Hop experiment results

Well everyone, I’m finally ready to post results from my single hop experiment. I posted about this back in October, here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/genius-exercise-futility-277563/


The short version is, Bell’s Two Hearted Ale is an amazing beer. It has a simple grain bill and uses nothing but Centennial hops. I found a good clone recipe and got the idea to make it three times, but each time using a different hop. One batch was all-Citra, one was all Simcoe, and one was all Amarillo.

My original plan was to get all three batches ready, buy a sixer of Two Hearted, and then experiment by pouring them together in different proportions. The idea was that, by doing that, I’d get an idea of what a beer that is made with a blend of hops that is, for example, ½ Centennial, ¼ Citra, ¼ Amarillo, etc.

But, as I’m sure people who work in science know, sometimes an experiment takes you off in a different direction. I did blend the batches together like I planned, but as I’ll explain, something kind of unexpected happened and I learned something entirely different from what I expected.

Bottom line is this: I learned that beers, even hoppy IPAs, benefit from a loooooong conditioning period in the bottles. This little experiment, while I planned to learn about hop combinations, made me learn how beers develop in the bottle and helped me to learn a little more patience.

Here’s what I mean and, the best way to explain this is to describe each of the beers and how they developed. First off, each beer used the same grain bill. I did these as half batches, but in a five-gallon batch, it would be the following:
10 lb of 2-row
1 lb. of C-40.
Mash at 152, single infusion, batch sparge.

The original Two Hearted clone planned on Centennial with 9-11 AA%, so I adjusted up and down for the other hops’ AA%. The amounts are:
.75 oz. at 60
1 oz. at 10
2 oz. at 5, and
1 oz. in the dry hop.

In the end, this recipe produced a beautiful amber, crystal clear beer with a fluffy head that left great lacing. Here’s a pic of the clarity (but not so much of the lacing).

On to the hops. I started sampling the batches after they had been in the bottles for about three weeks. This is where things got interesting because the flavors changed very dramatically over the next couple months. Specifically,

The Citra batch started out with the typical Juicyfruit, mango/peach flavor at about three weeks. After about 5 weeks, it developed a flavor that reminded me a lot of Oskar Blues’ Gubna’ IIPA, which, I think uses Galena hops. Anyway, at about 5 weeks, it was oniony and pretty funky.

As an aside, after about 5 weeks in the bottles, the Citra batch had an aroma I couldn’t quite identify. As I was having a glass of the Citra batch around that time, since my gymbag was in the kitchen, I decided to give my taekwondo uniform the sniff test to see if it needed a wash. It did. Big time. That’s when I identified the mystery aroma. Yes, it smelled just like my dirty gym clothes. I put the Citra batch aside for a while because I wasn’t too interested in it after that.

At 8-9 weeks in the bottles, however, the Citra batch became amazing. After all that time, the Cirta batch mellowed out and became a wonderful IPA. The Juicyfruit flavor was still there, but subtle. The funky oniony, gym clothes aroma disappeared and melded into a nice, earthy, slightly vegetal aroma that blended beautifully with the fruity flavors. However, at that time, I had done so much sampling from my 2.5 gal. batch that there were only a couple left.

The Simcoe batch, at 3 weeks was a huge disappointment. It had a flavor that I described as “empty.” It had a lemony bite to it and nothing I’d consider “hoppy.” Same story at 5 weeks. At 8-9 weeks, however, it, like the Citra batch, became an amazing beer. The hoppiness developed into a fruity, slightly piney, nicely balanced IPA. It’s actually pretty similar to the Citra batch, just a little more subdued. It’s awesome.

The Amarillo was sort of the opposite of the Simcoe. At 3 weeks, it was pretty tasty. At five weeks, same thing. At 8-9 weeks, however, it changed into a flavor that was like the Simcoe batch a three weeks – kind of lemony and “empty.” I see how it would blend well with other hops, but on its own, it wasn’t anything special in this batch. I’m having a glass right now and it’s just, kinda … meh.

So. On to the blends and the experimentation.

I started experimenting with blends at 3 weeks. I’d pour blends into a measuring cup or glasses, or whatever. Usually that meant having three beers at once, so it was like I’d do one round of experimentation and have to go to bed.

Found some good combos doing this, but, since the flavors of every batch changed SO MUCH over the course of 2 months, I don’t think my results from the early experimentation are any good. By the time I got to the point where the flavors had reached their peak and stabilized, there were only a few bottles left. So my chances for experimenting with the real, final flavors were pretty limited.

I did discover that, using the recipe above, a blend of 1/3 Centennial, 1/3 Citra, and 1/3 Simcoe is pretty darn good. So, I have a batch in the fermenter right now using that combo. Going to dry hop on Monday and bottle six days later. I’ll have to post results after that one has been in the bottles for 8-9 weeks. Anyway, cheers all!

JonM said:

I did discover that, using the recipe above, a blend of 1/3 Centennial, 1/3 Citra, and 1/3 Simcoe is pretty darn good. So, I have a batch in the fermenter right now using that combo.

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How did you use each hop in the boil for the combo batch? all three at the same time or each hop at different times?

Very interesting experiment and side experiment. Thanks for posting.

Each addition was 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, so a combo of all three hops at each addition. I measured out each addition and, as they were sitting on the counter the combo smelled pretty amazing.