Taste what a hop taste.. how?
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AerationStation
Well-Known Member
I've heard of hop kits where they send you a small sample (like a gram or two) of a bunch of varieties. You're basically supposed to crush them up and smell them to get an idea of what flavors they contribute. It works pretty well for the beer drinking public who don't even know what a hop looks like, but as a brewer you probably won't get much out of them.
Unfortunately the best way to get a handle on the qualities of a given hop is to brew with them. Pick a style (I use Jamil's ordinary bitter but it's up to you) and single hop it. It sounds like a pain but once you brew with a hop and do some triangle tests between batches, you'll really get the nuances of the varieties
Unfortunately the best way to get a handle on the qualities of a given hop is to brew with them. Pick a style (I use Jamil's ordinary bitter but it's up to you) and single hop it. It sounds like a pain but once you brew with a hop and do some triangle tests between batches, you'll really get the nuances of the varieties
Making a 'hop tea' will give you an idea of what certain properties a hop will give you. A gram or 2 steeped in hot water will give you the basic aroma and flavor.
A friend took a whole bunch of Miller Lite, and with a bunch of hops added either hop teas or dry hops. I haven't tried it, but according to him it worked really really well.
Brew a basic batch of beer (dry extract - light) with minimal bittering hops (I did 0.1oz for 1 gallon batch), then dry hop each bottle with a small amount of hops like maybe 0.05oz per bottle. You will get the hop notes of each varietal. If you do a full five gallons, you can test 54 hops....
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Take detailed notes and include the beers you think each would be good for.
Not bad idea there. Now if a brew shop could sell a mega hops sampler packs I'll be doing just that!
I think this is what my club used for a presentation on hop varieties.
http://shop.tasteyourbeer.com/Hop-Sampler-Pack-Refill-Kit-TYBTK-03.htm
I don't know if they'd be fresh enough to actually use in beer though. I'd be inclined to say no.
TungstenBeer
Well-Known Member
Dry hopping like this works really well. Open, drop in ~1 gram of pellets (a few of them) and recap. Throw them in a corner for a few days, then the fridge... the hops will settle out in what is basically a "cold crash", then decant your beer off and sample all of them.
If your LHBS has bulk pellet hops, you can get small amounts. Otherwise buy the smallest package you can and then you have your own bank of hops.
I did five hops for my first go and used them all in subsequent brews.
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