ColumbusAmongus
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2011
- Messages
- 178
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- 5
Whats up brewers. There are a ton of hop varieties piling up on the HBS shelves so I wanted to start a discussion about whats out there, what people like, what people don't like, what kind of combinations seem to work or don't work, and what kind of brews they fit really well in.
I am finding that some are hit or miss and some are definitely going into my rotation so it would be cool to see what people are coming up with!
My favorite one so far has been azacca. I converted this recipe (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=42841) to more of a session IPA and added azacca in the mix and swapped to us-05 yeast. I really liked how it turned out and a bonus is that others raved about it too. I boiled with a 50/50 mix of centennial and azacca (slow continuous additions from 60-0) and then dry hopped with only azacca. At the time of kegging, the flavor was really great but it was overall dull or muted. I spiked in a Chinook tea and the end result was really really tasty. I was a little disappointed to see that azacca probably can't stand on it's own but paired with some brighter hops it seems to do really well. It seems like azacca had really great aroma qualities as well so that was a big winner variety.
My least favorite so far has been Hull Melon. To a similar version of the recipe above, I used hull melon as the only dry hop and it ended up being very bland and indistinct. There was a nice clean neutral hop flavor but no signs of the description flavors of melon or strawberry. I dry hopped with 2 oz so if I were to ever use them again, I would double the amount at the least. I feel that of all the varieties I have tried, this one is bit of a sham.
I am finding that some are hit or miss and some are definitely going into my rotation so it would be cool to see what people are coming up with!
My favorite one so far has been azacca. I converted this recipe (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=42841) to more of a session IPA and added azacca in the mix and swapped to us-05 yeast. I really liked how it turned out and a bonus is that others raved about it too. I boiled with a 50/50 mix of centennial and azacca (slow continuous additions from 60-0) and then dry hopped with only azacca. At the time of kegging, the flavor was really great but it was overall dull or muted. I spiked in a Chinook tea and the end result was really really tasty. I was a little disappointed to see that azacca probably can't stand on it's own but paired with some brighter hops it seems to do really well. It seems like azacca had really great aroma qualities as well so that was a big winner variety.
My least favorite so far has been Hull Melon. To a similar version of the recipe above, I used hull melon as the only dry hop and it ended up being very bland and indistinct. There was a nice clean neutral hop flavor but no signs of the description flavors of melon or strawberry. I dry hopped with 2 oz so if I were to ever use them again, I would double the amount at the least. I feel that of all the varieties I have tried, this one is bit of a sham.