If you could only brew with 5 hops for life...

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pm5k00

pm5k00

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I was watering my hop garden the other day and thinking about what would happen if I could only brew with what i grew myself. I currently have 5 varieties, Nugget, Chinook, Cascade, Centennial, and Sterling. Thankfully we can use whatever we can get our hands on but....

If you could only brew with 5 varieties of hops for the rest of your life what would you choose? Please put the variety you like best as #1 and so forth.

In this alternate reality, you can drink whatever beer you want, including others homebrew, but no brewing with any other hops (ie: no tradeing hops).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll start.

NEW 4/11/12

1. Chinook
2. Summit
3. Cascade
4. Columbus
5. Citra
 
1. Centennial
2. Amarillo
3. Saaz
4. Willamette
5. Chinook or Simcoe... I can't decide
 
Not in any order because I love them all but here's the 5 I use (I like) the most.

Simcoe
Northern Brewer
Cascade
Fuggels
Saaz
 
Columbus (my all around bittering hop and danky for IPAs)
Simcoe (because it's awesome)
Citra (because I can use it in american IPA and belgian styles)
Fuggles (good for browns and the occasional english style or stout)
Centennial (complements and accentuates most other hops)

Close runner-ups
Saaz (spicy and unique, good for anything other than american style ales)

Northern Brewer (while flavor profiles are different, I could use this in exchange for centennial as a supplemental hop)
 
1) Simcoe
2) Centennial
3) Amarillo
4) Kent-Goldings
5) More Simcoe

First 3 since I love that combination in an IPA/IIPA, Kent because I love the way it affects the nose of a good brown/ESB (can't really describe it--you just know it's English!), and more Simcoe because you can't go wrong adding more Simcoe.
 
Hey Egg, your list is like mine.

Simcoe
Amarillo
Warrior
EKG
Centennial

Luckily we are not limited to 5 in the real worlds so we can use fun stuff like Columbus, Nelson Sauvin, Cascade, Magnum, Nugget, Hallertauer Mittlefruh, Tettnanger, Sorachi Ace, or whatever the hell we feel like using.

Screw Summit though. That schit is evil. It's a great way to have a dead hooker in your beer if you're into that kind of thing.
 
Irrenarzt said:
Screw Summit though. That schit is evil. It's a great way to have a dead hooker in your beer if you're into that kind of thing.
Click to expand...

To each his own, I know summit can have a weird (some say onion) flavor/smell when your beer is green, but after 4-5 weeks of conditioning the orange aroma really starts to shine. It ends up being similar to warrior.
 
1. Cascade
2. Centennial
3. EKG
4. Hallertau
5. Chinook

This was a hard list to come up with... Nugget should make the list and really would like Saaz in their too. Given a change I'd take one of those over Chinook, but I love me some Chinook! It's in the closest thing I have to a house beer and can't imagine not having it!
 
pm5k00 said:
To each his own, I know summit can have a weird (some say onion) flavor/smell when your beer is green, but after 4-5 weeks of conditioning the orange aroma really starts to shine. It ends up being similar to warrior.
Click to expand...

Onions are the devils work and therefore I do not eat them in any capacity. Admittedly, I'm extra sensitive to oniony things based on my extreme hatred for onions. Since Summit is oniony to me, even in a mature beer, I view them also as the devils spawn.

Like you said, to each their own. I will not brew with Summit, nor will I drink beer that has been brewed with Summit. But hey, if you like that kind of stuff, then that's your business.
 
Unless I'm brewing a clone these are the hops I use
Cascade
Simcoe
Warrior
Chinook
Centennial
 
columbus - good all around hop, bittering, aroma, flavor etc..
chinook - same as above, for me at least
cascade - because it's classic
simcoe - because I love 'em and the same as 1 and 2
probably should throw a English variety in there so I could do those, so EKG
 
1. EKG
2. Fuggles
3. Centennial
4. Simcoe
5. Amarillo

And I'd trade my friend for variety to make up for the fact that I don't have so many others on that list!
 
nefarious_1_ said:
1. EKG
2. Fuggles
3. Centennial
4. Simcoe
5. Amarillo

And I'd trade my friend for variety to make up for the fact that I don't have so many others on that list!
Click to expand...

Speaking of trade, my LHBS and my local brewery are out of Centennial pellet and I just got a bunch of 2010 Centennial whole leaf but I want to make a beer that uses Centennial pellet so I would be willing to trade 4 oz of whole for 4 oz of pellet. Anyone have extra pellet they want to trade for?
 
I actually use 3 basic hops I buy online in bulk all the time:
1. Cascade
2. Willamette
3. Centennial
With these 3 hops and one house yeast (US-05) I brew at least a dozen different beers, from APA through Brown to Wheat.
But you wanted 5, so here is 2 more:
4. Saaz
5. Chinook

BTW, I am surprised how popular Centennial is. Does everyone like Two Hearted Ale as much as I do? LOL
 
-Cascade
-EKG (if I had to pick one hop, this would be it)
-Northern Brewer (I could substitute Cascade for this and free up another hop, but as is, I use it a lot).
-Hallertau (weizens in summer)
-yet to be decided - I'm always looking for something new
 
Summit - my #1 favorite hop
Amarillo - approaching perfection
Simcoe - getting there
Sorachi Ace - it's like putting a lemon in your beer without putting a lemon in your beer
Willamette - universal Euro hop
 
pm5k00 said:
I was watering my hop garden the other day and thinking about what would happen if I could only brew with what i grew myself. I currently have 5 varieties, Nugget, Chinook, Cascade, Centennial, and Sterling. Thankfully we can use whatever we can get our hands on but....

If you could only brew with 5 varieties of hops for the rest of your life what would you choose? Please put the variety you like best as #1 and so forth.

In this alternate reality, you can drink whatever beer you want, including others homebrew, but no brewing with any other hops (ie: no tradeing hops).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll start.

1. Nugget
2. Simcoe
3. Chinook
4. Willamette
5. Summit
Click to expand...

Too easy!

1)Amarillo
2)Fuggle
3)Goldings
4)Chinook
5)Cluster
 
Thumbs up to all the Centennial love. Can't get enough of that tangerine goodness.

1) Centennial
2) Styrian Goldings
3) Strisselspalt
4) Sorachi Ace
5) Either Tettnanger or, to allow for some English brews, UK Fuggles

pm5k00 said:
To each his own, I know summit can have a weird (some say onion) flavor/smell when your beer is green, but after 4-5 weeks of conditioning the orange aroma really starts to shine. It ends up being similar to warrior.
Click to expand...

Then why not just use warrior?
 
I didn't really realize it until now but in the past two years I believe I have only used three hop varieties (with the exception of one collaboration brew I did with a commercial brewery).

EKG
Amarillo
Nelson Sauvin

I suppose if you add Saaz in there then I would be happy enough to brew with just those 4.... who needs 5 ;)
 
Saaz
Hallertau
EKG
Columbus
Amarillo

All the combos of this would leave me wanting for nothing else.
 

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