Who's NOT making IPAs and what are you brewing?

[Dave Sarber]

Got a quad conditioning, a tripel in final stage of fermenting, and brewed a wee heavy this afternoon.
Maybe tomorrow, another batch of tripel.

 

[grampamark]

I’ve brewed 22 times this year. One was an IPA, though most hopheads would probably consider that one a Pale Ale at around 50 IBU.

I’m going to try to get one more brew in this year. I was thinking it would be a Dunkelweizen but I came across a recipe the other day for a Cold Smoke style Scotch Ale. I think that might be the one.

 

[shoreman]

Right now I’ve got a Scottish Ale on tap (basically a mild), Belgian Blonde just went in bottles. Transferring a Holiday Best Bitter soon to go on my beer engine for Xmas.

I did pick up a single neipa the other day by Zero gravity with all Sabro hops to see what that hop was all about and it was just a one dimensional beer. I don’t get why that “trend” is still hanging on - Sabro seemed very similar to “C” hops

 

[shoreman]

Just don’t know how you could get bored of brewing hoppy beer when the selection of hops and hop products is so diverse.

Personally I don’t really feel like there is that much diversity in these new world hops. They are mostly all fruity citrus & tropical flavors. It’s degrees of fruitiness when it comes down to it. They all live in the same flavor arena.

For instance, above I mentioned Sabro Hops. Supposedly “the latest and greatest hop”. The flavor difference from that hop and Centennial or Columbus is so minute to me, I wouldn’t bother.

 

[Queequeg]

Currently got a brown in a fermenter and a porter in the pipeline. I haven't brewed an IPA since march.

 

[Soulshine2]

I'm brewing an American Wheat soon based off of Oberon and have an American-Belgian Pale Ale on deck. Still working through a Czech Pale Lager that I brewed over the winter.

What are you brewing, that's not an IPA?

Dec 12th I brewed an Oatmeal Chocolate Milk Stout.

 

[couchsending]

Personally I don’t really feel like there is that much diversity in these new world hops. They are mostly all fruity citrus & tropical flavors. It’s degrees of fruitiness when it comes down to it. They all live in the same flavor arena.

For instance, above I mentioned Sabro Hops. Supposedly “the latest and greatest hop”. The flavor difference from that hop and Centennial or Columbus is so minute to me, I wouldn’t bother.

Really?? They are literally nothing alike. Not in aroma, flavor, anything at all...

That is like saying apples taste and smell like oranges

 

[shoreman]

Really?? They are literally nothing alike. Not in aroma, flavor, anything at all...

That is like saying apples taste and smell like oranges

Sabro? All I got was grapefruit peel and some orange which is essentially what I get from Centennial, Cascade, C-hops etc. There's not much there that is distinctive and that's my point - I could see if you were getting Chocolate Mint from a hop vs Tropical/Some form of citrus, that would be distinctive.

Have you used that hop? What's other flavors are you getting? Apple? I didn't get any apple.

Also had my wife try this beer who likes west coast IPAs - she got orange juice which pretty much every average craft beer drinker gets from "juicy or ne ipas".

 

[couchsending]

I’ve used Sabro a bunch since before it was Sabro. I wonder if you were served a different beer. Opening a bag of it smells nothing like any hop, closest would be Galaxy... maybe. It is the strongest hop available on the market today. I definitely would not use the words grapefruit or orange to describe anything I’ve got from Sabro. It has this odd blend of exotic tropical fruit combined with Coconut. That coconut turns into cedar at really high levels. Coconut is the strongest descriptor a lot of people get out of Sabro.

The hops with neomexicanus heritage taste and smell nothing like traditional American hops with European heritage IMHO. Similar to how Australian hops taste/smell nothing like American hops and american grown noble varieties taste and smell very dissimilar to the same varieties grown in europe.

 

[grampamark]

I’ve never used Sabro, but this discussion piqued my curiosity, so off to the Google I went.

Every description of the hop that I found seemed to include all, or part, of this paragraph:

“ The Hop Breeding Company (HBC), a joint venture between John I. Haas, Inc. and Select Botanicals Group LLC, is excited to announce the release of the new proprietary hop Sabro™ brand HBC 438. Sabro is an intensely unique hop, notable for its complexity of fruity and citrus flavors, including distinct tangerine, coconut, tropical fruit, and stone fruit flavors, with hints of cedar, mint, and cream.”

That sounds like part of a press release, but everyone used the same flavor descriptors in every article, review, or comment I read. Given that people taste what they taste, and that the hop is described as “complex”, I’m sure there are folks out there to whom any one of those flavors is going to stand out more than the others. Which pretty much sums up every discussion related to beer tasting that I’ve ever read on this board.

 

[bwible]

Pretty much sick of the IPA craze too. I think it had its day but I don’t need beers with acid levels that take the enamel off my teeth and give me heartburn anymore. IPA today also isn’t what IPA was 10 or 15 years ago. All cloudy murky beers.

I brew less overall than I used to. I’m doing 3 gallon batches. I recently brewed a blonde ale, a best bitter and an American style stout which I will keg all of in the next couple days to hopefully have ready for Christmas or a Christmas party.

Next up I want to do a smoked beer. I have some smoked malt that I’ve had for a long time so the smoky character will be somewhat diminished. I think I might use 75% smoked malt and do it with American Ale yeast. It won’t be a rauchbier but it will be a smoked ale.

 

[Ninoid]

Personally I don’t really feel like there is that much diversity in these new world hops. They are mostly all fruity citrus & tropical flavors. It’s degrees of fruitiness when it comes down to it. They all live in the same flavor arena.

For instance, above I mentioned Sabro Hops. Supposedly “the latest and greatest hop”. The flavor difference from that hop and Centennial or Columbus is so minute to me, I wouldn’t bother.

I use Columbus in almost all my brew. It is very good for bitterness and aroma.

 

[shoreman]

Sabro was really just an example, my point is that all of these hops live in the same flavor zone and that is fruity (generally tropical in nature) & some sort of citrus.

Sabro, Comet, Citra, Mosaic, Cashmere, Azacca, etc

There's not enough differentiators in hops for me to agree with the statement you made

"Just don’t know how you could get bored of brewing hoppy beer when the selection of hops and hop products is so diverse."

It's boring to me, I'd rather focus on Yeast & Malt as there is such a large palette of flavors to play with, but that's my opinion and everyone brews for different reasons. I'm just really burnt out on hoppy beers and the flood of them on the craft scene...that's why I started this post.

I'm brewing beers that I brewed back in the early 2000's b/c they aren't available anymore like milds, bitters, porters, czech pils, kolsch, brown ales, heck I can't even find a decent craft Belgian-Style beer from any of these new craft breweries. Still have Allagash which is fairly local.

 

[Dave Sarber]

I’ve never used Sabro, but this discussion piqued my curiosity, so off to the Google I went.

Every description of the hop that I found seemed to include all, or part, of this paragraph:

“ The Hop Breeding Company (HBC), a joint venture between John I. Haas, Inc. and Select Botanicals Group LLC, is excited to announce the release of the new proprietary hop Sabro™ brand HBC 438. Sabro is an intensely unique hop, notable for its complexity of fruity and citrus flavors, including distinct tangerine, coconut, tropical fruit, and stone fruit flavors, with hints of cedar, mint, and cream.”

That sounds like part of a press release, but everyone used the same flavor descriptors in every article, review, or comment I read. Given that people taste what they taste, and that the hop is described as “complex”, I’m sure there are folks out there to whom any one of those flavors is going to stand out more than the others. Which pretty much sums up every discussion related to beer tasting that I’ve ever read on this board.

I disagree. Many people taste what they've heard others taste.

 

[grampamark]

I disagree. Many people taste what they've heard others taste.

Yes, that’s true for some folks. It depends, I suppose, on if they’re trying to be objective about how something tastes, or if they want to be like the cool kids.

 

[dwhite60]

I read something somewhere recently about people building up hop sensitivities, like allergy, from all the super hopped beers they are drinking. The IPA phase may be coming to an end.

I feel the same on the new hops. I think the market is at saturation.

Except for the order the adjectives are in it is mostly the same words describing all the new hops.

I use a lot of Centennial. With the latest British beer thing I am on I have a bunch of EKG and some Willamette. I have an ounce of Amarillo I will probably do a SMASH with. These four are enough variety for me and really I can do without the Amarillo.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Dave Sarber]

Ditto. I mostly use European noble hops, but I do also use Simcoe and Amarillo. I like Amarillo!

 

[shoreman]

I'm also an Amarillo fan, I make a blonde ale with pils malt, touch of wheat and all Amarillo - Conan yeast. Based around a beer that the Alchemist does called Broken Spoke, but I clock it in at like 4% abv. Easy drinker.

Lately I've been buying alot of English hops and noble hops, a little goes a long way. I've been brewing UK styles since I just set up a proper beer engine. I like Admiral, great bittering hop then you can just add a touch of EKG at flameout. Marris Otter malt has been an excellent addition as a base malt though, what a difference in low ABV beers.

 

[Johst12]

I only made 1 IPA this year and it was a SMASH with vienna and sabro. Sabro really is one of a kind. Coconut totally stood out to me, but some people wouldn't taste it. I couldn't believe it, cause it was so obvious to me.

 

[jonny24]

I never have good luck with my IPA's. I've tried 3 or 4 times and never really happy with them. Then again, I never bothered with much whirlpool/hopstand stuff, mostly did hops throughout the boil and dry hopping. I'm more of a fan of "older style" IPA's before the juice craze. I just buy one when I want one.

Oddly enough, I make all kinds of pale ales and always love those. English style, American style, simple, complex etc. Just the right balance of flavours for me, and dead easy.

My last few brews have been an Oatmeal Stout, a dark amber/red ale or may be bitter (still fermenting, not sure exactly what is is lol), two SMASH ales with MO and Cascade/Chinook, and another iteration of my pilsner recipe - trying Mangrove Jack Cal Lager, after finally giving up on S23.