Sorachi Ace Hops - What have you done?

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jezter6

jezter6

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I've made a number of Saison variants using Sorachi Aces, and I know one other person made my Sorachi Saison. I've seen a few others mention it in random threads, so I wanted to know: What have you brewed with Sorachi Ace?
 
No help to you other than some props... I have your recipe in conditioning right now. Since they're Japanese hops, I guess a Sapporo or Kirin clone would be in order. IIRC Great Divide in Denver made a riced up lager in the same style.
 
olllllo said:
No help to you other than some props... I have your recipe in conditioning right now. Since they're Japanese hops, I guess a Sapporo or Kirin clone would be in order. IIRC Great Divide in Denver made a riced up lager in the same style.
Click to expand...

I saw a thread by Cheese that he was thinking of a Sorachi Hefe as well. Can't wait to see if that turns out!

As for conditioning...this thing gets SOOO much better with age, but starts to taste great right out of the 2 week bottle time. I've yet to keg it (will be doing so in about 2-3 weeks), so I'd be anxious to see how that turns out.
 
olllllo said:
IIRC Great Divide in Denver made a riced up lager in the same style.
Click to expand...

Samurai Ale, used rice and barley as sugar sources but brewed with an ale yeast and was unfiltered. It was the beer I was assigned to pour at the Ft. Collins Brewfest, it was pretty good but I cannot say for sure whether they used Sorachi.
 
I've used them twice, but I can't say they were a standout in the beers. I brewed two beers with exactly the same hop schedule. One beer had 40% wheat and the other had no wheat. A fellow HBTer tried the beers and said he could taste the Sorachi. This was my first time using 3 new hops so it was hard for me to pick out the Sorachi. I made the "American wheat" with WL 001 yeast. I bittered with Pacific Gem, then a 20 min addition of Pa. Gem, Sorachi Ace, and Glacier, and then a 5 min addition of Glacier. The Pa Gem was a stand out in aroma - the purported berry aroma definitely came through.

My reasoning in the hop choices was Glacier supposedly can have an Iced Tea like flavor so I figured a little lemon and berry would be a nice combo. I will make this again, but will back off on the Pa Gem bittering and up the Sorachi at 20 min, and maybe add it at 5 min too.

Sorry I can't give you any more info, other than to say it definitely didn't give a bad taste. I think I'm going to try some in a lager this winter.
 
From my experience using Sorachi Ace they DOMINATE the hop flavor. You can still taste the other hops it's just Sorachi Ace stands out the most. I made an IPA with Warrior to bitter, then at 5 min left on a 5 gallon batch I used 2oz EACH of simcoe amarillo and sorachi ace. The Sorachi ace comes through the most. You can still taste the others but the Sorachi Ace is the stand out there. I made a 7.77%porter(used 2lbs unmalted flaked oats, diddn't have enough charred malts to call it a stout though) and only used Sorachi Ace! OMG!!! THAT BEER ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2oz to bitter, 2oz at 5min and 4oz to dry hop! KILLER BEER!!! did a hefe with sorachi ace. Turned out AWESOME!!! of course there was clovey esters from the yeast but this hop ROCKS with those stinky funky estery yeasts! I'm thinking of doing a saison with sorachi ace and crystal. I think they'd compliment each other well. SORACHI ACE RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :rockin: :rockin: :rockin: :rockin:
 
Grimsawyer said:
From my experience using Sorachi Ace they DOMINATE the hop flavor. You can still taste the other hops it's just Sorachi Ace stands out the most. I made an IPA with Warrior to bitter, then at 5 min left on a 5 gallon batch I used 2oz EACH of simcoe amarillo and sorachi ace. The Sorachi ace comes through the most. You can still taste the others but the Sorachi Ace is the stand out there. I made a 7.77%porter(used 2lbs unmalted flaked oats, diddn't have enough charred malts to call it a stout though) and only used Sorachi Ace! OMG!!! THAT BEER ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2oz to bitter, 2oz at 5min and 4oz to dry hop! KILLER BEER!!! did a hefe with sorachi ace. Turned out AWESOME!!! of course there was clovey esters from the yeast but this hop ROCKS with those stinky funky estery yeasts! I'm thinking of doing a saison with sorachi ace and crystal. I think they'd compliment each other well. SORACHI ACE RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :rockin: :rockin: :rockin: :rockin:
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Looks like you've got plenty of hops around - nice! Where can you get Sorachi Ace this year? I didn't see it yet, remember seeing it last year.
That IPA recipe sounds pretty good. Do you think it could be toned down to an APA (less bittering) and still get the right taste/flavors from those hops?
 
Having never brewed with Sorachi, do you recommend I try some --- possibly for a twist on my "Americanized ESB" - beer with an OG around 1.058 that has about 25 IBU...
single-hop or best when used with another (cascade, chinook, etc)?
Also, how does it do for flavor when the IBUs aren't in the APA/IPA range?
 
Tried my first SA last night. Decided to chew on one while I was measuring out my DH. It was terribly bitter - I had to spit it out and had a hard time getting the taste out of my mouth even after a couple glasses of cheap red wine.
 
LouT said:
Having never brewed with Sorachi, do you recommend I try some --- possibly for a twist on my "Americanized ESB" - beer with an OG around 1.058 that has about 25 IBU...
single-hop or best when used with another (cascade, chinook, etc)?
Also, how does it do for flavor when the IBUs aren't in the APA/IPA range?
Click to expand...

DO IT!!!!!!!!!! You will be happy!!! It's not as rough as chinook or colombus, not as gentle as simcoe. Kinda spicy like crystal but very different at the same time. I recommend finishing with 2oz, then dry hopping with 2 more on a nice 4.5-5.5 beer. That'll be nice and hoppy but pleasant. If you make an IPA, go big! Finish with 3-4oz and dry hop with 2-4. Barleywine....... hehehehe (EVIL GRIN!) use a pound!

EDIT: I've heard people getting a citruis taste out of Sorachi ace, even lemon. The 3 beers I've made with them(one was Sorachi Ace only beer) I havn't had any lemon flavors come through. I used simcoe and amarillo as well as warrior(for bittering) with american ale 2 yeast and that was kinda citrisy... sort of. I am attributing that to the amarillo and yeast more than the simcoe and Sorachi Ace. It's just a different hop.
 
Just ordered up about 6 lbs of hops today, including Sorachi Ace, Summit, Amarillo, Galena, Sterling, and perhaps Simcoe (trouble remembering now). I'm stoked to try for some different flavors. Maybe several of the same recipe w/single hop, changing just the hops, to compare flavors -- if I'm up for the work that would entail...

I'll post up once I get a chance to try out the Sorachi Ace.
 
I had no idea what this hop was, so I bought 2 oz. of 13.7% AA Sorachi Ace hops and decided to brew an Ordinary Bitter using the Sorachi Ace for bittering, flavor and aroma to showcase what this hop could do. I used 0.5 oz. before the boil, 0.25 oz. for 50 min. of the boil, 0.5 oz for 15 min of the boil and 0.5 oz for 5 min of the boil. I dry hopped the keg-conditioned ale with the remainder. This is an all-gain, 5 gal. brew with a 60 min boil, as all of my beers are. The brewing water was Burtonized, of course, to bring out the hop character.

Coconuts! Freakin' coconuts - with the spicy addition of Hallertau or Saaz, and also the impression of fresh grass. You could pick this up in both the aroma and flavor. This was a very interesting flavor profile to be found in a 3.3% alcohol session beer, and it was drinkable to the extreme. Everybody is talking about the "lemon" flavor as opposed to the "grapefuit" flavor of this Japanese hop variety; how about the flavor profile of coconuts and spice? I had to get onto the Internet today and find out about this hop after tasting the finished ale, it's so interesting and flavorful. Great aroma too! Tropical spices! The finish was long and dry, hoppy but not over the top (sorry, West Coast ales!)

Brew me anudder, mon!

The brew pub in St. Croix, USVI should get ahold of this hop. Is true dis, me-son!

:fro: :fro: :fro:


FITZ
 
Richard FitzGerald said:
I had no idea what this hop was, so I bought 2 oz. of 13.7% AA Sorachi Ace hops and decided to brew an Ordinary Bitter using the Sorachi Ace for bittering, flavor and aroma to showcase what this hop could do. I used 0.5 oz. before the boil, 0.25 oz. for 50 min. of the boil, 0.5 oz for 15 min of the boil and 0.5 oz for 5 min of the boil. I dry hopped the keg-conditioned ale with the remainder. This is an all-gain, 5 gal. brew with a 60 min boil, as all of my beers are. The brewing water was Burtonized, of course, to bring out the hop character.

Coconuts! Freakin' coconuts - with the spicy addition of Hallertau or Saaz, and also the impression of fresh grass. You could pick this up in both the aroma and flavor. This was a very interesting flavor profile to be found in a 3.3% alcohol session beer, and it was drinkable to the extreme. Everybody is talking about the "lemon" flavor as opposed to the "grapefuit" flavor of this Japanese hop variety; how about the flavor profile of coconuts and spice? I had to get onto the Internet today and find out about this hop after tasting the finished ale, it's so interesting and flavorful. Great aroma too! Tropical spices! The finish was long and dry, hoppy but not over the top (sorry, West Coast ales!)

Brew me anudder, mon!

The brew pub in St. Croix, USVI should get ahold of this hop. Is true dis, me-son!

:fro: :fro: :fro:


FITZ
Click to expand...



POST DA RECEPIE MON!!!:fro: btw, what is burtonized?
 
I used it in an american wheat over the summer. I definitely noted a tart citrusyness in the beer, but I'm not sure if that came from the hop or the yeast or both, but it was DURN tasty stuff!
 
I did a wit with it about 4 months ago and it was amazing. Used Hallertau for bitter and 1 oz Sorachi at either flame out or 5 mins left. Definitely one of the best beers I've made.

I also have a Hefe is Primary right now that has Sorachi. I'll let everyone know. It's got about 6 weeks til finished.
 
We made a Saison with Sorachi Ace. We normally use some orange zest in the boil, but didn't for this batch. I tried some last night and had forgoten that we used Sorachi Ace so I was confused at the flavor at first, but then it hit me. WOW what an interesting flavor and arroma!

I'd say it definitely gives the beer a lemony cirusy flavor, and also a bit of a grassy arroma. It's not completely carbonated yet so I am looking forward to seeing where it goes.

I can see using this hop in a range of styles. Very unique.

BTW I've been reading this forum for over a year and finally joined today, this is my first post. Hi all!
 
I just bottled a simple American Wheat with Sorachi. At bottling the beer surprised the heck out of me with a gentle coconut flavor up front with a bitter lemon peel finish. I'm very curious to see how this plays out once conditioned and chilled.

The recipe is a twist on HBT'er iamjonsharp 's american wheat beer that you can search for. It uses that malt/mash schedule but has 0.5 ounce sorachi as bittering and 0.5 ounce sorachi ace as dry hop. I also did it no chill.

I think that the coconut/lemon peel flavor would be nicely supported in brown porter.
 
Definitely a coconut flavor. I wasn't expecting it at all, so I was a bit disappointed with my American wheat I recently bottled when I took a swig of my hydro sample. It made for a very round flavor, rather than crisp. I hope that it crisps with carbonation.

As an experiment, (and since I had no plans to use any more SA) I took half the batch and dry hopped with .5oz SA. I'll bottle that next weekend I suppose.
 
I used them in an extract wheat beer. Just Briess Golden Wheat DME and Sorachi Ace at 60, 15 and 0. Fermented with WB-06.

Tastes like a hefe, some slight lemon flavors but nothing really strong.
 
I did an IPA with a dry hop of equal parts Sorochi Ace, Chinook and Amarillo. it took a week before the flavor evened out at first it was all Chinook (and Columbus kettle hops) but now it tastes real balanced. I like it quite well. Normally wouldn't use Columbus as late boil addition hops but this was an experiment.
 
I'm actually brewing an all Sorachi Ace hefeweizen right now :mug:

I took a nibble on one of the pellets and got a TON of lemon flavor out of it, so hopefully it will fit in well with the recipe. Guess I'll see in 6 weeks :)
 
I'm working on a recipe for all Sorachi Ace hopping. I plan to use a malt base similar to a Cascadian dark, with high gravity, dry body, adjuncts (honey and belgian dark candy sugar), and French ale yeast platinum white labs strain. And lots of Sorachi especially late hopping. It could be a mess or it could be delicious. I LOVE what this yeast does at lower temps (65-68) and it kind of pointed me in this flavor direction.
think I should be conservative with the late additions or go big? The gravity will be around 1.075.
 
I used Sorachi Ace in one of my Haus Ale attempts. It was a fantastic beer, but too "lemony" to have around all the time (even though I just used it for bittering), so I took it out of the recipe. Still damn good, though.

Annex Haus Ale

A ProMash Recipe Report

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------

08-B English Pale Ale, Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Min OG: 1.040 Max OG: 1.048
Min IBU: 25 Max IBU: 40
Min Clr: 5 Max Clr: 16 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 9.19
Anticipated OG: 1.050 Plato: 12.34
Anticipated SRM: 11.5
Anticipated IBU: 27.4
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 15.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 5.88 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.042 SG 10.55 Plato


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
65.3 6.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) America 1.036 2
21.8 2.00 lbs. Munich Malt Germany 1.037 8
5.4 0.50 lbs. Crystal 10L America 1.035 10
5.4 0.50 lbs. Wheat Malt America 1.038 2
2.0 0.19 lbs. Chocolate Malt America 1.029 350

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.30 oz. Sorachi Whole 14.00 18.8 60 min.
0.70 oz. Fuggle Pellet 4.00 7.0 30 min.
0.50 oz. Saazer Pellet 3.25 1.6 10 min.


Yeast
-----

Lallemand Nottingham


Mash Schedule
-------------

Mash Type: Single Step

Grain Lbs: 9.19
Water Qts: 14.00 - Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 3.50 - Before Additional Infusions

Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.52 - Before Additional Infusions

Saccharification Rest Temp : 150 Time: 60
Mash-out Rest Temp : 0 Time: 0
Sparge Temp : 165 Time: 10


Total Mash Volume Gal: 4.24 - Dough-In Infusion Only

All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.
Click to expand...
 
I made an MO / Sorachi Ace SMaSH; it was damn tasty.
This was the first time using these hops, so I was a bit cautious with the additions. I should have added more hops at 60 min and flameout; I will when I brew this again.
 
I made an IPA with an even mix of summits and sorachi aces. both 2 oz at KO and in dry hop. it was one of the more interesting IPAs Ive ever tasted. Really quirky flavor profile. tangerines, lemon, grassy.

also one of the longest lasting IPAs ive ever had. I poured a 8 month old bottle that hasnt been refrigerated and it still tasted pretty fresh.
 
I'm making a SA amber tomorrow. I just got done packages a ton of these and tasted a few in the process. DAMN! I think this will go well in an amber, thinking of useng the same grain bill I used for the Nugget Nectar clone I just made. I've always read they had a lemon flavor, but when I tasted them they seemed to have more spice with maybe a hint of lemon. Don't know, but we will know in a few weeks! WOOHOO:rockin:
 
Steelers77 said:
I'm making a SA amber tomorrow. I just got done packages a ton of these and tasted a few in the process. DAMN! I think this will go well in an amber, thinking of useng the same grain bill I used for the Nugget Nectar clone I just made. I've always read they had a lemon flavor, but when I tasted them they seemed to have more spice with maybe a hint of lemon. Don't know, but we will know in a few weeks! WOOHOO:rockin:
Click to expand...
Something I try to point out is that they have a lemon flavor but are not acidic so it comes off as kind of fake lemon or lemon-scented cleaning product like.
 
Sorachi Ace Report. I made BM's Centennial Ale and subbed the late additions out with SA hops and added a pound of honey to the boil.

I get Coconut flavor out of it. A little harsh or surprising at first sip but seems to go down fine after that.

That being said, Coconut really isn't a flavor that I plan to be shooting for in my beers anytime soon. Glad the hops were free.
 
I still like my "sorcachi suckers" american wheats with SA; they go over big with the ladies in my life.

But the more I taste them I think that some people have used the word 'lemon soapy' which I think is more accurate. I've also seen the coconut taste fade after a few months and the lemon come to the front.

I also made AHS's Karankawa Pale Ale which uses sorachi ace and find that when used as a bittering hop with couped with other aggressive hops it didn't dominate.

I still like SA.
 
I just finished off a keg of a summer wheat beer I'd done with Sorachi and Amarillo, I thought it came out great, but it definitely had like a pina colada taste to it. I had used a little orange peel and 1 oz of each hops, I was expecting fruity but I was really surprised how it turned out. Maybe US-05 had something to do with it?
 

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