Hop Flavor and Aroma Sampler question

[Bowow0708]

Hey I'm pretty new to brewing and I was wondering, what is a good hop smorgasbord for sampling the basic hop characters. What hops are a good all around for a particular flavor and aroma. For example, I know that cascade is a good basic hop for a citrusy character. So that's already on my list. So what other hops are good for the other characters/flavors they add to beer? What is a good all around for piney, or earthy, or spicy, and etc.

I think that the answers here are gonna be great for other starting brewers like me to find out which hop characters they like, and to have a baseline for other types of hops along that flavor/aroma spectrum.

 

[ddrrseio]

the best thing to do, i think, is to get 2 oz packages of all the major flavor/aroma hops and do 1gal single hop beers. it might take a while, but i would mash as much wort as i could stand to boil in a day and set up parallel fermenters. isolating them and using them in the same grain bill with the same hop schedule will give you a great sense of not just their flavor and aroma, but their bitterness and strength of flavor/aroma.

 

[daksin]

Well, cascade is the classic citrus hop
Centennial- major citrus (orange+grapefruit)
Amarillo- crazy citrus- grapefruit, orange, (tiny bit of pineapple)
Chinook- pine (mild citrus, mild dankness)
Simcoe- crazy pine, crazy citrus (this is its own thing, man, like, it's like, out there, man)
Citra- tropical fruit, pineapple, mango, citrus

 

[Bowow0708]

the best thing to do, i think, is to get 2 oz packages of all the major flavor/aroma hops and do 1gal single hop beers. it might take a while, but i would mash as much wort as i could stand to boil in a day and set up parallel fermenters. isolating them and using them in the same grain bill with the same hop schedule will give you a great sense of not just their flavor and aroma, but their bitterness and strength of flavor/aroma.

I was planning on doing something like that. And could you give me a list of said major hops? I mean how many varieties are there these days? I'd like a concise list of the major hops, please.

 

[beergolf]

You could also look for comercial brews that use a single hop and taste them.

There are several availabe.

 

[kingwood-kid]

I don't know what's commonly available in the Philippines, but you can read about pretty much every type of hop at the following links:
http://www.bear-flavored.com/2011/12/bear-flavoreds-ultimate-guide-to-hop.html
http://beerlegends.com/hops-varieties
http://brew365.com/

 

[nicklepickles]

You could try looking into hops based on where they're from. For example, american hops like those previously stated, english hops like ekg, willamette, fuggles, etc., and german noble hops, such as saaz.