I am such a chicken with hops

[oldjiver]

I am an old stick-in-the-mud, when it comes to hops. I use fuggles and goldings, and now and then northern brewer. Trouble is they make great BEER tasting beer. Not grapefruit juice, lemon juice or cats pee. I have tried Hallertauer twice and it was awful! (cats pee flavour). I tried saaz recently, having used it once before years ago when it was OK. This lot tasted like Hallertauer??
I would like something different after 40 years of the same old thing. I had a pint of Wherry bitter in a pub in Norfolk last week that was very nice and didnt taste of goldings or fuggles? but it was very nice.
When I hear of hops having a "blackcurrent" aroma I am not tempted to try them, so where do I go next?

 

[graysalchemy]

When I hear of hops having a "blackcurrent" aroma I am not tempted to try them, so where do I go next?

Full on American C hops with lots of citrus flavour and bitterness in a pale ale. :thumb:

It will either kill you or cure you of your continental hop phobia. :lol: :lol:

 

[oldjiver]

Having said that I just looked up the Wherry site and they describe their Wherry bitter as having a "grapefruit" aroma???? Never had a grapefruit for breakfast that smelt like that. Are we getting into wine snob descriptions i.e. "A petulant little wine with the aroma of petrol and fresh nappies" (Jilly Goolden)

 

[graysalchemy]

Cascade is quite Grapefruity and willamette is said to be a bit like fuggle but more fruity. In my book they work well together. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[calumscott]

Should I send him a bottle Alistair? :lol:

 

[dennisking]

Try some other English hops. Challenger, Northdown, Progress and First gold come to mind. Bramling cross is a decent hop but some say you can taste blackcurrent.

 

[graysalchemy]

Should I send him a bottle Alistair? :lol:

Get it packaged up and when he says no......................err send it to me

 

[oldjiver]

Problem I find is that commercial bottled bitters, being in the main filtered, dont have any aroma at all. So the only way to try different hops (apart from brewing then yourself) is to mix with other homebrewers. In my case as I am disabled and cant use public transport I cant travel and drink
I think I will give williamette a go.

 

[TheMumbler]

Nothing wrong with not liking US hops, each to their own. A lot of it depends on when you put them in the boil quantity too (as I'm sure you know). I think Bramling Cross is nice in dark beers as an early hop but I don't like the blackcurrant (sorry ) taste it gives late. You might try Willamette if you fancy a go with a US hop. In the end there is no point in making beer you don't want to drink!

Over the last few years the trend in hops and hopping seems to be for hops with lots of flavour added late in the boil or after the boil to maximise flavour and aroma without making the beer absurdly bitter. If this isn't what you want then I guess some of the US hops that cater to this kind of beer probably aren't going to be what you are after.

As dennisking says, why not try some other English hops. Challenger is commonly used in English ale, as is Northdown and both can be used to bitter and towards the end of the boil to good effect imo. You might get on with First Gold as well. I haven't used progress.

 

[oldjiver]

Should I send him a bottle Alistair? :lol:

That would be a good idea :thumb: Swap-a-Bottle. So people could try each others experiments. Then if you liked it you could do the recipe. Does the post take beer bottles? (exploding ones would take a lot of other parcels with them)

 

[Wezzel]

Try a few beers that list the hops on the bottle and if you like it use that as a base for your own brew.

For example, St Austell Tribute is a great pint that uses Williamette and has a very subtle blackcurrant flavour.

Copper Dragon Golden Pippin is just MO and cascade and has a beautiful slightly grapefruity taste that is not overwhelming.

If you spend £1.50 on a bottle in Sainsburys and don't like it then you haven't lost much. If I you love it, make some of your own :-)

 

[oldjiver]

Thanks for the advice guys :thumb:

 

[dennisking]

I really like Willamette, I find it more like an English hop than an American.

 

[calumscott]

Should I send him a bottle Alistair? :lol:

That would be a good idea :thumb: Swap-a-Bottle. So people could try each others experiments. Then if you liked it you could do the recipe. Does the post take beer bottles? (exploding ones would take a lot of other parcels with them)

The guys (kinleycat and morethanworts) are busy planning for the secret santa swap at the moment, a mega bottle swap in time for Christmas. Lots of fun, random beer, try new things...

My original comment was very tongue-in-cheek. I brewed some thing that was supposed to be quite like Brewdog's hardcore IPA. I actually think it's better but I'm biased... :) It used over 500g of hops for a 19l brew...

The trouble with a lot of commercial beer using interesting hops is, ironically, that they either don't use enough of them (so use a very traditional English ale style and recipe base just with oddball hops) or they use too many and don't balance the beer properly with more robust/interesting malt profiles. The first gives you the cat p**s effect, just enough of the flavours to put you off in the wrong style. The second just makes you think you're drinking hop tea...

Grab a couple of ingesting beers from the shop... Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Brewdog's 5am Saint and Punk IPA for starters...

And if you are up for a swap I've got a couple of interesting ones getting dry hopped tomorrow, PM me... :thumb:

 

[TheMumbler]

Plastic bottles are safer to post, if you are willing to put up with beer from a plastic bottle. The main issue is that it is pretty expensive to post bottles of beer due to the bulk and weight. It would be cheaper to buy something from the supermarket but that isn't necessarily the point.

I've sent 330ml plastic bottles (asda smart price water ones) in the past but I didn't tell the post office what was in the package. If I'm honest it didn't even occur to me to do so.

 

[oldjiver]

Should I send him a bottle Alistair? :lol:

That would be a good idea :thumb: Swap-a-Bottle. So people could try each others experiments. Then if you liked it you could do the recipe. Does the post take beer bottles? (exploding ones would take a lot of other parcels with them)

The guys (kinleycat and morethanworts) are busy planning for the secret santa swap at the moment, a mega bottle swap in time for Christmas. Lots of fun, random beer, try new things...

My original comment was very tongue-in-cheek. I brewed some thing that was supposed to be quite like Brewdog's hardcore IPA. I actually think it's better but I'm biased... :) It used over 500g of hops for a 19l brew...

The trouble with a lot of commercial beer using interesting hops is, ironically, that they either don't use enough of them (so use a very traditional English ale style and recipe base just with oddball hops) or they use too many and don't balance the beer properly with more robust/interesting malt profiles. The first gives you the cat p**s effect, just enough of the flavours to put you off in the wrong style. The second just makes you think you're drinking hop tea...

Grab a couple of ingesting beers from the shop... Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Brewdog's 5am Saint and Punk IPA for starters...

And if you are up for a swap I've got a couple of interesting ones getting dry hopped tomorrow, PM me... :thumb:

:thumb:

 

[Jeltz]

Challenger and First Gold are hops I like and would recommend, I'm finding that I prefer traditional British hops rather than American ones. First Gold makes a lovely single hopped bitter.

 

[anthonyUK]

M&S have a range of single hopped beers made by various UK breweries.
The Citra is from Oakham and is great as is the Halletau from Essex.
I wasn't so struck on the Cascade or Sovereign but worth a try as they may be what you like.

http://www.marksandspencer.com/Single-H ... B00CWE7A46

 

[calumscott]

The trouble with a lot of commercial beer using interesting hops is, ironically, that they either don't use enough of them (so use a very traditional English ale style and recipe base just with oddball hops)

Oddly enough, I thought those M&S ones were exactly typical of what I was trying to describe earlier...

...but then, I'm an unashamed hop head.

 

[TheMumbler]

(snip) I had a pint of Wherry bitter in a pub in Norfolk last week that was very nice and didnt taste of goldings or fuggles? but it was very nice.(snip)

I thought I was going to be able to be really useful here but...According to the various copies of the real ale almanac (1-5 ed) I have it is (or was up to 1997) fuggles and goldings. They don't say on the website. The 2nd ed lists it as Goldings and Stirrion (which I take to mean Goldings and Styrian Goldings) but all the others say Fuggles and Goldings. How much have you played with changing your yeast?

Bottled Conistion Bluebird is a Challenger only brew iirc so you might want to try that.