Opal Hops - who has tried them

Not much in the forums I could find on Opal hops except about a half dozen posts exactly like this one. Most are pretty old, so maybe time has produced a quiet army of Opal adherents.

They do seem a bit European, German in the descriptions online. I've read them all. I found one commercial beer that uses them, Surly Hell. So they have hipster cred for sure. Not a bad beer at all, BTW.

Anyone try them, have good or bad experiences? I'd use them more for aroma than anything.

I used some in a Saison recently, though I have yet to bottle and taste the results. Out of the bag they smelled delicious- fruitier than classic noble hops. Eagerly awaiting the first taste of that batch!

acidrain23 said:

I used some in a Saison recently, though I have yet to bottle and taste the results. Out of the bag they smelled delicious- fruitier than classic noble hops. Eagerly awaiting the first taste of that batch!

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Let me know how it turns out. They seem to have a lot of promise and I was thinking exactly for a more curious alternative to the typical continental hop styles.

Classy as it is to reply to my own post, I've been using the sh_t out of the opal hops. Mostly late additions, some first wort hopping. They're actually very nice. You get a slightly lemon, bright, spice smell with some grassiness. There's a floral, grassy, spicy flavor that comes across.

I tried them in a saison and a few tripels. Mostly in conjunction with Willamette or Saaz, both of which pair rather nicely.

They would be outstanding in a kolsch, helles, wit, wheat anything, tripel, golden strong, belgian blonde. They mate well with estery and phenolic Belgian yeasts. I don't get much fruitiness from them at all. The lemon is not a fruit salad. It's just a light lemony thing that you can smell if you look for it.

If you consider hallertau, tettnager, liberty, mt hood as an addition, you could easily swap it out for Opal to get a different flavor. Good hop. Wish I could find some 2012. I picked up about a half pound of 2011 that I just used up.

Update on my saison as well- very tasty! I would definitely use these again. Noble-ish- with a twist!

Bumping this thread. I was thinking of trying them in a dark wheat.

Used them in conjunction with saaz in a saison with the yeast bay saison blend II. Turned out amazing. Definitely some citrusy, earthiness going on. Don't know what is from the hops and what is from the yeast, but it definitely all works.