Which hop is "dank"

Greetings.

I made a pale ale recently - sort of an inventory clean out ale. It is 2.5 weeks out now, and I legged it yesterday. While clearly not yet mature, the beer has a darkness - for lack I better words - that I haven't appreciated yet in my beers.

The hops included magnum at 69, nugget at 20, and sorachi ace at 5 mins. Also cascade dry hop. Is the darkness from the nugget? Or perhaps not so fresh hops?

Thanks

By "darkness," I assume you mean "dankness?" (per the thread title)?

I'm not familiar with the particular flavours of Magnum or Sorachi, but I think you can confidently rule out Cascade as the culprit. Cascade's flavour is very bright and citrusy.

Yes - darn auto correct.


Yes, I did t suspect cascade - but since nugget is a somewhat unconventional late addition - made me suspect that. The sorachi is a very lemony in my experience.

Could always be that the hops were poorly stored (4C and opened once).

Normally I would say Simcoe but do not see that on your hop bill. Probably the Nugget but I have seldom used that.

Nugget for sure. Sorachi will give you dill flavors that might contribute to dankness, but not likely.

It is the nugget. I made a pale ale using that as the bittering hops and it had an unusual off flavor that I never encountered before. It took 2 months for it to be drinkable. I never dared to use nugget again it was so bad. There are a lot of brewers who use it for IPAs with good results.

The dankest of dank = Apollo, Summit, Columbus... maybe Chinook

Definitely the nugget, especially at a 20 minute addition I would say will give you the dankness. Cascade dry hop is probably contributing a slight amount also.

FWIW I make a pale ale with Nugget and Cascade only (generally equal additions) and it is always one of my most-liked brews.

Its the nugget. I LOVE nugget. It has an herbal, earthy, peachy flavor to me.


Got some nugget nectar in the fridge and its one of the most balanced full flavor beers I have ever drank.

I wouldnt call it a truly "dank" hop though. For that look at Chinook, simcoe, and supposedly apollo but I dont have any experience with it.

Jonas217 said:

It is the nugget. I made a pale ale using that as the bittering hops and it had an unusual off flavor that I never encountered before. It took 2 months for it to be drinkable. I never dared to use nugget again it was so bad. There are a lot of brewers who use it for IPAs with good results.

Click to expand...

Im sorry to hear this. Maybe it was from a not-so-good crop? Or something else in your process. I frequently use Nugget as a bittering hop and never once have had anyone say it had a bad off flavor. Usually it seems to be a nice clean bitterness, with just a very tiny small touch of 'dirty'. Now columbus and summit on the otherhand I have had some pretty crappy results with using as bittering hops. Can you say onion?!

I hope you can find the courage to give the Nuggs a try again. Work it back into some flavor/aroma additions at least!

Nugget.

More information on 'dank' hop varieties from when I asked this a few weeks ago:

[thread=387758]Identify This Hop (in Pliny and Hop Stoopid)[/thread]

I'm pretty sure I identified my mistake with the nugget maybe the OP made the same mistake. I was shooting for 42 IBUs with my pale ale. Because of the high alpha acid of nugget I used a 45 minute boil with 1 ounce instead of a 60 minute boil. I should have used .5 ounces of nugget at 60 minutes and the other .5 ounces for a flavor/aroma addition at 5 minutes. I've been brewing very successfully for well over a decade so it was not my brewing process. This was the only batch I used nugget in and the only flop I've had in many years, The batch had such a pronounced earthy and peppery flavor.

Re Jonas217: My intention was not to criticize your brewing process, so if it came off that way I apologize.

It is interesting that you got those results with a 45 minute boil addition. It seems you suspect this also: I wonder if it needed to be ‘boiled off’ longer in order to rid itself of those earthy/peppery flavors. I’ve noticed that beers with a large proportion of mid boil hop additions seem to be ‘muddied’ or not as crisp. It’s like there’s some flavor left over in the beer that cant decide whether to stay or go.

Maybe nugget is an ‘all or nothing’ hop? Either make it all bitter additions (60 minutes) or leave it until the last 15 minutes?

Either way, I will continue to happily use my nugget in a lot of my beers.

I've always liked the sour diesel.

Wait, wrong forum.

Thanks everyone - I've learned a thin or two. Re-tasting the beer - earthiness is not too far off of a descriptor - sometimes it makes me think of tequila. It is interesting because all this is in between the fruity aroma and follow through presumably due to the sorachi and cascade. Interesting beer. It's a one-off - but I've learned from it.