Help me make my wife a hop head!

[Rook]

My wife and I got into beers at the same time. It was a scant 4 years ago that I couldn't drink anything other than Cider Jack, and the only beer my wife could drink was Pyramid Hefeweizen with a lemon (not exactly a punchy beer). We have slowly worked our way into loving beer, but we've taken different paths.

For about 2 years of beer drinking, neither of us liked IPAs. A friend bought me a 6er of Lagunitas IPA for my birthday. I hated it. Left it in the fridge. One day I was jonesin for a beer and we were out. I found the 5 pack of the IPA and Cracked it. Holy god this was AWESOME. I've fallen headlong in. Stone IPA, Racer 5, and Lagunitas IPA are the three best IPAs I've ever had, and Racer 5 and Lagunitas are 2 of my top 5 all time beers.

My wife is a different story. She gets a Mr Yuck face any time she smells a hoppy beer, and doesn't seem to like the bitter, dry, sucking-the-moisture-out-of-your-mouth feeling that a good hoppy beer will give you.

She CAN, however drink DFH60 on tap, but not in the bottle.

I'm TRYING to find beers that are sorta hoppy but not overly so, to get her weaned onto them.

Boulder Brewing's Hazed and Infused. Not a very hoppy tasting beer, but overwhelming hop nose (dryhopped I suppose), she can't stand.

Anyway, I need HBTs help! I want to brew hoppy beers, but can't exclude SWMBO from them.

Thanks guys!

 

[Flyin' Lion]

Harpoon IPA started my descent into hopheadedness, I couldn't stand IPA's until my wife purchased herself some Harpoon and I proceeded to drink them all.

Hope it helps.

 

[AdIn]

Try to brew Budvar, it's should have relatevely high noble hop aroma and flavor, but not very high IBU.

 

[Desert_Sky]

Hazed and Infused

Great aroma and flavor, with a medium bitterness

 

[brewhead]

i'll come back when you've got a randall hooked up in the kitchen

 

[Blender]

Go British with Milds, Bitters and ESB. They are less than 35 IBU generally. Also condsider Poters and Stouts or brew a lovely wheat beer just for her and keep the hoppy ones for you.

 

[EdWort]

i'll come back when you've got a randall hooked up in the kitchen

Ya'll have to come to Austin for the annual Zealots Home Brew Picnic. There's always at least one Randall there.

 

[nikkimac1027]

Sierra Navada Pale Ale? sounds so simple, but what are her stand point on this one... This was my first transitional beer- now i'm a hophead...dont know if this is what opened my eyes and brought me to the light, but it might have been....

 

[EdWort]

Anyway, I need HBTs help! I want to brew hoppy beers, but can't exclude SWMBO from them.

Give my Haus Ale a try.

8# Pale
2# Vienna
1/2# Crystal 10L

1 oz. Cascade 60 Min.
1/2 oz. Cascade 30 Min
1/4 oz. Cascade 15 Min.
1/4 oz. Cascade 5 Min.

Nottingham Dry Yeast.

SWMBO is the same as yours and she loves this beer. 2 oz. of Cascade for a 5 gallon batch still gives you some hoppiness.

You can then wean her to more IBUs as she enjoys the beer.

An alternative is to forcer her to drink four 22 oz. bottles of Stone Runination IPA every day for two weeks. After that, everything will be water.

 

[onecolumbyte]

Two beers that *might* make me a hop head (currently love the malt).

1) Pryamid's Draught Ale, only available in the brew house. Standard Pale with a Nitro Push. Great hop aroma and taste w/o the bitterness. REALLY smooth. mmm...beer.... Look at your brewery (gotta have nitro push) for a local substitue.

2) Pyramid's "Thunderhead" IPA. SO much hop aroma and flavor (and bitterness) that it's impossible to reject this beer. You may not love where they were going with the beer but it's so well done you gotta respect it.

My two cents from the other side of the fence.

 

[Yooper]

My first "hophead" experience was courtesy of Brewtopia. We did a beerswap, and he sent me some Stone Ruination. Yes, it's hoppy! But- I took a sip and got mostly aroma and not bitterness. Then another- I got a bit more hoppiness. By the time the (little) 22 ouncer was gone, I was hooked. Something about that upfront hoppiness with that aroma and "sneak up on you" bitterness did me in. Then, Wolf gave me a couple of Dogfish Head 90 minutes. That was more bitter, but still the aroma/flavor hops dominated. Now, I am a hophead. Oh, I'll drink a Maibock or Dead Guy, but GIMME THE FREAKIN' HOPS! And I mean that in the most ladylike way.........

 

[nikkimac1027]

Ya'll have to come to Austin for the annual Zealots Home Brew Picnic. There's always at least one Randall there.

oh btw, i love this. Randall the Enamel Animal

 

[God Emporer BillyBrew]

Sierra Navada Pale Ale? sounds so simple, but what are her stand point on this one... This was my first transitional beer- now i'm a hophead...dont know if this is what opened my eyes and brought me to the light, but it might have been....

That was my thought also.

 

[Gabe]

Try brewing something that is hoppy but a little sweet, worked for my wife, and now she says I have to have IPA on tap year round.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I was never a big fan of high IBUs and big hop flavor/aroma until I got into brewing and began to explore different beers. I'm still not necessarily a hophead, but I do enjoy a well crafted IPA or hoppy pale ale. Stone IPA opened my eyes to what a real IPA is like, and DFH 60 is absolutely outstanding.

I had a similar experience with scotch. I didn't really like drinking whiskey (especially scotch whisky) on the rocks until I watched a documentary on how it's made. Now I quite enjoy it, and I like picking out the flavor components that make up a good, smooth single malt.

 

[Rook]

Getting some great ideas guys! Thank you.

Gabe, do you think EdWort's Haus ale is similar to your suggestion?

EdWort, what size boil would that be, I'd definately give that a try.

I've got her liking some pale ales, but she has a big problem with the hop aroma. Deschutes did "HopTrip" which is one of my favorite beers ever, its a simple pale ale made with freshly picked hops. The aroma is fantastic, its incredibly well balanced, but the smell of the hops gets her every time. I think she uses the words "rotting flowers"

Lorena, I've got a 22 of Stone Ruination sitting in the fridge. I'm a fan, but I don't know if I could get her in the same room with me when I'm drinking it.

I like the idea of something I can brew (re: EdWort's Haus ale), this is a homebrew forum after all.

onecolumbyte, I'm looking for more transitional, weening beers, I have no shortage of hop heavy beers available to me. Part of my problem is that I drink most IPAs and they taste almost mild to me now, I'm not a good judge of taste for what is a medium hopped beer.

 

[Yooper]

Getting some great ideas guys! Thank you.

Gabe, do you think EdWort's Haus ale is similar to your suggestion?

EdWort, what size boil would that be, I'd definately give that a try.

I've got her liking some pale ales, but she has a big problem with the hop aroma. Deschutes did "HopTrip" which is one of my favorite beers ever, its a simple pale ale made with freshly picked hops. The aroma is fantastic, its incredibly well balanced, but the smell of the hops gets her every time. I think she uses the words "rotting flowers"

Lorena, I've got a 22 of Stone Ruination sitting in the fridge. I'm a fan, but I don't know if I could get her in the same room with me when I'm drinking it.

I like the idea of something I can brew (re: EdWort's Haus ale), this is a homebrew forum after all.

onecolumbyte, I'm looking for more transitional, weening beers, I have no shortage of hop heavy beers available to me. Part of my problem is that I drink most IPAs and they taste almost mild to me now, I'm not a good judge of taste for what is a medium hopped beer.

Ok, well if she describes "hoptrip" as rotting flowers, I think some hops that don't have floral notes would be in order. Think citrus-y (simcoe), grapefruit-y (cascade), spicy (Mt hood), or "neutral" hops, like nugget or perle. There are lots more choices of course- those are just examples. I don't really care for floral notes either, really. The grapefruit aroma of cascade hooked my husband and although he'll never be a hophead, he will appreciate a good IPA if there is some cascade aroma in there.

You're probably right that the Stone Ruination isn't going to convert her- but it is so gooooood!

 

[Rook]

Lorena, THAT is the information I need! The kind of hops that I can use to make hoppy beers that don't give the floral smell!

Thank you very much.

 

[dirtymartini]

I had a similar experience with scotch. I didn't really like drinking whiskey (especially scotch whisky) on the rocks until I watched a documentary on how it's made. Now I quite enjoy it, and I like picking out the flavor components that make up a good, smooth single malt.

MMMMM....Glenlivet 18 year old.....:rockin:

 

[sirsloop]

why not make a pale ale with like 2lbs of laagander DME to sweeten the beer up a little. Use like 2oz cascade hops in the boil, and another oz dry hopped. Cascades smell so yummy

 

[Drunk Monkey]

Do you get Karl Strauss beers where you live? Probably my favorite beer they make is the Stargazer IPA. I would describe it as as a mild IPA. If you wanted to jump right to IPAs, then this would be the one.

 

[EdWort]

EdWort, what size boil would that be, I'd definately give that a try.

It's a 7 gallon boil down to 5.5 gallons for my bucket fermenter. I let it ferment 10 days to 2 weeks and then keg it and let it age for at least 3 more weeks before serving.