Sorachi Ace and Citra hops

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emacgee

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I’m getting some Sorachi Ace and Citra hops from freshops and have never used either before. Wondering what peoples experiences with them have been. I’d imagine both would work well with late hopping/hop bursting/dry hopping and any other manner of flavor/aroma imparting method. Does anyone have a preference for any method with either? What properties can be expected from each from these methods? What other varieties do they go well with? Any feedback would be helpful.
 
I just had this brought up to me on a question I had for an IPA brew from Ithaca brewing. They apparently use Sorachi Ace as a dry hop in their flower power. That must be the key for the almost lemony flavor I can sense when drinking it. I love that stuff so I say give it a go with the dry hop and see how it comes out. Flower power uses Cascade as well as Simcoe to bitter it up. Maybe those will work depending on what your looking for.
 
I had a Brooklyn Brewmaster's Sorachi (Something) at a local bar and while I can't give you a very detailed description it had a very strong hop flavor but not very bitter. Overall I remember it as a great drink.
 
I've heard that it can be a bit harsh as a bittering hop and should be used more for later additions.
 
I bought a lb(Sorachi) when they first came to market and didn't care for them but after many batchs find they do work when blended with other hops.
 
I am about to brew with the Sorachi Ace and did some research today. Basically, expect a heavy lemon aroma/taste. I have read about some Sorachi beers that end up tasting like a lemon herbal tea and other beers that are big, lemony hop bombs. The bottom line: expect some lemon, citrus flavor with a floral nose.
 
I realy like Sorachi Ace. I use it for bittering in lagers and also for flavor and aroma in wheat beers. Like with any hop, if you add too much, you probably won't like the result.
 
I used 4 full ounces of Citra in a pale ale just as an experiment to see how the hops work (The recipe is my usual single-hop"test a new hop" recipe.)

The aroma is great, the bitterness is harsh, but there's something off in the flavor provided by the hop. It's super orangey, but it also seems to have what I can only describe as a "sweat" flavor to it.

Either there was too much in the flavor addition (1 oz@15min) or this hop needs to be blended with others or maybe avoided completely in the flavor step.
 
You're pretty brave buying a hop in bulk without ever using it. That said, here's what Brew Dudes said about them:
"Yeah, I am on the Citra hops bandwagon. I don’t even know that there is a bandwagon…

I read in BYO magazine that Sierra Nevada is using this new hop variety in their Torpedo Extra IPA. Of course, I want to get my hands on some. I don’t think that they are widely available for homebrewers just yet, but here is a compilation of the information that is out there about Citra hops:

Hybrid of a number of different hops. The breakdown is as follows:

50% Hallertauer Mittelfrüh

25% U.S. Tettnanger

25% East Kent Golding, Bavarian, Brewers Gold, and other unknown hops.

Origin: USA! USA! Presented at the World Brewing Congress in August of 2008.

Aroma/Flavor: Lots of descriptors out there: Citrus, peach, apricot, passion fruit, grapefruit, lime, melon, gooseberry, lychee fruit, pineapple, mango, papaya and other tropical fruit flavors and aromas. So, ah, fruity.

Alpha Acid: 10 to 12%

Typical Usage: I wouldn’t say there is a typical usage yet, but Sierra Nevada is dry hopping them in their Torpedo Extra IPA. Walla Walla Brewers made a fresh hop beer with all Citra
hops from Hop Union. It appears that Hop Union also had them at their table at the Philly Craft Beer Fest.

Beer Styles: So far, IPAs. Looks like the Washington Homebrewers Association got there hands on some in late ‘08 and they were brewing up some strong American and Belgian ales with them"

Seem like mainly an IPA hop and not really something you can use as a substitute. Although I guess you could use it as a sub for any of the varieties that its been bred from for similarities...
 
I have recently brewed an imperial IPA. I used citra as a finishing hop for 15 minutes with cascade for the final 2 minutes of knockout. I also 50/50 dryhopped with cascade/citra 1.5 ounces of each. And am now randalizing with 3/4 ounces of each. This is by far one of the best imperial ipa's i have ever tasted


Here is the recipe

10.5 lbs marris otter
3 lbs 6 row
2 lbs flaked maize
1 lbs crystal 90

2 oz Galena 12% a.a.(60 min)
2 oz Chinook 13% a.a.(30 min.)
1/2 oz Citra 12% a.a.(15 min.)
1/2 oz Cascade 5% a.a. (2 min knockout)

mash 1.25 qts/lbs at 120 degrees for 45 minutes then decoct to 151 until full conversion has been reached. Sparge and boil as directed with hops scheduled.

chill and pitch
2-3 packs of Safale US-05 dry yeast

Dry hop 7 days with
1.5 ounces cascade
1.5 ounces citra


Randalize
3/4 ounce citra
3/4 ounce cascade

for best results let hops rehydrate in randall for 2 days to get the best aromas and minimize greeness flavor

OG 1.095
FG 1.019
ABV 9-9.5%
IBU 105
 
Thats good to hear. I know some Sierra Nevada people pretty well and from talking with them I believe the SN brewers avoid using Citra in the boil because in their experience it added a harsh or unpleasant bitterness/character. Not sure if this was from a 60 min addition or something later. I have heard from several people that they were able to achieve positive effects with Citra used later in the boil on a homebrew scale.
 
I used sorachi ace in a pale wheat beer. half ounce at 60 mins, half ounce dry. At bottling it had a nice bitterness with up-front tropical fruit and cononut taste followed with an aftertaste of bitter lemon peel. Now, 3 weeks later, the strong lemon peel has faded but there is still a nice 'passionfruit and coconut' taste going on. Its weird and I like it. I would use more to bitter next time.

I am getting more of these to work with. I call it the 'Sorachi Sucker' because it s real chuggable beer.
 
Alright, so I just made what I call a "half-brother batch" where I split a 5 gallon brew two ways and ferment with different yeast to compare. It was a light Belgian Ale and or a 5 gallon brew I bittered traditional for a Belgian and then held all other hop additions until I tossed in 3 oz of Sorachi Ace at 5 min-KO. Its about 10 days old and I took a sample today from each and have to say they are doing extremely well. Very dry and citrusy with a definitive lemon rind/zest character. Definitely one of the better brews I've made on the sensory side.
 
i love citra as a dry hop (leaf). i've yet to use it as a flavor addition. i did use it in a flameout and dry hop in a american brown and it was delicious, sweet melony citrusy goodness. i've also used it as a dry hop and flameout in a black IPA. i think that it needs a good malt backbone to stand up to.
 
i also just made a american wheat ale using this hop only.
Lemon Wheat
American Wheat or Rye Beer


Type: All Grain
Date: 2/20/2011
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.50 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 60.00 %
4.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 40.00 %
0.50 oz Sorachi Ace [10.90 %] (60 min) Hops 19.8 IBU
0.50 oz Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] (60 min) (Mash Hop) Hops 4.4 IBU
0.50 oz Sorachi Ace [10.90 %] (15 min) Hops 9.8 IBU
0.25 oz Sorachi Ace [10.90 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
0.25 oz Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] (2 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP320) Yeast-Wheat

Est Original Gravity: 1.057 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG Measured Final Gravity: 0.000 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.51 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.00 %
Bitterness: 35.9 IBU Calories: 0 cal/pint
Est Color: 4.2 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
Sparge Water: 4.58 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Mash In Add 3.13 gal of water at 161.4 F 150.0 F



Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
 
Citra is great for dry hopping.

I don't get the appeal of Soriachi tho'. I didn't get lemon from it at all, just a very heavy-resin sort of flavor.
 
Did this over the summer: Sorachi Summer Ale It used my cream ale base and was hopped with Sorachi only.

I loved it... Added a bit of zest there to enhance the lemon flavor, but this came out very comparable to Sam Adams Summer Ale.
 
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