Anyone have experience with Pacific Gem hops?

I read about this hop in the brewing book I have and found some information about it online, but I haven't found much concerning how much to use in a typical 5 gallon batch.

I'd like to try and use Pacific Gem in a stout recipe. I played around a little with the trial version of beersmith and came up with something like this for starters:

8 lb. Coopers Light Malt Extract

1/2 lb. each of Crystal 60L, Roasted Barley and Chocolate Malt. (steeped for 30 min)

1.5 Oz - Pacific Gem (60 min boil)

I haven't quite decided on the yeast yet and I'm not sure what if any aroma hop to use. I've read Pacific Gem can be quite powerful and found some discussion of it used in extra bitters and Pales, but nothing on stouts.

Any advice on the amount of Pacific Gem I listed or any other ingredients to try with it?

I ordered a bunch of it a while back from Seven Bridges. It was a touch oxidized but I've been using it anyway. It doesn't seem nearly as potent as the AA% suggests. It's kind of earthy with some fruity undertones (more blackberry than tropical fruit). I really like Kiwi hops but this one is not my favorite. I like Rakau or NZ Cascade better. I think the Pacific Gem would work quite well in a stout however. The way you are using it will not give you a sense of the hop character though, with a 60 minute boil, you will be getting only the bittering qualities and not much else. With extract, I would go for a dry english ale yeast or Safale 04.

I recently made a single-hop pale ale with pacific gem. I went pretty heavy with it and got some interesting results. It's described as having oaky and blackberry flavors and while the woody/oaky flavor came through for me, the blackberry didn't so much. It might at lower rates, but I think at the rate I used it, other flavors are covering it up.

Those other flavors are what surprised me, because I hadn't read about anyone else getting them. Firstly, the beer is very spicy. Like noble hop type spicy times 10. It was a little overwhelming for me when the beer was young though others have said they quite liked it. It is calming down now but the flavor is still very prickly/spicy.

The second interesting flavor relates a bit to the spiciness but is definitely unique. A startling cinnamon flavor is found amongst the spiciness. It's very distinct and I found it quite interesting.

Since I bittered and had flavor and aroma additions with the pacific gem, I can't help much on what characters were lent when. But it is definitely an interesting hop to play around with, though I may not use it quite so heavily again.

JonK331 said:

I ordered a bunch of it a while back from Seven Bridges. It was a touch oxidized but I've been using it anyway. It doesn't seem nearly as potent as the AA% suggests. It's kind of earthy with some fruity undertones (more blackberry than tropical fruit). I really like Kiwi hops but this one is not my favorite. I like Rakau or NZ Cascade better. I think the Pacific Gem would work quite well in a stout however. The way you are using it will not give you a sense of the hop character though, with a 60 minute boil, you will be getting only the bittering qualities and not much else. With extract, I would go for a dry english ale yeast or Safale 04.

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Thanks for the yeast suggestions.

How would you suggest I use the PG? I was thinking of adding another half-ounce in the last 5 min or so of boil - do you think something like that would help it stand out more?

Use something like beer calculus to get the IBU's right for the style. But yes, I would definitely add some towards the end of the boil to get the flavor/aroma. I dry hopped an IPA with one ounce of it a month or so back. It was quite mellow. Again though, the stuff I have looks a bit oxidized so it might be very different fresh.

Thanks for the replies, guys!

Just a suggestion if the PG comes through maybe do a cascade or centennial hop during the boil and dry hop 2-3 oz of PG...hopefully the hops used during the boil compliment or enhance the PG...???? would have to do more research...that is just the first thought that came through my head.

Unrelated to the hops but why not use dark extract for a stout?

Because you have more control by using the specialty grains you want to use instead of whatever the manufacturer used. OP can use half choc and half RB, or decided to go all RB, or throw in some black patent, all in the ratios he desires. On the other hand, if he just uses dark extract, he's set to the manufacturer's ratios of whichever of the above they used. This way you can take any AG recipe and convert it to extract (unless it uses oatmeal or other grains that need to be mashed).