grassy 2013 Amarillo hops

CornyKegs 728
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Damn! Hate to see this. I have an all Amarillo Pale Ale in the fermentor right now. Just dry hopped the other day. Kegging this weekend. Maybe I'll give it a taste and if not good, I'll add a few ounces of something else (Citra, Cent, Cascade).
 
Bassaholic said:
I recently made a single hop pale ale with Amarillo from Hops Direct, and I have to agree there was definitely a grassy aroma and taste, but after a week or so I am noticing the grassyness less and some orange flavors are coming thru. Overall, I'm still a bit disappointed with this years batch.
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Let us know if the grassy flavor fades more, if you have not enjoyed it all.

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I got a pound of pellets from HD in mid December. I did not notice a grassy smell when dividing them up. I got an ounce out today and took a good whiff. They smell good with no grassy smell. However, I have not brewed with them yet.
 
I brewed my first single hop IPA ever with a 2013 batch of Amarillo, glad to know this thread confirms I'm not crazy. I wasn't very familiar with the taste and aroma beforehand (hence making the single hop beer) and thought maybe it was always like this.
 
Is it safe to say that they are ok for kettle hops, but that one should not dry hop with them?
I have an all-amarillo wheat planned for next month & I'm wondering if I should totally switch out all of the hops or if I should just switch the dry hops.
 
loetz said:
Is it safe to say that they are ok for kettle hops, but that one should not dry hop with them?
I have an all-amarillo wheat planned for next month & I'm wondering if I should totally switch out all of the hops or if I should just switch the dry hops.
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In my (grassy) cascades, I have noticed that kettle hops seem fine - the grass doesn't come through. It tends to be the dry hopping that puts off so much grassiness. I haven't experimented with the Amarillo yet though.
 
I'm making the Wookey Jack clone that has a bunch of amarillo hops. I just smelled my half used bag and I get nothing I would describe as grassy. Maybe I'm not sensitive to it though I do smell fresh cut grass when I mow the lawn and I don't get that smell.

Here's the lot I have:

e4sAP0I.jpg
 
I should add my experience to this.

I bought 2 pounds of pellet and one pound of leaf from hops direct. Around the same time my neighbor who brews did as well. He mentioned to me that he made an all amarillo beer that tasted like onions. So being paranoid I opened all my amarillo hops. Sure enough they were very strong garlicky/oniony/burnt rubber smelling. One pound nearly made me gag it smelled so bad and the other pound was just the same smell just not as strong. These hops smelled so bad that they stunk up my whole house from being open for an hour or so, I had to air it out. I contacted hops direct and ended up sending the hops back to them. They agreed they were bad and refunded my money.

I then bought some amarillo from mainbrew and they smelled fine, maybe not as good as the 2012 hops but much better.

Overall I feel like hops direct took very good care of me, I've had no problems with my citra hops from them or any of the other 10 lbs of hops I got.
 
Just ordered a pound of pellets from nikobrew today... this thread has me worried now though... any one have experience with them this year?

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I've had my all Amarillo pale ale kegged for a few weeks but a tap just opened up last night. I'll be tasting tonight and see what I get. Report back tomorrow.
 
I brewed two batches of an extra hoppy (grassy) Amarillo Cascade pale ale. The smell was not what I was expecting when I opened the bag on the first batch. I wish I had stopped there. I am picking up what I would say chewing on a grapefruit rind would taste like mixed with diesel fuel. I am still working on drinking the last batch, about a gallon left in the keg, the aroma fades eventually but the horrid taste does not. Next time I smell something bad in a bag of hops they are going in the trash.

Happy Brewing!
 
Yes, definitely not a great Amarillo crop. The Amarillo flavors are there, but masked by another flavor. Maybe grassy is a good description. I'm not sure. But I am sure I'm not very happy with my Amarillo pale ale.
 
Ryfi said:
I brewed two batches of an extra hoppy (grassy) Amarillo Cascade pale ale. The smell was not what I was expecting when I opened the bag on the first batch. I wish I had stopped there. I am picking up what I would say chewing on a grapefruit rind would taste like mixed with diesel fuel. I am still working on drinking the last batch, about a gallon left in the keg, the aroma fades eventually but the horrid taste does not. Next time I smell something bad in a bag of hops they are going in the trash.

Happy Brewing!
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I've had Amarillo described as "diesel fuel" before on a scoresheet. I haven't opened my 2013 bags yet, but I'll report back when I do.
 
Turns outs my batch is from 2012... will those still be good?

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My simcarillo IPA doesn't seem to be too grassy. It was a 4 gallon batch, finished with 4 ounces (blend of 2oz simcoe and amarillo), hopstand for 30 minutes, then dry hopped in keg for a week or so with the same blend.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong :)
 
Wish I would have seen this thread before I blew through 6 oz in an IPA. Mine seems worse than grassy. Super vegetal with an almost pumpkin flesh flavor. Do you think these would be OK to bitter with in small quantities? I still have 10oz, but I don't want to ruin any more beers.
 
sdugre said:
Wish I would have seen this thread before I blew through 6 oz in an IPA. Mine seems worse than grassy. Super vegetal with an almost pumpkin flesh flavor. Do you think these would be OK to bitter with in small quantities? I still have 10oz, but I don't want to ruin any more beers.
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Yeah. I think it's fine. Just go light on the Amarillo in any quantity for any addition. IMO. Btw I've noticed it does mellow out a bit.


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14thstreet said:
Anyone hear of similar experiences/complaints among "craft" brewers? They usually get first dibs.
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I've had the good fortune to talk to Mitch Steele and Vinnie and they both said their crop was fine. But they also said they inspect their lots before they buy, and home brewers get the last lots.
 
Thanks! I was going to say at first we should blame "craft" beer for this but I know "they" are also held hostage by the system.
 
I would say the hops are fine , just different from prior years....but we all just haven't figured out how to utilize it properly. Use lesser amounts than prior years. Can't be a bad thing.


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I haven't brewed with my 2013 Leaf Amarillo hops from HopsDirect yet. But I can confirm that the smell isn't what I was expecting. I can almost associate "grassy" to the aroma but dull would have to go along with it. This does make me want to brew a small test batch before committing to 10 gallons of "grassy"....
 
Nagorg said:
I haven't brewed with my 2013 Leaf Amarillo hops from HopsDirect yet. But I can confirm that the smell isn't what I was expecting. I can almost associate "grassy" to the aroma but dull would have to go along with it. This does make me want to brew a small test batch before committing to 10 gallons of "grassy"....
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In my experience if the hops do not have much aroma (and/or not pleasant aroma) than they are going to disappoint in the brew. I've learned this the hard way a few times. I have had 2009-2013 amarillo and 2010 was the best I ever got by far. When it's good it is one of my favorite hops, but for 6+ more sad years it'll be luck of the draw (patent should expire then).

The breweries with the largest hop orders get first dibs, then filters down to last place homebrewers. Amarillo is the worst because it all comes from only one farm that is making way too much money for offering no consistency.

I still dream of duplicating Columbus Brewing Creeper which was a SMaSH DIPA; OG over 1.100 that was just Pilsner and Amarillo with almost all the IBU's coming from last 15 minutes. Was so ridiculously good that I keep praying that I win the Amarillo lottery and that is the only reason I keep spending money on that hop. Some day :tank:
 
I got my 2013 amarillo from label peelers...i've only used em in a wookey jack clone so far, but i wouldn't describe them as grassy. i guess it varies.
 
atom said:
I got my 2013 amarillo from label peelers...i've only used em in a wookey jack clone so far, but i wouldn't describe them as grassy. i guess it varies.
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Interesting. That's where I got my Amarillo from and id say it's grassy. Maybe different lots or bales. Who knows.


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Hey, i'm i bit late to this party, but i'd better chime in here. I stopped by P.F. (Hops Direct) at the very beginning of their harvest season when i was over there for the HopUnion Hop and Brew school. I got a pound of Amarillo and a pound of Cascade from there at the very beginning of their harvest. I've brewed with the Amarillo several times since then, my pound is almost gone, and I've used Amarillo exclusively in the kettle and have never dry-hopped with them. I haven't noticed a great deal of the grassy flavor, even in my cascade-amarillo IPA that i've brewed twice so far, but I always dry-hop with cascade. One thing i have noticed however is the Amarillo imparts a subtle sweetness into my beers that i didn't expect. I put that together when i recently tried a single hop Amarillo beer which had the same "sweet" quality. Well attenuated beers, but something in the Amarillo specifically gives that slight sweet flavor. About the grassy notes, it could be that later in the harvest they switched to a different plot of land which was different, or it could be hop aging as if you're using pellets those are produced later in the season after harvest is done and they've sold the first harvested stuff as whole hops. So, i have 2013 Amarillo from the same source and i really haven't noticed it, but i'll look again when my next IPA is done.
 
I also bought a pound from HD and just kegged a DIPA that had Amarillo (among others) dry hopped. It doesn't seem as floral/citrus as my last batch, not bad at all but damn last years crop was so good I was really starting to fall in love with this hop.
 
I brewed an amarillo/MO smash just after thanksgiving. I haven't ever used amarillo before so i don't have anything to compare it to But this is probably one of the worst beers I've ever tasted. I do get grassy, but also just bad flavor and smell in general.
 
I didn't get any grassy character in my Vienna lager. I used Amarillo and Calypso with 10 minutes left in the boil.

Spiciness, though, that took some time to age out. It was brewed on 01/05/14 and bottled on 02/22/14. Last night, the flavor finally came together the way it was supposed to .
 
I am not getting any grassy flavors and none of the people that have tried it have said so either in the Wookey Jack clone I made which has a healthy dose of Amarillo (and citra) hops.
 
Going to be doing a 10 gal vienna malt smash with amarillo and wlp810 - split 5 gal out and dry hop the crap out of it. Will report on grassiness if any
 
stpug said:
I split a pound of Citra from HD with a friend and when we were splitting the pound I noticed a definite garlic (maybe onion) aroma in them (sulphur I suspect).
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I just sniffed 2012 and 2013 Amarillo side-by-side and I got a bit of garlic in the 2013. I'm not sure about grass.
 
I brewed 4 batches of APA and IPA from my one pound package of 2013 Amarillo leaf; it's not grassy for me. I would say check your process. For me, I get grass from long dry hopping. I never liked that flavor. I have been Torpedoing for about a year and a half and would not go back. I converted a whole house filter. I have a loop; keg at 60 t 65 F, pump, torpedo (2 to 4 oz in a fine mesh sack) and then back to keg for 1 day. NO OTHER PROCESS COMPARES TO IT! I have tried them all. A side bonus is it filters hoppy ales very well.
 
I'll have an APA ready in ~4-5 weeks that has quite a bit of 2013 Amarillo leaf hops in it, including a dry hop. Will report the results.
 
I'm happy to report NO GRASSY notes in my Pale Ale. I used 2013 Amarillo Leaf Hops from Hops Direct. Guess mine are good! :D
 

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