2015 hop crop

[slcalex]

Well after much evaluation I must say the 2015 YVH Mosaic is not up to par. I think the Citra is a little better but really not much.

Both beers I've brewed do not have any distinctive flavor or aroma as compared to last years crop.

 

[Patrick87]

Well after much evaluation I must say the 2015 YVH Mosaic is not up to par. I think the Citra is a little better but really not much.

Both beers I've brewed do not have any distinctive flavor or aroma as compared to last years crop.

Glad I'm not the only one disappointed in this year's Mosaic. It's the first time I've brewed with it, so didn't know if it was the norm or not.

 

[slcalex]

Well hopefully someone knows where to get the good 2015 Mosaic and Citra

 

[tagz]

Any word on Amarillo this year? Better than last?

 

[ss4ivan]

Both my pale ale and IPA brewed with Citra (about 12oz each) turned out fantastic. None of the onion or garlic came through the final product.

 

[BigMack]

I know this has basically turned into a Citra/Mosaic threat, but I thought I would weigh in on the Columbus hops I just broke into. I bought a couple pounds and was just measuring out some for an IPA I'll be brewing this weekend. They smelled absolutely amazing. Dank and resinous and just awesome.

 

[m00ps]

Any word on Amarillo this year? Better than last?

It was good for my tastes. Pungent but soft ripe orange, peachy, less floral than what I remembered which is a good thing in my book

I'll dig through my recent brew logs and put my impressions of any 2015 hops of note

 

[m00ps]

Pacific Gem - one of my faves, especially for the price. Predominantly blackberry flavor, tangy, super smooth for its high abv. Last years had more spice, i can barely detect any here. Not too assertive, would get taken over by Citra or something pound for pound but I love this stuff in juicy IPAs and Saisons

Hallertau Blanc - my favorite. This years is super pungent and so clean. To me, its like a more bright, floral, and clean nelson sauvin. Has a gooseberry white wine kind of aroma and flavor. The hop pellets themselves are the greenest Ive seen. Made anything else I had out those brewdays look yellow comparatively

Apollo - if you like dank, this years crop has got it in spades. Late and dry additions will get tons of the character along with some impressions of orange and herbal earthy flavors. Its more orange if used late boil

Summit - much like apollo but funkier. i get a bit of the garlic thing along with dank. I wouldnt use this years summit outside of the boil

Azzaca - ive seen some complain about last years, but Ive had good experience with the ~1.5lb ive used this year. Nice clean tropical and soft. No earthy edge or piney flavors that go along with many other popular tropical hops

Belma - 2nd favorite. Pure strawberry with a hint of orange. Super super clean tasting, but very soft non-aggressive flavor and aroma. used it once in 2014 and although its still not a "strong" hop, this seems more flavorful

Columbus - same as last year for me. Nice and pungent

Comet - less dank and more lemon/grapefruit to my tastes. Still makes for an amazingly strong dry hop choice

Meridian - more of the same. Still nice and crisp lemon flavor, bit less herbal smelling to me. Smells a bit like lemonade

Mandarina Bavaria - these seem a bit more generically citrus than I remember from last year. Not as juicy smelling

Chinook - whoa, watch out for this one. Much pinier to my tastes. Made a pinesol black IPA and almost made a pale ale by accident with only a few oz in the dry hop. Im not dry hopping with 2015 chinook anymore

Motueka - seems more fruit geared than last years, but could easily just be freshness. Its more lime this time around with less of a balance with spice

 

[NatureOfTheYeast]

Any word on Amarillo this year? Better than last?

Echoing this. I had to stop using 2014 Amarillo because of a gasoline like lavor and aroma with Hopunion, 8.2% AA. Made a Gumballhead clone that was like sticking my head into a gas tank. BLECH!

I've used some 7.7% AA Amarillo in a more recent recipe that doesn't seem to have that same character, but it was paired with equal parts Citra and Mosaic so I can't be too sure. I wonder if the Hopunion 7.7% AA Amarillo is the new crop. I'll have to suck it up and try again with this crop I guess.

 

[m00ps]

Echoing this. I had to stop using 2014 Amarillo because of a gasoline like lavor and aroma with Hopunion, 8.2% AA. Made a Gumballhead clone that was like sticking my head into a gas tank. BLECH!

I've used some 7.7% AA Amarillo in a more recent recipe that doesn't seem to have that same character, but it was paired with equal parts Citra and Mosaic so I can't be too sure. I wonder if the Hopunion 7.7% AA Amarillo is the new crop. I'll have to suck it up and try again with this crop I guess.

Maybe that's your palate's interpretation of high myrcene levels? I get a bit of metallic flavor from stuff like gumballhead I made a topic on it and traced it down to myrcene
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=542034

 

[hobomoto]

m00ps, where did you get your hallertau blanc?

That sounds amazing, I'm a big fan of nelson but havn't tried hb.

 

[Mer-man]

Pacific Gem - one of my faves, especially for the price. Predominantly blackberry flavor, tangy, super smooth for its high abv. Last years had more spice, i can barely detect any here. Not too assertive, would get taken over by Citra or something pound for pound but I love this stuff in juicy IPAs and Saisons

Sweet! I've got a pound I haven't used yet and am glad to hear it.

I was intrigued by Hallertau Blanc, but it is kinda expensive so I was holding off. Now, though . . .

 

[NatureOfTheYeast]

Maybe that's your palate's interpretation of high myrcene levels? I get a bit of metallic flavor from stuff like gumballhead I made a topic on it and traced it down to myrcene
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=542034

I never knew this. Thanks for the heads up, I'm definitely gonna read that thread and look into this issue.

Only weird thing is I've made this same recipe before and it was just Amarillo goodness. My palate possibly wasn't as attuned as it is now, though.

More research and experimentation is necessary. Thanks again for the info!

 

[m00ps]

m00ps, where did you get your hallertau blanc?

That sounds amazing, I'm a big fan of nelson but havn't tried hb.

I get mine at farmhouse brewing supply. Their hops prices are astounding. Some are literally 50% what youd pay per oz than other places

 

[halpinhe]

I also have a half pound of the YVH 13.5% pellets of Citra that others earlier in the thread complained about. Had a suspect batch a few weeks ago that contained a lot of them, and then did the "dry hop a pils" trick to test the hops on their own and it was a really foul mess of garlic and onion.

What do you guys do when you get a bad batch of aroma hops like this? Should I be using these Citra exclusively for bittering moving forward?

 

[tagz]

I'd be hesitant to use them at all. I got a pound of bad Amarillo a few years ago. Drove me crazy trying figure out why all my IPAs were such a mess. I had been using the Amarillo across all of them in varying amounts - all had an ugly vegetal character. Consider yourself lucky that you figured it out early and grab another variety.

I haven't used Citra all year. Can't wait until next years crop!

 

[halpinhe]

Really eh? Even in a bittering capacity? That's too bad, and good to know. Maybe I'll make a tiny batch of a DME pale ale bittering with them to see if there's any hope.

 

[tagz]

Bittering is probably ok. I just don't want to see you sacrifice too many batches for $25 worth of hops! A small experiment is a good idea.

 

[TenaCJed]

I have several pounds of hops from Yakima Valley 2015 crop that I have not been impressed. It seems like the primary aroma\flavor listed is completely missing and it is minor aroma\flavor that seems to be dominant.

I recently did a brew with mostly the 007 golden hop and got no orange or apricot, got all herbal tea. Similar results with other recent brews with different hops.

I currently have a hop test going on small scale. Basically did 1 gallon batch at about 1.040, bittered to around 18 IBU I believe. Once boil was done I separated into pint canning jars to do a hopstand. Used dry yeast that was partially used from a recent brew that I separated across all 8 jars. Also dry hopped all of them post fermentation.

I have them bottled currently and waiting. At least this way I will be able to know what exactly I will be getting out of these hops to better utilize them and know what to expect out of them. I will probably start doing this moving forward. I will also purchase 1 or 2 oz for testing before getting 1 pound of the different hops each year!

 

[Ruckusz28]

+1 for Farmhouse.