Earthy, Floral, Piney and Spicy beers

[ludomonster]

I've been struggling with distinguishing between the earthy, floral, piney and spicy flavors and aromas of hops. I can read about what hops typically have these characteristics; however, that doesn't always translate to sense memory for me.

What beers have one of these traits as their dominant flavor and aroma?

I would prefer recommendations of light-color beers with clean yeasts so that I can focus on the hop character. If there is a darker style that I absolutely must try, I suppose I can oblige.

 

[zebbielm12]

Earthy - Meantime IPA, light with Fuggles and EKG

 

[iambeer]

You could get ounce packets of hops and open them to smell them. Earthy, flora, spicy are quite broad. Go to a bar and smell hopped beers on tap as they are generally fresher than bottles and therefore you can smell hops better. Get a Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA on tap for a bouquet of different hops aromas from floral to citrus to earthy. It's actually intoxicating to smell that smell.

 

[trumpetbeard]

I've always thought Great Divide's Titan IPA is very clearly, and deliciously, piney. Stones 16th anniversary IPA is out right now and that's perfectly citrusy. German lagers are a good combo of spicy and earthy, though those can be admittedly difficult to disaggregate. Bo Pils are typically on the spicy end, and very clean in the yeast department.

+1 on getting a bunch of 1oz packs for smelling.

I would also think doing a bunch of SMASHes might give you a good idea of each hop and what it contributes (e.g. EKG or fuggles, perhaps willamette for earthy; Simcoe, Amarillo, Cascade for citrusy; I think columbus is pretty resiny; Noble hops are mostly some variation of spicy and earthy and floral, though they all have very different characters - Saaz is definity the go-to for spicy; bobek is a good middle ground between spicy and citrusy).

I think you were looking for suggestions of commercial beers, so I hope this is helpful!