Zythos American Bitter Suggestions

[duckmanco]

Just got a pound of Zythos pellets in, and I'll have some slurry of wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire also. I've pretty much got the hop bill sorted out.

Bitter with it at 20 min for 25-30 ibu
Hop stand with 1 oz zythos for 20ish ibu

Dry hop .5 oz

Thing is, I need a malt bill. Final abv should be no higher than 4.0 and I like my beers dry, 1.010.1.012. So given the hop schedule, yeast choice, recommend an awesome malt bill and mash temp to go with it. I batch sparge, but will likely no sparge a malt bill this small.

I've got Bobs Pride of Raubsville in the fermenter now, and he advocates an 80% pale ale 10% medium crystal 10% Demerara sugar for his British style beers. I think this could work also for this brew, but wouldn't mind trying something different.

 

[bierhaus15]

I have a zythos - session amber ale on tap now and i was really surprised by the flavor of these hops. I was expecting big American hop flavor, but they had a mellow lemon and dried orange peel thing going on. Sorta herbal too.... little underwhelming to be honest. Would be great in a hoppy saison.

As for a recipe, I could see zythos doing well in a summer bitter/golden ale, where you want a full flavored/clean malt profile with lots of hop flavor/aroma. For this, I would recommend going with golden promise malt and around 3% british dark crystal (like 120/150L). Or if you wanted something darker, maris otter with around 7% medium crystal and 3% dark crystal makes a very nice beer. I generally try to avoid the 80-10-10 route, since it is both non traditional and the sugar additions can dry the beer out too much. A more traditional method would be to use a british invert syrup, which you can easily make from demerara sugar and gives a better flavor than the non-inverted stuff. One of my favorite bitter recipes is 90% MO with 3% dark crystal and 7% invert syrup. Lots of different ways you could take this beer.

 

[ArcaneXor]

I am not a fan of Zythos at all - starts *very* orange-like (one-dimensional), then fades quickly to grassy/herbal muddiness. May do better if combined with Citra, Cascade, Chinook or another, "brighter" citrus hop.

 

[duckmanco]

Yikes, this isn't sounding great for the 1lb in my freezer. It was a chance birthday request anyway, so I'll have to see for myself. Appreciate the comments and suggestions for the malt bill. I'm thinking a golden ale style might suit this hop a little better.

 

[duckmanco]

All input appreciated, and I think I'll brew Kris England's Crouch Vale recipe using Zythos as the lone 15 minute addition. My local even carries the UK Lager Malt, doesn't carry Golden Promise, but does carry UK Lager malt.... Anyway, can't wait to turn the 1469 loose on this beer next week.

 

[eastoak]

there was lots of excitement about zythos when i t first came out but the general consensus seems to be - "meh". i made a 10 gallon, all zythos beer and hated it so i gave the entire batch away to some parents at my daughter's pre school and they all loved it, raved about it. go figure.

 

[duckmanco]

Update----

I decided to go with a light Summer Bitter/Golden Ale style as mentioned above, I went with Kris England's Crouch Vale clone which was super simple

7 lbs of UK Lager Malt

2.75 oz Zythos @ 15 min

Wyeast 1469 slurry

Poured it today, and although summer is winding down, I wish I'd brewed this months ago to have on tap when it was extremely hot here in VA, because this is one super light bodied drinkable ale, and the Zythos seems to give a sort of sprite like lemon lime character to the beer, but in a good way- supremely drinkable refreshing beer. I'll see how it develops with more time in the keg, and although that much zythos at 15 min as the only hop addition scared me a little, it's not overwhelming, which probably confirms the opinions above that Zythos isn't much of an a**kicking replacement for the super citrus hops that are scarce these days.

Still though, awesome recipe that I could see working with any hop.