Pine Flavored Hops

OK, what hop in your opinion has the most PINE like aroma/flavor for dry hopping? One of my beer drinking buds wants me to make an IPA with a huge pine nose and flavor/aroma. I want to sock it to him!

I'm used to using Simcoe, Citra, Palisade, Amarillo, CTZ, Horizon and the like mainly for dry hopping purposes

Simcoe or Chinook.

Northern brewer hops produce some great pine notes

I use a Chinook and get some good pine...

Have you considered using actual pine as well, or are you keen to get the flavor from just hops?

15 minute pine cone addition. just kidding

jbsg02 said:

15 minute pine cone addition. just kidding

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Are you? Pine resin might not be a bad addition if it was well-balanced. Maybe some green pine needles. It wouldn't be the strangest thing people have added to their beer. (I'm looking at you, pumpkin.)

Simcoe does it for me

chinooks are easily the most Pine-ey hops i've used

I wouldn't put pine resin in beer. Pine needles however is a different story. Fresh spruce tips would be a nice addition to the right beer. I can't recall the name but there's a brewery in Alaska that makes a spruce beer.

You could also use some juniper berries.

I've heard, but can't say from my own experience, that a combination of chinook and cascade is really piney and really good.

I want to stick with hops only. I'm leaning to using a cascade chinook mix. I have used cascade and want to try to keep the cohumulone percentages down too. They are both a bit high in that respect. Northern brewer has lower cohumulone % which I haven't tried yet.

Simcoe, my all time favorite doesn't do pine for me. I get lots of grapefruit, peachy, cat piss notes from simcoe.

What do you guys taste in a good batch of Nugget Nectar??? This years batch was pure $hit...I'm talking about a batch like last year's.

Harpoon does a Spruce tip ale with chinook that is simply lights out

I just dry hopped my last IPA with only Chinook and cascade, hoping for some good piney aroma. Its finishing right now, will let you know how it turns out .

chinook. I'm sipping a all-chinook rye IIPA right now.

Chinnok and Simcoe, although I made a Chinook SMaSH not long ago and I didn't get as much pine resin flavor and aroma as I would have liked.

And I've had a spruce ale from Alaskan Brewing that was great! not at all what I expected, but delicious.

ILBMF said:

I want to stick with hops only. I'm leaning to using a cascade chinook mix. I have used cascade and want to try to keep the cohumulone percentages down too. They are both a bit high in that respect. Northern brewer has lower cohumulone % which I haven't tried yet.

Simcoe, my all time favorite doesn't do pine for me. I get lots of grapefruit, peachy, cat piss notes from simcoe.

What do you guys taste in a good batch of Nugget Nectar??? This years batch was pure $hit...I'm talking about a batch like last year's.

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My second case of nugget was subpar... It had a march date on it. The first was everything I remembered from years past and was bottled in feb. I don't know exactly what I taste in nugget, but it's an amazing balance of hop flavor and aroma from beginning to end with just the right amount of malt sweetness to balance out the brew. One of my all time favorites.

Troegs just moved their brewery which might be responsible for their inconsistency this year.

PanzerBanana said:

I wouldn't put pine resin in beer. Pine needles however is a different story. Fresh spruce tips would be a nice addition to the right beer. I can't recall the name but there's a brewery in Alaska that makes a spruce beer.

You could also use some juniper berries.

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Philadelphia brewing co does a spruce beer and uses pine needles. Havent had the chance to try it but a friend of mine said it was good. I recall him saying that they may have completely replaced all hops with pine, but I could be wrong. Not a fan of their brews but this is one I'd like to try.

PanzerBanana said:

I can't recall the name but there's a brewery in Alaska that makes a spruce beer.

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Alaskan Brewing

FYI, if you ever visit Juneau it's well worth the trip to the brewery. They don't have a "tour" so to speak, but they do tell you the history of the company and the brewery and let you taste pretty much whatever you want.

Bamsdealer said:

My second case of nugget was subpar... It had a march date on it. The first was everything I remembered from years past and was bottled in feb. I don't know exactly what I taste in nugget, but it's an amazing balance of hop flavor and aroma from beginning to end with just the right amount of malt sweetness to balance out the brew. One of my all time favorites.

Troegs just moved their brewery which might be responsible for their inconsistency this year.

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Yes, I plan to visit the new brewery soon. It seems that Troegs Nugget Nectar suffers every other year or so. It was way too bitter with no sweet hop notes a couple of years ago. I was thinking the new facility may be the culprit, but how bad can you screw up a beer in a great recipe using a new German system that's sanitary and state of the art? I think they are having trouble getting the hop varieties or the quality of the hops was off.

I think you guys have convinced me to do an all Chinook dry hop or maybe mostly Chinook for the pine like notes. I do remember using Chinook once and was pleased with the smell of the hops in the bag.

+ to the chinook for pine. U can't go wrong.

Although I didn't' get as much pine as I wanted from my Chinook SMaSH, it was still a very tasty beer. Your perception of pine might be different from mine own as well. I say go for it!

Chinook it is. Thanks guys

ILBMF said:

Simcoe, my all time favorite doesn't do pine for me. I get lots of grapefruit, peachy, cat piss notes from simcoe.

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Interesting. It is being mentioned a lot here, but hey, every pallate is different. I just did a Simcoe SMaSH and it is lots of pine to the wife and I.

I don't get a lot of pine from Simcoe or Northern Brewer to be honest. That's not to say that I don't enjoy them (Simcoe moreso than Northern Brewer).

Not to take us too off topic, but pilgrims sometimes used pine needles for their new world beers.

http://www.beerinstitute.org/tier.asp?bid=141

Historic ales of Scotland use pine needles in a beer called ALBA and it is fanstastic. I believe thats gaelic for pine. I also have a favorite pine used beer by nova scotia's Garrison brewery. Im going to be trying pine needles in an upcoming brew myself just not sure when and what

tuskenraider said:

Interesting. It is being mentioned a lot here, but hey, every pallate is different. I just did a Simcoe SMaSH and it is lots of pine to the wife and I.

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I think all hops have some pine notes. That is the nature of the beast as they say but some are dominated by it and others dominated by other more pronounced notes like citrus. Simcoe is so high in AA that while those piney resins present themselves most people find that citrus is what dominates. Taste /smell is one of those senses that people will always interpret differently though so I am not here to discredit what you are saying.

Another thing could be (and I don't know this for sure) but I wonder if hops can change their characteristics from citrus to pine or vice versa if significantly aged or improperly stored? Maybe someone more knowledgeable could answer that.

captianoats said:

Not to take us too off topic, but pilgrims sometimes used pine needles for their new world beers.

http://www.beerinstitute.org/tier.asp?bid=141

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+1 for Plymouth Brewing! I call my "brewery" Pilgrim Abbey. Very suprised that Mayflower hasn't tried on of these yet. They put quotes from the Pilgrims writing about their beer on their website and such. Nice link!

I agree with Chinook for piney.

PhelanKA7 said:

I think all hops have some pine notes. That is the nature of the beast as they say but some are dominated by it and others dominated by other more pronounced notes like citrus. Simcoe is so high in AA that while those piney resins present themselves most people find that citrus is what dominates. Taste /smell is one of those senses that people will always interpret differently though so I am not here to discredit what you are saying.

Another thing could be (and I don't know this for sure) but I wonder if hops can change their characteristics from citrus to pine or vice versa if significantly aged or improperly stored? Maybe someone more knowledgeable could answer that.

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PhelanKA7-

I realize this is an extremely late response to your thesis about hop characteristics, but I figured better late than never. First off, this is my first post, but I am a long time stalker and I greatly value all the wisdom and help on this site. This last spring I established a 1/4 acre hop farm and I feel that growing hops allowed me to gain appreciation and some hands on insight in regards to hop aroma. This is simply my personal experience, but I believe that you are absolutely correct about hop characteristics changing due to age and storage. In fact I noticed that my row of Summit hops varied from a onion/garlic aroma to a wonderful tangerine. Some plants had an incredible aroma and others were muddy or unfavorable. The harvest/storage was by far the trickiest aspect of growing. During the short drying/curing process I noted that some of the Columbus changed from spicy to dank and all of my Chinook changed from a strong grapefruit aroma to an aggressive pine smell with a light citrus backbone. This was certainly an odd experience for me and I have even more respect for the hop farmers of the world.

I apologize for going so far off topic.

Cheers

This has been a topic of discussion between two BJCP judges, my wife and I. I used to live in a pine forest, and have always loved the smell of them. I've lived in the south since 78 and our little valley has pines,which smell a little dif from N. pines, IMO.

Not one hop has ever smelled piney to me. certainly not Simcoe. I get the cat pee sense when over used. (I suspect it may be a boil time scenario too.) Chinook? Grapefruit and other smells, not pine.


So either there's some pine variant I have never lived near, or NOT pine, IMHO.

duboman said:

Northern brewer hops produce some great pine notes

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Love this hop! It's why I make a California common part of my pipeline.

kencarman said:

This has been a topic of discussion between two BJCP judges, my wife and I. I used to live in a pine forest, and have always loved the smell of them. I've lived in the south since 78 and our little valley has pines,which smell a little dif from N. pines, IMO.

Not one hop has ever smelled piney to me. certainly not Simcoe. I get the cat pee sense when over used. (I suspect it may be a boil time scenario too.) Chinook? Grapefruit and other smells, not pine.


So either there's some pine variant I have never lived near, or NOT pine, IMHO.

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I'm positive that some people have gotten tons of Pine out of Chinook. Here's two experiences:

About 7 or eight years ago I was out with friends and had a Stone Arrogant Bastard (might have been the Double). It was solid pine forest. I really didn't like it because it was SO piney. It's 100% chinook.

Then, shortly after that some guy at my homebrew club started coming in with extremely piney ipa's he was making, with chinook.

I started getting hooked on this pine flavor, and I tried to make my own. Years later, and many many beers with Chinook, I don't think I've ever gotten that pine in any of mine. So, either my palate changed, the hops changed, or there's something in the process that I'm not doing right to get it.

passedpawn said:

I'm positive that some people have gotten tons of Pine out of Chinook. Here's two experiences:

About 7 or eight years ago I was out with friends and had a Stone Arrogant Bastard (might have been the Double). It was solid pine forest. I really didn't like it because it was SO piney. It's 100% chinook.

Then, shortly after that some guy at my homebrew club started coming in with extremely piney ipa's he was making, with chinook.

I started getting hooked on this pine flavor, and I tried to make my own. Years later, and many many beers with Chinook, I don't think I've ever gotten that pine in any of mine. So, either my palate changed, the hops changed, or there's something in the process that I'm not doing right to get it.

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I've been judging since 99 and, to be honest, like flavor each person is unique when it comes to aroma and palate. So I'm not claiming those who sense that are wrong, just that there are those with valid reasons for why that's not the aroma or taste they perceive it as.

Deschutes Pinedrops IPA uses Nugget, Northern Brewer, Chinook, Centennial, and Equinox. The pine probably doesn't come from the Centennial or the Equinox, and I doubt the Nugget does more than bittering and/or playing a supporting role to the Chinook and the NB.

SilverZero said:

Deschutes Pinedrops IPA uses Nugget, Northern Brewer, Chinook, Centennial, and Equinox. The pine probably doesn't come from the Centennial or the Equinox, and I doubt the Nugget does more than bittering and/or playing a supporting role to the Chinook and the NB.

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I recently did a Nugget / Jester IPA. No pine there (and not very good, either )

I just made a beer a week ago with Southern Cross, Chinook, and Northern Brewer. It should be almost pure pine, with a hint of citrus and lemon (going by the hops descriptions).

Once it's kegged, I'll report back.

If heard of ppl using clipings from juniper along with hops to get big pine note. Ive wanted to try this. I believe i also read a thread about pine needle wine.

I get a little pine from chinook and northern brewer but not like a pine forest or the descriptor people use for those hops.
I think for some hops multiple addition throughout the boil can build up the sought after flavor, whereas other hops you will only get the descriptor in late additions.

I also make a spruce tip IPA that has more citrus from the spruce than a traditional Pine aroma, but I really like it.

I've been told to get the Pine Forest scent I need to add Douglas Fir, but all Fir would make it too Christmas-y, I plan to blend the two tips next time.

I was searching for this myself recently for a batch I made this past weekend. Ended up buttering with Columbus (not for pine) and added 10 ounces total at 15 minutes, 10, minutes, and 5 minutes of Chinook and Simcoe. Hoping to take a gravity reading tomorrow or Thursday so I can post back with some results.