Me w/ Ekuanot=> Green pepper, Sumpin' Easy w/ Ekuanot => Peach

[Brewster2256]

I don't believe I've posted for a few years, but I thought I'd unload a line of thought that's been floating around my head.

So, the main purpose of this question revolves around the use of the hop Ekuanot. Like some, I get a heavy load of sage/pepper/herbal character which to me is somewhat off-putting. Yet, somehow Lagunitas (Heineken) has created Sumpin' Easy, which to me comes across as a very pleasant straightforward peach, lovely.

I work for a brewery and we have a large contract for Ekuanot leftover from expectations of higher growth. I want the peach, teach me to turn Ekuanot into peach. I've tried whirlpool additions, dry hop additions, hazy strains of yeast with dry hopping during fermentation. I feel like I've tried it all. Perhaps the flavor is farm specific, perhaps it is crop-year specific, but no luck.

Something I've yet to try is 1st day fermentation dry hop additions, vs 5-7th day dry hop addition with the intent of biotransforming the oils into something more pleasant.

Any thoughts, comments, life-changing advice?

 

[SanPancho]

I dont know how they do it either. I never get that flavor from eukanot. Maybe some conan yeast as well? A mix of a few supporting hops in background?

 

[day_trippr]

It may well be the yeast. As an experiment I underpitched Conan and ran it a few degrees cooler than usual and the peach was intense - actually off-puttingly intense. It draped itself over the hop character like a heavy peach blanket.

Not great...but if you're not actually a fan of the hops being used it could be a plus, I reckon...

Cheers!

 

[SanPancho]

It may well be the yeast. As an experiment I underpitched Conan and ran it a few degrees cooler than usual and the peach was intense - actually off-puttingly intense. It draped itself over the hop character like a heavy peach blanket.

Not great...but if you're not actually a fan of the hops being used it could be a plus, I reckon...

Cheers!

i want details. i love peach. even the ridiculously sweet candy peach flavor. cant get enough. tell me tell me tell me tell me.

ive definitely gotten peach from conan, but it never seems to persist in the final beer as much....

 

[Comfort_Zone]

I have definitely found that it's very lot or harvest specific. One of the first batches I got from HopsDirect imparted this beautiful orange blossom and green pepper character. Others, have been heavy on the herbal side. I've also found that the flavor profile changes depending on how much I'm dry hopping with.

 

[day_trippr]

i want details. i love peach. even the ridiculously sweet candy peach flavor. cant get enough. tell me tell me tell me tell me.

ive definitely gotten peach from conan, but it never seems to persist in the final beer as much....

It did attenuate over time, but it was still on top of the hops all the way to when the keg kicked (obviously the hop character was attenuating as well).

I usually pitch at a 1M/ml/°P rate for ales and run Conan at 64°F wort temperature. I thought I had enough on hand for a full pitch but when I checked that brewday morning I had a scant 100ml of thick slurry, so I'd guesstimate somewhere around 1/3 of my usual pitch. Under the circumstances I decided to go all-in and ran it at 58°F to see if the predicted peach esters bloomed - and they sure AF did. Woof. Just wasn't prepared for that much peach...

Cheers!

 

[SanPancho]

thats crazy. its so funny to me as i got pilloried here a good while back for saying that we often get better esters from some of our frutier yeasts when we in fact do NOT push it to max temps. something about those violent ferments seems to not carry the esters into the final beer. heresy and all that i was told.

if you pitched at 58F for an ale i gotta say that seems way lower than i would have expected, but i can totally see how that could work in terms of keeping more esters around.

you stick with 58F the whole time? ramp up for d rest?

 

[day_trippr]

I did bring it up to 68 after 6 days to start dry hopping, so diacetyl wasn't an issue.
Cold -> peach isn't that unusual. One can inspire Chico-derived strains to go peachy by running at low temps...

Cheers!

 

[MakeDankBeer]

One of the first ekuanot( then it was equinox) beers I had was Alpines smash series "singled out". It was a warm day, sat outside, took a sip, got a refreshing coolness, a bitter then came the rush of flavors, which to me tasted like I had dug a hole in the ground cleaned the dirt mixed in some grass a little bit of dank resinous finish. It was delicious. Expecting this was the standard the several others Ive tried over the years none of them have even come close to this taste. Even trying several attempts at brewing my own. Gotta believe there crop to crop differences in flavor I also assumed age plays into the flavors.