Anyone Have Experience with Bramling Cross?

So I have a bunch of Bramling Cross hops and am planning a simple special bitter recipe for this weekend using them exclusively. The HBT wiki states that they are a unique and underappreciated hop with black currant and lemon flavors. Does anyone have experience with them and what did you think? Here is the recipe I'm planning on making:

Bramling Cross Special Bitter

OG 1.043
IBU 27
SRM 9

6 lbs. Maris Otter
1 lb. homemade crystal 60 (although I'm not sure the malt was completely converted)
0.5 lb. Simpson's Caramalt

0.75 oz Bramling Cross (60 min)
0.5 oz Bramling Cross (15 min)
0.5 oz Bramling Cross (0 min)
1.0 oz Bramling Cross (Dry Hop)

Any thoughts?

Never heard of them.... sounds like a good recipe to try them out in though.... I have been craving a good bitter lately.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Never heard of them.... sounds like a good recipe to try them out in though.... I have been craving a good bitter lately.

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Speaking of Bitters, are they not an awesome style? Plenty of flavor and great drinkability. I like a good IPA or RIS like everyone else, but sometimes you crave a beer you can drink all night without passing out. A good bitter, with a good balance of malt and hops, can be plenty satisfying, without knocking you on your butt.

They can and are just darn difficult to get here. (at least good ones) It is one of the best styles to homebrew IMO.

Bramling Cross is a terrible hop that has no place in a respectable beer.
Where did you get them from?
Do you want to sell me some, or do a trade?
Send me a PM if you're interested.

Ruddles County uses them. I think the bottled version is the best English Special Bitter available in America, but the canned version (with nitrogen) is undrinkable.

-a.

I used them in my porter turned brown ale. It was a nice taste. Citrusy but not cascade citrusy. A very balanced, lemony citrus taste.

AFAIK there aren't many beers that use Bramling Cross - as ajf says, they're used in Ruddles, but I don't know of any other breweries that use them as a feature hop. I found the following on the Charles Faram UK hop distributors' page - maybe UK brewers don't use them much because they smell too "American"!

"A hop of considerable character. Its distinctive “American” aroma put many brewers off this variety in its early years. It has a strong spicy / blackcurrant flavour and good alpha characteristics. Bramling Cross has now made something of a comeback in traditional cask conditioned beers because of its very distinctive characteristics and has done very well in all styles of beer".

It's apparently a cross of a Goldings and "a wild Manitoban hop". TBH, the lemon/blackcurrant aroma sounds fantastic. I'd be really interested to hear how your beer comes out.

Thanks for the info everyone. I'm really excited to try them now. I bought them at brewmaster's warehouse, where they are actually one of the least expensive hops.

I used them recently in an Oatmeal Stout. Although it's young, it is delicious! Not sure if if getting a whole lot of hop through all that roasted maltiness, especially any currat/lemon flavor, but I'd def be interested to hear what others think and use some in a lighter grain bill later.

A good friend of mine made a very good bitter with Bramling Cross. The advertised flavors were prominent, and I found them very pleasant.

Bob

This one is boiling away right now. I'm going with 1 oz at 60, 0.5 oz at 15, 0.5 oz at flameout and another 0.5 oz dry hopped once it clears. Fermenting with WLP002. The crystal 60 I tried to make is not a crystal malt at all I think. It didn't convert during the "mash" I guess. And I think it was a lot darker than 60 L. So the wort looks pretty dark, darker than the 10-11 srm beersmith calculated. It's probably more of a brown malt but the beer should still turn out good.

Wow! This one has been dry hopping since Monday and I just tasted a sample to see how it was coming. The Bramling Cross hops are creating an almost indescribable fruity flavor. Maybe there is some black currant in there, but I'm not tasting any lemon. It is actually very non-hoppy, if you can imagine that. Not a very typical hop taste at all, but very pleasant! I'm quite surprised by how strong the fruitiness is actually. This is a hop I'll definitely have to explore further.

Anyone else have any experience with this hop?

I stumbled across this while looking at some clone recipes for Felinfoel Brewery's Double Dragon Ale so I got some ingredients to try my own variation on the recipes. It's fermenting right now so I have no idea how it will come out in the final product. I tried Double Dragon on vacation in Wales last summer but since its not available in the US, I have no idea how close I will be.

Mayday Brewery, http://www.maydaybrewery.com/, makes a wonderful black IPA (Evil Octopus) which uses Bramling cross. Give it a try if you can.

Brewdog uses bramling cross with cascade in one of their older recipes - The Physics, an American style brown.

Harvey's use them their flagship best bitter.

I'm about to use them in a tripel. Just because.

I used them in a strong bitter in 2002 with white labs english ale yeast. Delicious and I haven't used them since for some reason. Bittered and flavored with Bramling Cross, Bramling Cross and Cascade at flameout. Direct Hops has UK Bramling Cross for 12/lb. Ordering some today.