Too much Amarillo Dry-Hop: A Cautionary Tale

[trigin]

2014 or 1015 Amarillo? I think last year's batch was better...

2014, I bought it in October. I live in the UK so it's a long way from the west coast of the US to here...and sometimes homebrewers don't have the first choice of hops

 

[sweetcell]

What is your opinion? Does it make sense? The ideal should be to make another brew with this hops but on the other hand I don't want another batch of grassy beer.

your recipe seems really good, so that's not the source of the problem. what do the hops smell like? i wonder if they arrived in less than perfect condition, and as you mentioned us homebrewers don't get to pick the best of the harvest, so maybe you have some inferior amarillos on your hands. making another batch is likely the only way to confirm or deny this.

amarillo can be quite variable, in my limited experience. i had one pound that made an amazing SMASH, whereas the one i'm currently finishing up is quite nice but needs to be used with other fruity hops. i wasn't as impressed with it when used on its own.

 

[m00ps]

all ive ever got from amarillo in excessive amounts (in terms of weird flavors) is a metallic flavor. Doesnt exactly ruin the beer, but its definitely there. I can taste it in FFF gumball head and a few other commercial beer I know use a heavy hand with amarillo.

 

[tagz]

I got a pound of bad Amarillo a couple years back. Had a vegetal, earthy flavor. I was racking my brain trying to figure out what was wrong with those batches. Eventually I had an Amarillo heavy beer with the same flavor. My guess is you got a bad crop.

 

[trigin]

Thanks guys for your replies!

You confirm my suspect on the bad hop...maybe it was good when harvested but who knows how is it carried on the other side of the ocean and if the temperature is always correct.

When I bought it I put in the freezer vacuum sealed but if it was already compromised there was nothing to do