Experience with hops / terroir

[thehaze]

Hello you wonderful people,

2020 is the year I'll start gypsy ( contract ) brewing. I don't have the funds to build my own brewery, so I'll find breweries willing to brew my beer. I'm thinking of brewing different styles in the long run, but talking to other ( established ) contract brewers, I soon realised that coming out with more than 1 beer from the start, it's not a viable option. So one at a time.

I'll start with an IPA. Yes, I'm kinda forced to, due to " local taste ", so to speak. It's not gonna be a hazy/NE. It's gonna be an IPA with some bitterness and " visual " clarity. My plan is to use dry yeast - there are some very good options, like US-05, K-97, Nottingham, BRY-97, LalBrew New England, LalBrew Voss Kveik. For malts, I was thinking Paul's malts from the UK.

Now for hops - no american grown ones - I was thinking a blend of german grown ones, like Comet, Cascade, Amarillo, Mandarina Bavaria, Huell Melon, Ariana, Callista and maybe some UK grown Chinook. Part of this is the availability and the proximity, seeing that I live in Europe, but also because everyone, literally everyone is using Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe, Azacca, Galaxy, Vic Secret, etc.

Future batches include hoppy farmhouse ales, hoppy, unfiltered lagers ( Mistral, Triskel, Tardif de Bourgogne ), various bright and fruited sour ales.

I am here to ask of you, to share any experience with the above hops and malts, if any. I understand however that german grown Comet, Cascade, Amarillo, might sound odd for some of you, but I think it could be different, and yes, I would like the end result to taste different.

Thank you for taking the time to read through the post. Cheers!

 

[couchsending]

If you haven’t already look into some of the newer Slovenian aroma varieties. Way more punch than most of the newer German aroma hops. Wolf, Cardinal, Dragon

I’ve used some of the German Amarillo and liked it quite a bit.

Bunch of stuff coming out of South Africa that’s pretty cool as well. Taste and smell nothing like any hop I’ve ever used.

 

[thehaze]

Thank for the reply. I've used a bit of Wolf and Dragon, but granted, didn't brew exclusively with each hop, to understand what it brings in terms on aroma and flavour. And each time I used those, were not IPAs or anything that would showcase the hops. Hmmm...

 

[bierhaus15]

My experience selecting continental-euro hops is that the variance among lots is much greater than what you'd typically find for US hops. Many of the farms are smaller and harvesting-processing is less standardized, with the exception of big outfits associated with Steiner/Haas. I've seen really exceptional GR and Slovenian selections (Ariana, Mandarina, Blanc, Wolf, Dragon, Cardinal) and ones that belong in the compost pile. Unfortunately, most of the good stuff gets bought up and whats left for the spot market is usually poor, unless breweries are reselling their over contracted stuff. Don't buy in quantity until you know what you are getting.

 

[thehaze]

bierhaus15 ---> Thank you. That sounds frightening by the way. I was thinking of relying on Simply Hops, Brook House Hops UK and hopfen-direkt - https://www.hopfen-direkt.de/epages...Path=/Shops/es969506/Categories/HopfenPellets

I will try to get a few sameples from them before going for larger amounts.

 

[thehaze]

My idea for an IPA would be Chinook, Comet, Amarillo, Cascade and Callista in the whirlpool and heavy Callista with Amarillo and a dash of Chinook in the dry hop. Nothing crazy - around 12 gr/l in the whirlpool and 8 gr/l in the dry hop. All hops being grown in Europe, adding a bit of terroir aroma and flavour. Would that work? I am about to get some samples for these hops.