Which hop was the grapefruit culprit?

[mcleanmj]

I recently experimented with making a NEIPA using cheap hop varieties. I used varieties that are often used in NEIPAs and are referred to as fruity or tropical. I did a whirlpool with 1 oz each of mosaic, centennial, falconers flight (I believe 7 C's variety), and cascade. I dry hopped on day 4 and day 7 with 1 oz falconers flight and 0.5 oz each of the others.

The beer came out with an assertive grapefruit flavor. It was overall pretty good and definitely well received but to me it was too much like bitter grapefruit rind. I'm wondering which hop was the culprit. Ive never had an issue with mosaic. I see centennial in tons of NEIPA recipes, so I'm guessing it was the cascade and partly the falconers flight.

Anyway, cheap NEIPA was a failed experiment, although still an enjoyable beer.

PS I used White Labs Coastal Haze yeast. For anyone curious about this yeast its amazing. Ive used it in multiple NEIPAs, it smells like candied pineapple and mango and it ferments like a beast.

Cheers

 

[Qhrumphf]

Really any of those BUT the Mosaic could be responsible.

Hop blends like Falconers should probably stand on their own. They're already a mix of hops designed to have a complex character. Mixing with others is just asking for a muddled character.

Centennial seems a particularly odd hop for NEIPA to me.

 

[day_trippr]

Yeah, I don't think Centennial carries enough throw-weight wrt "juicy character" compared to more modern, purposeful strains.

I've never used blends like "Falconer's Flight" (just the name makes my teeth float) so I have no idea wth goes in them from batch to batch (and I would not assume any consistency there). It originated about a decade ago when the best aromatics were being scooped up by the rapidly growing craft brewing ops leaving not-a-lot for us mere mortals. But I'm pretty sure to this day the make-up of any batch of FF has never been divulged. And I'm waaay too obsessive to deal with unknowns like that.

If a brew turns out good I'd like to know why and hope it can be repeated. Signing up for blends make that a dicey proposition.

Cheers!

 

[Jag75]

I've never used falconer flight . Cascade produces grapefruit notes. Centennial is also known as " super cascade" due to its citrus character.

 

[bobeer]

I've never used falconer flight . Cascade produces grapefruit notes. Centennial is also known as " super cascade" due to its citrus character.

I agree with Jag... I got 2 lbs of centennial last year on sale so I used A LOT of it. Definitely has an overpowering orange/citrus/dank vibe when used in large amounts; more so than cascade. I get more grapefruit and slight pine from cascade. Both of them though I wouldn't use in a NEIPA.

 

[couchsending]

Falconers flight 7Cs is

Citra
Columbus
Crystal
Chinook
Cascade
Centennial
Cluster

Every one of those hops except maybe Cluster has a grapefruit component to it. Then you added more Cascade and Centennial. So everything but Mosaic.

 

[Dland]

A friend gave me some beer from the brewery he worked that featuring Mosaic, beer was even called Mosaic, it was pretty good, but a total grapefruit bomb. I have tasted grapefruit in cascade in beers I have made.

 

[Immocles]

I'd vote for the falconers flight being the main contributor. I use that in a few basic ales and it always comes across very grapefruity but as stated, centennial and cascade can also be adding to it. I like FF a lot, actually, especially as a dry hop.

 

[OldDogBrewing]

My Cascade is really but really, grapefruit forward but it's from a local eco farm in my country so it may be pretty different from any other Cascade