Lemony flavored hops?

biertourist said:

I'll throw in my $0.02:

I find Sorachi Ace to be more "musty lemons" than actual lemons...
A new French Variety called Aramis is supposed to be quite lemony.

The most lemon-flavored beer that I've had is actually made from a huge blend of hops; none of which are particularly lemony: Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted but I can't explain that at all...

Although I'm not sure I've heard anyone call Kent Golding lemon-grass like before I HAVE heard English brewers swear that they get lemons off of Styrian Golding, which I'm pretty sure is actually just a stolen Fuggles that was planted in Slovakia -again, not typically considered lemony.


-My last two statements; very controversial, the first two overwhelmingly common descriptors.
I really wish we would banish flavor descriptors like "Citrus" -that's so incredibly ambiguous that it's just not useful.
I'd also love to see us move to getting aroma descriptors from the hops themselves AND in beer as late additions and the flavor descriptions when used as late additions and in dry hopping. There's so much difference between late hopping and dry hopping flavors it's really time to start calling these out. -You can get this info if you buy a 2 volume $300 book from one of the big German hop merchants but really this info should be placed in the hands of the brewers and not held for $300 ransom...


Adam

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ddrrseio said:

i agree that a lot of words are pretty vague and that you get different qualities depending on how the addition is done

however, a lot of things frustrate this goal. people have different palates, people have a difficult time perceiving individual flavors and aromas in complex blends, people have a tendency to resort to simpler and more general flavors like 'citrus' rather than 'grapefruit zest' and many more.

to take some of that variance out, i'm brewing a lot of single hop IPAs right now. i split a full batch into 3/4 gallon batches and am fermenting the first set right now: citra, simcoe, centennial, motueka and caliente (new yakima valley one). next is columbus, nelson, green bullet, galaxy and jade. the batch size is perfect for an oz of hops. if i had more time and money and friends to help me drink, i'd go further and isolate additions as variables, but this will do

i have a 1gal converted taylor syrup keg so this works perfectly for test batches. this way i'll have my own notes and memories when i craft future hop schedules

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GuldTuborg said:

Crystal has a bit of a lemony edge. It's not strong, but it's there, and will come through in a mild flavored beer.

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