded an ounce of warrior for summits. I'm thinking a nice wheat of some kind with that much citrus flavor.

B

I did an all summit IPA. I think I understand why some people think it's oniony, but I like it. I wouldn't do ALL summit again but it'll be in the runnings for a component of my future IPAs.

I think it's every so slightly onion-y, my gf completely disagrees.

bgraham said:

did you try smelling the batch of hops you used afterwards or did you use everything you had?

i was just browsing for some ideas in different recipes when i came across these couple threads...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/summit-hops-onion-flavor-161654/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/summit-hops-onion-garlic-flavors-130890/

inoticed most of these posts were at the beginning of the year and maybe there was jsut a bad or infected batch that got distributed. i don't know.

Click to expand...

I did smell them (and they did smell like garlic), but tossed the remainder out. These were 2008 Summit hops from Nikobrew. I recently smelled some 2009 Summit hops at the LHBS and got a similar aroma.

I LOVE SUMMIT HOPS. I made an all summit APA and didn't get any flavors like that from them. I didn't dry hop it though, so I don't know if that's where people are getting the idea from. All I got was a big tangerine kick from them.

I just did one too...American IPA with all summit -- FWH, bittering, flavor, aroma, DH -- it's an aggressive hop that's not for the faint of heart, but it is very nice. I too think I can see where someone could get onion, but no one else can. If I hadn't read the complaints prior I probably wouldn't have come up with onion.

Next time I will probably do 60/40 centennial/summit to mellow it out but still have some edge.

I've done an all summit beer--a highly hopped american barleywine--it was probably the beer I've gotten the best comments on out of everything I've brewed. It had huge tangerine/citrus notes, but also had spicy notes that could be described as onion. I've also used summit in combination with other hops in a blond ale and didn't get any spice notes at all. I think it has a lot to do with how much you use and when you use it.

I also think it just depends on a person's palette. Either you're going to pick up more of the tangerine and love this hop or you're going to pick up more of the spicy note and hate it. I say just go for it and brew your beer. Maybe do a 1 gallon SMaSH with it first to see what you think about it.

I made an all Summit APA last year and it was great. I did the same recipe 3 times this year with a fresh order of Summit hops and it was not very good at all.