Calypso hops?

In revisiting my ipa after a month or so in the bottle, I'm getting more of the light fruit described earlier. Very mild apple coming through now.

Not sure exactly when I brewed mine but it's tasting great right now. The fruit flavors and aromas from the hops are really coming out. I would use this hop again.

I ordered a pound of Calypso from HD on a whim (they were cheap) and am very happy with the results I have gotten with my all Calypso IPA. Here's the recipe:

Batch Size: 3 Gallons
Boil Volume: 3.75 Gallons
SG: 1.065
FG: 1.016

Two Row US: 7 lbs
Crystal 20L: .75 lbs
CaraPils: .5 lbs

.4 oz Calypso: 60
.75 oz Calypso: 15
1 oz Calypso: 1

1 oz Calypso: Dryhop 5~6 days

Wyeast 1056

Mash @ 151 for 1 hour.
Ferment @ 61F for first four days, increase by 2 degrees everyday for 5 days

I did this as a "test" batch and, in retrospect, wish I had done a larger one. After all, aren't all batches to some extent or another a "test" batch?

This brew is thoroughly enjoyable. It has a very wonderful pomme aroma. The upfront flavors are of tropical fruits with some of the apple and pear coming through towards the middle. The finish is of bitter grapefruit rind, with some piny-ness at the same time. Its almost cloying. Almost. I will probably brew this again with a higher mash temp and the 60 min addition dialed back a tad.

i have a lb each of these and the galaxy coming
'anybody want to trade oz for oz.. i am need of fuggles and EKGs...

PM me and i will tarde with you when they ocme in sometime next week.

I am considering using Calypso to bitter and maybe a flavor addition (along with other hops) for a Russian Imperial Stout.

You guys that have used this hop, do you think that I would get any apple/pear in a RIS?

I love Calypso hops. Great spicy red apple note.

I have serious doubts that you'll get any noticeable flavor out of this for something as robust as an RIS. I got extremely mild apple out of it in a SMaSH IPA, so I'd be willing to bet that the malt/roast in a strong stout would completely overwhelm it.

That said, it's an excellent bittering hop!

Like smagee said, probably not a lot of flavor or aroma for a RIS, and I'm not sure I'd even like it very much. In addition to the pale ale, I made a cream ale with a small bittering and only one late addition of calypso and thought it was a great lawnmower beer with a moderate aroma. I think as far as flavor/aroma are concerned this hop is definitely suited for lighter American ales/IPAs. Also I seem to be getting more apple/pear aroma than other people are describing, while others are describing none at all. Not sure how homogeneous the crop was.

But yeah, excellent bittering hop.

Here's a DIPA recipe I've got with some Calypso for bittering. Any thoughts?

Batch size: 11.0 gal
Boil volume: 14.0 gal
OG: 1.090
FG: 1.023
Bitterness (IBU): 95.9
Color (SRM): 8.4
ABV: 8.9%

[Grains]
Two-row (US) 29.000lb Grain 79.5%
CaraPils 3.500lb Grain 9.6%
Crystal 20L 3.000lb Grain 8.2%
Honey Malt (Canadian) 1.000lb Grain 2.7%

[Hops]
Calypso 1.80oz 13.0% AA Pellet @ 60 min, 30.5 IBU
Columbus 1.80oz 15.4% AA Pellet @ 60 min, 36.1 IBU
Chinook 2.50oz 11.5% AA Pellet @ 10 min, 13.6 IBU
Centennial 2.50oz 9.0% AA Pellet @ 10 min, 10.6 IBU
Centennial 3.00oz 9.0% AA Pellet @ 2 min, 3.0 IBU
Cascade 3.00oz 6.6% AA Pellet @ 2 min, 2.2 IBU
Cascade 4.00oz 6.6% AA Pellet @ Dry Hop

[Yeast/Other]
California Ale yeast 2.0 unit(s), Yeast

Hop additions look pretty good, actually. My only thought is that that seems like a lot of crystal (6.5lbs?), even for an 11 gallon batch. I'd be inclined to drop one of them entirely (probably carapils) and bring the remaining one down in the range of 2-2.5lbs.

82% 9 0 Briess 2 Row Brewers Malt
9% 1 0 Weyermann Munich Type II
5% 0 8oz Belgian CaraVienne
3% 0 5oz Briess Carapils
2% 0 3oz Special B Malt
Batch size: 5.0 gallons

Original Gravity
1.059 / 14.5° Plato
(1.052 to 1.061)
Final Gravity
1.013 / 3.3° Plato
(1.011 to 1.014)
Color
9° SRM / 18° EBC
Mash Efficiency 75%

40mins 1.0oz Calypso pellet 12.8%
5 mins 2.0oz Calypso pellet 12.8%
1 min 3.0oz Calypso pellet 12.8%

Dryhop 4.0oz Calypso pellet


Fermentis US-05

I have been curious about these new hops.
I'll let you guys know about this little hop monster in about a month.

Interesting grain bill... Your hop schedule looks a bit similar to the one I used, although you're much more aggressive with the dry hops. Hopefully your experiment has more interesting results than mine did .

I have Calypso being planned for use in a historic stout recipe fermented with the wyeast old ale blend. I figure the advertised frutiness of the hops and the fruity esters of the brett aging will compliment each other. I forsee a 6-8 month aging period for this beer so I'm leaning towards the beer not having much hop aroma or flavor left.

:::Update::: Racked over to the keg on Tuesday. Without carbonation I was able to pick up subtle notes of Pear and Berries. Ultra clean bitterness at 60IBU's! I'll post another update this Saturday or Sunday when it's nice and carbed up. Hopefully, it'll deliver a little more aroma. As of right now, it definitely makes for a very versatile bittering hop.

I've used them twice now as an aroma hop and I love them. Along with Falconers Flight, they are my new favorite hop

Interesting take on the Calypso -- I find them to lack a lot of what is advertised about them. The best use for them I've found -- bittering. They have a long lasting bittering effect. I do not like the flavor addition or (lack of) aroma they offer. I purchased them based on this thread and hoped to have what was advertised at the merchant -- tree fruit, apple or pear. No such luck.

My experience was the same, BB. I've used up my entire batch on bittering aside from the initial single-hop tester ale. I didn't get any character whatsoever out of them. Still, they do make an excellent clean bittering addition.

For anyone in the Seattle area Fremont brewing will be releasing an Imperial IPA that features Calypso and Bravo hops. Since Bravo are a primarily bittering variety I'm guessing Calypso will make up the bulk of the hop flavor and aroma. I'm definitely going to check it out and report back.

I was given 2 pounds of Calypso from a client who works in a hops warehouse in WA. I have made an all Calypso APA and a Willamette & Calypso IPA. These were my first attempts at doing my own thing recipe wise. I used two recipes from "The Joy of Homebrewing" as a guide. I agree with the later posters in this thread. Lots of bitterness, maybe some grassiness but no fruit.

Calypso Pale Ale
5 lb amber LME
60 min boil
1.5 oz Calypso at 60 min
0.5 oz Calypso final minute
1056 American Ale Wyeast
This was very bitter and not much else

Calamity IPA
1lb 10L munich malt & 1 lb 30L crystal malt steeped at 160 for 30 min

60 min Boil 5.5 lb amber LME, 1 oz Willamette whole hops, 1 oz Calypso pellets

0.75 oz Calypso during final minute
1028 London Ale Wyeast
This one is still quite bitter with a small amount of maltiness. Still no fruitiness.

After I drink these up I think I will try Calypso with Cascade or Centenial in a partial mash IPA.

dlutter said:

I was given 2 pounds of Calypso from a client who works in a hops warehouse in WA. I have made an all Calypso APA and a Willamette & Calypso IPA. These were my first attempts at doing my own thing recipe wise. I used two recipes from "The Joy of Homebrewing" as a guide. I agree with the later posters in this thread. Lots of bitterness, maybe some grassiness but no fruit.

Calypso Pale Ale
5 lb amber LME
60 min boil
1.5 oz Calypso at 60 min
0.5 oz Calypso final minute
1056 American Ale Wyeast
This was very bitter and not much else

Calamity IPA
1lb 10L munich malt & 1 lb 30L crystal malt steeped at 160 for 30 min

60 min Boil 5.5 lb amber LME, 1 oz Willamette whole hops, 1 oz Calypso pellets

0.75 oz Calypso during final minute
1028 London Ale Wyeast
This one is still quite bitter with a small amount of maltiness. Still no fruitiness.

After I drink these up I think I will try Calypso with Cascade or Centenial in a partial mash IPA.

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I would imagine that both of those were very bitter you added 1.5 oz of a hop that is around 12%AA and only added a half for a minute. The reason you got no flavor is because you skipped the flavor additions which are typically done at 20&15min.

In the interest of giving Calypso another shot (and using up my stock), I've got a batch of BM's Centennial Blonde almost wrapped up using this as the only hop in it. It's overly bitter, but that's largely due to my using too much in the early stages, and it'll calm down as it ages.

I'll rack it to the keg in a day or two, but I need to refill my CO2 canister first. It's currently around day 15 of the DH cycle, and tastes nice, but bitter. I can detect a hint of the apple that folks were speaking of before, but it's still not really prominent. I still like Calypso for bittering, but it won't be hitting my rotation as a flavor/aroma hop again any time soon. Too many other new styles to try these days!

I've used Calypso in a couple recipes as a FW bittering charge. I really like using them like that. I suppose I could brew some sort of blond to check them out, but I'll just continue using them as a bittering hop.

I've used Calypso in an IPA, and I really liked them for aroma and flavor. I did have to use a fair amount:

In 11-gallons:

1.0 oz @ 60m
1.0 oz @ 45m
1.0 oz @ 30m
1.0 oz @ 15m
2.0 oz @ 0m
2.0oz Dry hop.

MC

I know Alaskan Brewing uses these in their Black Ipa and it is tasty

I'm about to brew the AHS Apocalypso all grain kit. They recently modified the recipe IIRC it is:
9.25 lbs 2 row
1 lb cara red
1 lb maltodextrin
1/2 magnum @ 60
1/4 calypso 1/4 nugget @ 15
3/4 calypso

I was surprised that there was no calypso for bittering. Any thoughts on this?

It is a unique hop in my understanding with a apple and pear profile, it smells unlike anything I have ever smelled too. It is gonna be fun ! I want to try it in a spruce tip ale.....

I have an all-Calypso blonde (as detailed in my post above) that is very tasty, but I can't say the Calypso adds a lot of unique character to it. I'll be curious to see how the AHS kit tastes.

You seem neutral on the hops? In a perfect world what would you change?

In the AHS recipe? I don't see any major problem with it; of the hops provided, Magnum is definitely the most suited for bittering, simply because it really doesn't do much as far as flavor or aroma is concerned (in my experience). Calypso reportedly has some fruit aromas--I've seen relatively little of them myself, but others have reported stronger hints--so it's definitely better in that stage than magnum would be.

Their recipe seems decent for the hops they provide; Calypso just wouldn't be my choice for the kit itself. It's an excellent bittering hop, but I still haven't seen it do much elsewhere. And this is after four different batches (admittedly off of the same 1lb purchase from HopsDirect, so I could've had a bad batch), so I think I've given it a fair shake. Nothing negative about it, really, but there are plenty of other varieties I'd prefer for flavor additions.

Maybe I'll try to track down a bottle of that Black IPA out of Alaska to see if it can change my mind. I'm certainly no professional, after all .

I gota tell you I laugh ever time I see your corgie! I had one looked just like him when I was a kid and we tortured that poor dog with clothes and he hated it lol

Back to the hops, it seems par for the course anytime a new player shows up the hype never equals the payoff.

Dapper Corgi aims to please, and usually succeeds .

I'd agree that most strains don't quite thrive immediately; and as I said, I certainly don't have anything against it. I'll even likely include it in a future purchase at some point, just not in such quantity. Maybe a hop bursted IPA or something next time... Still, plenty of other newcomers to test out these days as well!

I used them in a one-hop belgio-IPA sort of thing. The "apples and pears" were very subdued and the remainder of the profile I found to be rather abrasively bitter. What I am saying is that I feel they might make a good early addition bittering hop or used with restraint in something with a few less IBUs. Some day I would like to try the latter, maybe like a cream ale or something where hop flavor is wanted, but without the punch in the teeth.
$.02

I recently made a 5 Gallon SMASH using Calypso and Marris Otter and I agree with what was reported back by a lot of others. My recipe was:

11.5 #'s Marris Otter
.75 oz Calypso @60
.25 oz Calypso @20
.25 oz Calypso @10
.75 oz Calypso @5

When I racked it to keg after fermentation was complete, it had little to no aroma let alone any apple or pear as was described. (As a side note, I got a ton of apple and pear notes out of the bag, and wafting out of the airlock during high krausen.... none since) I dry hopped an oz of Calypso for 14 days in order to try and get some aroma out of them. I still got very little, and what I did get were mostly citrus/grassy notes (somewhat like Cascade maybe).

Definitely a very good bittering hop, but not much character in the areas of flavor and aroma. As was mentioned above though, my additions were concentrating mostly on bittering and aroma... Maybe I would have gotten more flavor from bigger additions at 20/10 mins???

Still a good Smash, and I like the hop... Just may be more of a bittering hop.

I was thinking about brewing a Maris Otter & Calypso SMASH this weekend.

stblindtiger - If you were brewing it again would you punch up the 20/10 hops to try for more flavor? 0.5 oz each on 20/10? Take 60 minute down to 05. oz and go 0.75 each on 20/10? Do you think the dry hop did anything/was worth while?

stblindtiger said:

Definitely a very good bittering hop, but not much character in the areas of flavor and aroma. As was mentioned above though, my additions were concentrating mostly on bittering and aroma... Maybe I would have gotten more flavor from bigger additions at 20/10 mins???

Still a good Smash, and I like the hop... Just may be more of a bittering hop.

Click to expand...

I recently made a series of hop teas with new hops I purchased (Calypso and Millenium in addition to a couple others). I think the summary here is about what we determined. A little grassiness that quickly fades to nothing but bitterness. Never got any apple or pear out of it that we could discern once it was combined with the boiling water.

Seems to be a solid bittering hop... perhaps more similar to Magnum when used as such.

About a month after brewing I'm drinking the AHS Apocalypso APA (all grain, kegged). It is unique and very good. Unlike some of the other posters I DEFINITELY pick up a pear/apple/pineapple aroma - no doubt. I almost have to do a double take when I take a whif. I believe the hop also adds some unique flavoring properties... I swear I also taste some of the same fruitiness of the aroma - it is definitely different than the piney/peppery/earthy taste of other common hops.

I just stumbled across a post on the Stone Brewing blog:

"And what an aroma it has! Another informal brewery poll—conducted with a pint glass full of fresh hop pellets—netted these descriptors: lemons, tart apples, cherry blossoms, black pepper, bitter orange, mint, pear. The aroma is at once distinctly American, insofar as it is remarkably unsubtle and sappy, while also being very fruity, a combination unlike any other hops I’ve smelled. It was almost universally well liked by those polled. A 15-gallon single hop IPA is Calypso’s next stop."

Click to expand...

Link:
http://blog.stonebrew.com/?p=2493

I'm finding it incredibly bizarre that we're only getting two major opinions on this hop: "clean but boring" or "fruity and awesome!". Then again, I suppose hop tastes are always a bit subjective.

smagee said:

I'm finding it incredibly bizarre that we're only getting two major opinions on this hop: "clean but boring" or "fruity and awesome!". Then again, I suppose hop tastes are always a bit subjective.

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It all depends on the amount you use I guess? I never noticed any apple/pear but did notice some floral aromas.

MC

I recently made an IPA with magnum, calypso, nugget and cascade. The IPA was dry hopped heavily with cascade, nugget and calypso. Uppon first sip, I wondered if I messed up my yeast and accidently pitched a belgian! The calypso added late in the boil and dry hop added a very distinct fruitiness. Heavy on the apple/pear for sure. Really awesome.