2015 hop crop

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mhot55

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Anyone have any news on the 2015 hop crop. There is some info regarding generalities- performance, expected vs realized output, etc (high temp, low snow cap, drought conditions). I'm more interested in specifically if their has been any noticeable change in specific varieties. For example - I listened to a recent podcast of the session. They had Drake's brewer on. He commented on the 2015 crop of citra and mosaic specifically. Said they seemed to have changed in aroma. Previous years- he would take any bale/ batch as they were acceptable. This year however, he implied such as drastic change that they were very selective as most bales/ batches were "off" and they only selected one out of 3 or 4 bales.

So- has anyone brewed with a 2015 hop and noticed any changes?
 
I just opened a fresh one pound bag of Citra - 2015 crop. It did not smell like the 2014 crop to me. Lots of onion and garlic - not the big citrus from past years. I brewed with it anyway. I am a bit concerned.
 
Interested in hearing others chime in. I'm planning to buy some Citra in the near future.
 
So far I have only used cascade and centennial from 2015 crops. They both smelled amazing, and from tasting the hydro sample the taste/aroma of the finished product is right where I would expect it to be.
 
The Yakima Citra is unbelievably onion and garlic. Same with Mosaic. It was a tough year for hops up there. I just made a Mosaic and Citra IIPA, when I cut the packs open it was overwhelming. I'm so glad that I have 4 pounds of each. :(
 
Onion and garlic come on when they're left too long on the bines; Yakima had a CRAZY hot summer last year and they probably had such a small window to harvest with peak flavor that they just couldn't make it happen... Sad, but true. Hop Union was pushing the growers into tighter and tighter harvest windows to try and hit the peak oil content and flavor window, it was just a matter of time before this happened... ]

Adam
 
To be honest I'm surprised there haven't been more problems with 2015 hops after last year's weather.
 
Bosh said:
To be honest I'm surprised there haven't been more problems with 2015 hops after last year's weather.
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I will be paying more attention next year. And maybe I will just be buying locally here (European). Those crazy Gerries are working on good stuff.

On a serious, non-whiney note (myself intended): if these Citra are going to be onion and garlic as aroma hops, how might they fare as bittering hops?

I may just find out, but I wonder if the "bad" oil composition would affect the dreaded "cat pee" flavor I have read comes from bittering with them.:confused:
 
During the podcast I mentioned in original post- the guy from Drake's did mention a particular hop that had onion/garlic flavor in which he used as a flameout/hop stand/ whirlpool. The oils causing garlic/ onion seem to volatile easily than the other oils and the fruityaromas came through. He recommended NOT using these hops as dry hop. Can't remember what hop he was talking about. But it is definitely worth a try. Anyone with insight on this?
 
I used 2015 Simcoe and Columbus leaf from Fresh Hop in my hopback for a 3gal batch. Smelled incredible, but I still have it fermenting, so I can't speak to final taste. Fresh Hops is in Oregon though. I have about 2lbs each of Simcoe and Citra pellets and 1lbs each of leaf from YVH, but haven't opened them up yet. I can't brew for about 3 weeks, but I plan on doing a clone of Bissell Bros Swish, which has tons of Citra, Mosaic, and Simcoe-I'll try to post back on 2015 impressions when I open the YVH packages.
 
Over the weekend I did five minute and whirlpool additions of Yakima Valley 2015 Mosaic. I don't remember any onion and garlic. Then again, what I most remember is that I don't remember anything. The 2015 just seems a whole lot blander than the 2014. Not much aroma at all.
 
NervousDad said:
The Yakima Citra is unbelievably onion and garlic. Same with Mosaic. It was a tough year for hops up there. I just made a Mosaic and Citra IIPA, when I cut the packs open it was overwhelming. I'm so glad that I have 4 pounds of each. :(
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I brewed two ipas with 2015 Yakima Citra and both had zero onion or garlic aroma or flavor. The first was all Citra and tasted/smelled like a tropical fruit cocktail and the second was citra/mandarina bavaria. That one was more orangey and less pineappley/tropical than the all Citra ipa. Have you actually tasted your finished beer yet?
 
kevink said:
I brewed two ipas with 2015 Yakima Citra and both had zero onion or garlic aroma or flavor. The first was all Citra and tasted/smelled like a tropical fruit cocktail and the second was citra/mandarina bavaria. That one was more orangey and less pineappley/tropical than the all Citra ipa. Have you actually tasted your finished beer yet?
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I just kegged it about an hour ago it still smelled oniony. I added another 4 ounces of Mosaic the pack I just opened smelled better. Way too much hop matter in the beer for me to taste yet, I'm going to cold crash in a few day and taste then.
 
This all sounds awesome. Just purchased a pound each of YVH Citra and Mosaic. I'll be opening the Citra tonight for a dry hop.
 
NervousDad said:
I just kegged it about an hour ago it still smelled oniony. I added another 4 ounces of Mosaic the pack I just opened smelled better. Way too much hop matter in the beer for me to taste yet, I'm going to cold crash in a few day and taste then.
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Strange. Maybe it's the Mosaic, then.
 
Opened up a pound of YVH 2015 Citra yesterday. No garlic or onion smell. Seemed just fine.
 
mbbransc said:
This all sounds awesome. Just purchased a pound each of YVH Citra and Mosaic. I'll be opening the Citra tonight for a dry hop.
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Opened my Citra last night too. Smelled of super potent tangerine and grapefruit. No onion or garlic. (I'm one of the "few" who don't mind a little oniony hop aroma though. Old Enjoy By's used to be onion bombs to my nose and I still enjoyed them!)
 
I brewed a Fresh Squeezed clone with 2015 Citra (from Yakima Valley) and 2014 Mosaic (Hop Union) and don't get any onion/garlic from it at all. In fact, I think it's the best beer I've produced to date...
 
NervousDad said:
The Yakima Citra is unbelievably onion and garlic. Same with Mosaic. It was a tough year for hops up there. I just made a Mosaic and Citra IIPA, when I cut the packs open it was overwhelming. I'm so glad that I have 4 pounds of each. :(
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Looks like you need someone to take those off your hands
 
cyberbrew said:
I brewed a Fresh Squeezed clone with 2015 Citra (from Yakima Valley) and 2014 Mosaic (Hop Union) and don't get any onion/garlic from it at all. In fact, I think it's the best beer I've produced to date...
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I'm happy to know that this clone is high quality. Was it from the homebrewers association page?
 
Ruckusz28 said:
Was it from the homebrewers association page?
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I started with this one - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=470557

Dropped it in Beersmith and worked from there. In my batch (10gal) I used 2lbs less 2-row (20lbs total) and everything else stayed the same (I did not adjust the hops for the lower amount of base grain). I dropped the 2-row back as the ABV would have been too high, my efficiency is a bit higher than the clone.

After completing I did a side-by-side with a bottle from the store and it was spot on. I'll be making this often.
 
cyberbrew said:
I started with this one - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=470557

Dropped it in Beersmith and worked from there. In my batch (10gal) I used 2lbs less 2-row (20lbs total) and everything else stayed the same (I did not adjust the hops for the lower amount of base grain). I dropped the 2-row back as the ABV would have been too high, my efficiency is a bit higher than the clone.

After completing I did a side-by-side with a bottle from the store and it was spot on. I'll be making this often.
Click to expand...

I believe the recipe you directed me to would be closer than this http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/deschutes-fresh-squeezed-ipa-clone/
 
Tapped my Columbus/Citra IPA this week. I have to say... this IPA is the least aromatic IPA I've brewed in a while. Smelled nice out of the bag, but maybe there is something to this after all. 8oz Citra and 2oz Columbus in the dry hop for 10g batch.
 
I made a cirta only hoppy session with citra from two different sources. Huge garlic smell and flavor. Can't drink it. This sucks. No more 2015 citra for me.
 
Made a 2015 hop Mosaic/Citra Fresh Squeezed clone. Dry hopped with 3 ounces of Citra, hardly any aroma at all. I am pretty disappointed :-(
 
rma79 said:
I made a cirta only hoppy session with citra from two different sources. Huge garlic smell and flavor. Can't drink it. This sucks. No more 2015 citra for me.
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slcalex said:
Made a 2015 hop Mosaic/Citra Fresh Squeezed clone. Dry hopped with 3 ounces of Citra, hardly any aroma at all. I am pretty disappointed :-(
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Where was your citra from? Pellet or Leaf? AA%?

Maybe we can get a handle on the mediocre and outright bad batches.
 
I'm currently using the 2015 citra from farmhouse. Only a little bit in the dry hop, but I intend to go full blown juice bomb in the next week. I'll post my findings.
 
Anyone else have new updates?

I just brewed 2 new batches, 1 with 2015 YVH Mosaic and 1 with 2015 YVH Mosaic and Citra. Still fermenting.
 
I was skeptical about it too as I LOVE YVH, but I just used up the last of my 2014 Citra and needed another .5oz for dry hop, so I did a side by side snif test. The 2014 was def more bright with the 2015 being more subdued. I asked my wife to smell too as she's much better at that - she thought it smelled a bit of straw/hay/vegetables than the 2014. The rest of my dry hop was 2015 Mosaic and 2015 Simcoe from YVH and they smelled very nice.
 
I've been happy with my 2015 YVH Citra hops. To me, they seem pretty similar to previous years.

2015 Mosaic has been a let-down for me, though. It's not nearly as strong flavor/aroma-wise as I'd hoped.

I've never brewed with Mosaic before, but I have had a lot of commercial brews with it and some great homebrew from other folks. Isn't Mosaic supposed to "strong" like Citra, Equinox, Simcoe, etc? It seems almost Cascade-strength to me when used in hop stands/dry hop. Seems very mild?

The hops have come from Yakima Valley Hops, frozen on delivery and used right out of the mylar bags, so I don't think freshness is the issue.
 
I bought a pound of 2015 Citra from farmhouse brewing and a couple ounces from the lbhs. The pound from farmhouse smelled of onion and garlic and the 4 ounces from lhbs smelled nice like hops usually smell. Brewed an all citra PA and IPA last week. Ive been smelling tropical fruit in the house all week long. Took a gravity sample of both yesterday. Tastes super tropical/mango and a good tropical aroma. Poured 4 oz dryhops into each one from the pound from farmhouse yesterday as well. I was scared for a minute because some people have had some bad experiences, but so far I am pretty satisfied with how this has turned out. No onion or garlic flavor/aroma in the final product. I will update in a week or 2 when this is kegged and carbed.
 

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