New hop--SORACHI ACE?

[Dude]

I racked the "slammer" to secondary last night and got a sample.

I'll say "different". Not my favorite hop flavor but it will be a good pale ale. I'll let this sit in secondary for a few weeks then rack to a keg and dry hop. Final determination then.

 

[Boston]

Let's run it through the "randall" in Feb.

 

[the_bird]

Did you get that fixed?

When you come up north in the spring, you gonna pack it along?

 

[Boston]

Did you get that fixed?

When you come up north in the spring, you gonna pack it along?

Yes, it's fixed. The problem was two-fold: 1. You've got to load it with beer very slowly in order to keep the CO2 in solution. Else you get excessive foaming. 2. Holes in the filter tube were too big which allowed hop particles to pass through. I have since wrapped the filter tube in fine SS mesh. Works like a champ. Yes, I will pack the randall in my carry-on. I can see it now: "Mr. Randall, is this one of those Swedish penis enlargers?"

 

[Orpheus]

I can see it now: "Mr. Randall, is this one of those Swedish penis enlargers?"

That's not mine! No, really! That's not my bag baby!

 

[Boston]

FAA: "Mr. Randall, is this one of those Swedish penis enlargers?"
Me: "No, it's called a randall."
FAA: "What the hell is a randall?"
Me: "It's a device for hopping up homebrew."
FAA: "Mr. Randall, come with us to the interrogation room."
Me: "OK, OK, it's a Swedish penis enlarger!"

 

[Desert_Sky]

Just bagged these up last night into 1 oz portions. They smell fantastic, and I wish I was brewing it right now. but its on the list for 2 weeks from now. I'm gonna call it "Sarachi Slamarillo"

 

[grrtt78]

i would love to try some of those with some coriander and orange peel

 

[jezter6]

I brewed my Sorachi Saison with Corriander and Orange peel. Will bottle it next weekend. So far it's passed all the taste tests during racking.

I only used 1oz total sorachi's in 2 separate .5 oz hoppings. Used tet and saaz with it. Just have to wait and see, but i've been drinking every saison I can get my hands on in the meantime just to keep my taste buds at bay.

If anyone can get Victory Saison - It's mighty good, and at 7% it'll get you messed up to boot.

 

[the_bird]

I'll say "different". Not my favorite hop flavor but it will be a good pale ale. I'll let this sit in secondary for a few weeks then rack to a keg and dry hop. Final determination then.

I was wondering how you would like this hop; saw a thread on the greenboard last week from someone who absolutely despised them.

 

[Desert_Sky]

Very smooth brew session. The wort tasted awesome. The sorachis are a little bit more bitter than I expected. I was thinking they were going to be a soft bitterness, but at 13.7%, the bitterness has to be in there somewhere.

That was my initial opinion as well. Very soft aroma to them, but like you said...at 13.7% Its got to be in there somewhere. Looking back now, would you change your hop schedule?

 

[Dude]

That was my initial opinion as well. Very soft aroma to them, but like you said...at 13.7% Its got to be in there somewhere. Looking back now, would you change your hop schedule?

Now that I've tasted it, no, I wouldn't change much.

Speaking of tasting it....WOW! Holy grapefruit/lemon juice batman!!!!! YIKES! This is a pretty awesome beer if you like citrus. This is by far the most citrusey hop I've ever used. This beer kicks ass IMHO. I put it on tap only tonight, but carbed up a bottle with my carbonator cap to sample it. It turned out great.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Holy grapefruit/lemon juice batman!!!!! YIKES! This is a pretty awesome beer if you like citrus. This is by far the most citrusey hop I've ever used. This beer kicks ass IMHO. I put it on tap only tonight, but carbed up a bottle with my carbonator cap to sample it. It turned out great.

Ditto, mine tastes like grapefruit juice. Totally awesome. This hop is going to get tons of mileage around SWT. I brewed a mild with it yesterday and I can hardly wait to see how it turns out in a more subdued beer.

 

[Grimsawyer]

1:1 BU:GU ratio?

What does that mean? 1:1 Bittering Unit : Gravity Unit? like a 1.057 OG would have 57 IBU's? Just a shot in the dark, but figure why not fire away. Sometimes my aim is true.

 

[Brewsmith]

You got it. It's a method of describing the bitterness of a beer. Ray Daniels uses it extensively in his book Designing Great Beers. The short answer is that the more malt you use, the more hops you need to balance out the sweetness. Styles of beer vary on the malty to bitter scale.

Hefeweizen - 15 IBU / 1.045 OG = ratio of 0.33
Brown - 25 IBU / 1.050 OG = ratio of 0.5
Pale Ale - 40 IBU / 1.054 OG = ratio of 0.75
IPA - 60 IBU / 1.060 OG = ratio of 1.0

 

[Dude]

Ditto, mine tastes like grapefruit juice. Totally awesome. This hop is going to get tons of mileage around SWT. I brewed a mild with it yesterday and I can hardly wait to see how it turns out in a more subdued beer.

Yep! I'm going to rebrew my B's honey wheat towards spring time, and I'm using Sorachi and lemon peel that I bought from Austin Homebrew.

I am also going to pair Sorachi and Simcoe and Amarillo in the next version of LWPA.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

I am also going to pair Sorachi and Simcoe and Amarillo in the next version of LWPA.

Better rename it Sunny - D!


:rockin:

 

[jezter6]

I just tasted my Sorachi Saison - and GOD DAMN is it good. It was a little under carbed yet (only in the bottle for 10 days), so I can't wait to see it in the coming weeks. I followed it up with a Victory Saison, and I honestly think mine was better. And I love Victory's Saison. Victory is not as good as more notable saisons (Ommegang, Saison Dupont), but it's certainly not bad. I need to get another pack of Ommegang to try with my brews to see up close how good it is.

Next time, we're going to use some pepper and maybe a little grapefruit. I was afraid of the big 13.7% so I only did 2 additions of Sorachi Ace at .5 oz each (IIRC it was either 45 and 30 or 30 and 15. It's not very hoppy tasting, so I may up that a little.

This is the neatest little hop I've found yet. I can't wait to try it some other things, but for now, I've got at least 2 more batches of Saison planned for it.

 

[jezter6]

For anyone who cares, this is what I used:

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 55.8 %
2.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 18.6 %
2.00 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 18.6 %
1.00 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (60 min) Hops 16.3 IBU
0.50 oz Sorachi Ace [13.70%] (15 min) Hops 11.0 IBU
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00%] (20 min) Hops 8.7 IBU
0.50 oz Sorachi Ace [13.70%] (5 min) Hops 4.4 IBU
0.50 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.75 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.50 lb Candi Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM) Sugar 4.7 %
0.25 lb Candi Sugar, Amber (75.0 SRM) Sugar 2.3 %
1 Pkgs Belgian Saison I Ale (White Labs #WLP565) Yeast-Ale

Single infusion mash @ 153.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Dude, how did you like this one once it aged a little more? Did I read somewhere that you were not all that impressed with it?

I'm wondering because I'm probably going to do another hop-profile beer, and I was wondering if you're going to keep this recipe the same for your hop profiling.

 

[Dude]

Dude, how did you like this one once it aged a little more? Did I read somewhere that you were not all that impressed with it?

I'm wondering because I'm probably going to do another hop-profile beer, and I was wondering if you're going to keep this recipe the same for your hop profiling.

The sorachis were a funky aroma, but the beer tasted alright. It had a slight sourness (I think from the sorachis), but it was a solid beer. The randall certainly hid its faults!! It really didn't get to age all that much because we killed the whole keg at VAgraNCy.

I am going to keep on keeping on with the single hop beers. Simcoe Slammer is in the works soon. I also REALLY want to do a Columbus version. I love the recipe we came up with--and I've been sticking to right around 60 IBUs..it doesn't take much to adjust the hop amounts (times stay the same) to tweak it to around 60.

 

[the_bird]

I am going to keep on keeping on with the single hop beers. Simcoe Slammer is in the works soon. I also REALLY want to do a Columbus version. I love the recipe we came up with--and I've been sticking to right around 60 IBUs..it doesn't take much to adjust the hop amounts (times stay the same) to tweak it to around 60.

I was just thinking about doing an Amarillo pale ale this morning. Call it "Amarillo Slim" or something. You ever done a beer with just those guys?

 

[Dude]

I was just thinking about doing an Amarillo pale ale this morning. Call it "Amarillo Slim" or something. You ever done a beer with just those guys?

I haven't but I want to. Amarillo is one of those that 60 IBUs won't seem like all that much. Amarillos are real soft. I'll bet it would smell great though.

 

[Rhoobarb]

I was just thinking about doing an Amarillo pale ale this morning. Call it "Amarillo Slim" or something. You ever done a beer with just those guys?

I have and it turned out great. Called it Yellow Rose IPA. In fact, tonight I'm bottling a second batch I did.

 

[freyguy]

My second Amarillo Pale Ale is in the secondary now. The first was such a hit, I'm doing it again.

I used:
6lbs Extra Light Dry
1lb Crystal 10L
8oz Crystal 40L
1oz Amarillo 60min
1oz Amarillo 15min (spread out between 15min and 0min)
1oz Amarillo Dry Hop
WLP501 California V to give it a touch of a fruity undertone

It's a bit mild at 5% and 42.3 IBU's, but it's a crowd pleaser. Even some of those BMC drinkers like it. :cross:

I was thinking of trying the same thing with Sorachi. Still debating it.

 

[Grimsawyer]

This thread inspired me to start goofing with single hop beers to figure out exactly what certain hops taste like. My first was with millinenium.

7lbs light LME
1lb melanoidin
1lb carafoam
1lb crystal 60

.5oz 60min
.5oz 20min
.5oz 10min
1oz 2min
1oz dry hop

flying dog ale yeast.

hombrew store guy, Doug-the coolest guy in the known universe, had some millenium hops that someone brought in. He diddn't know the aa% so I just guessed based on the tastybrew.com recepie calculator. Today I am racking to secondary and tossing in the dry hops. Should be a nice 5% beer. The recepie I'm going to keep real similar. Just trying out the yeast. If I change anything about the recepie it would be back to 1098 brit ale from wyeast. I also like a little less of a bitter kick so I am going to try and keep the IBU's around 40-45(of IBU's from hops in the boil more than 30 min). The next hop I am going to goof with is simcoe or sorachi ace. Depends on if my LHBS has some sorachi ace or not. I love the simcoe/amarillo combo but I want to know what of each I like. :rockin:

 

[LouT]

Bump -- So now that a lot of these Sorachi beers are being consumed, what's the overall consensus? Too much grapefruit?
Anyone do a Cascade/Sorachi Ace combination?
I was thinking a blonde ale with medium hoppiness, but prominent grapefruit flavor/scent overtones might be nice, especially for a lighter spring/summer pounder. I just have no idea how to go about designing it.

 

[LouT]

Flash in the pan hop? Nobody is talking about this anymore, was the Sorachi Ace hop a let-down?

 

[Rhoobarb]

I still have mine in the freezer and have yet to use them. I have too many other beers in the pipeline! Most of what I've read attributed a lemony flavor profile. I bet if paired Sorachis with Cascades you'd get a real citrusy punch and possibly a nice summer ale!

I'm looking to do what I am calling an "Asian Ale". I have some Sorachi and Organic New Zealand Hallertau hops (7.2% AAU vs. ~4% AAU for German Hallertau). I've been thinking about doing some sort of pale ale or even a lager with them. Maybe something along the lines of a Coopers Vintage Ale or Victoria Bitter, but with more of a hop bite. A true hybrid.

 

[scottthorn]

I missed the earlier discussion as I only recently joined this forum. Someone in my local homebrew club won some Sorachi Ace hops in a competition. He brewed up an ale with these hops and brought it in for the club to sample.

Here's what I wrote elsewhere about the tasting:
Very unique flavor to these hops - a combination of banana, lemon, and coconut. Honestly, it most reminded me of paw-paw which grows natively around my house, but most folks have never tasted that. Sorachi Ace has a high AA%, I believe these were 16%. The brewer didn't add any early in the boil for fear of creating too much bitterness, but included a bunch at 15 minutes, 10, 5, flame-out, and dry hop. The beer had a HUGE aroma, but the sweetness of the malt shined through due to the lack of bittering. I'm really glad I had the experience of tasting a beer made with these hops and would gladly consume it again. However I'm not sure if I'd venture to make an entire batch myself... maybe when I have dozens more brewing sessions worth of experience.