Jester Hops

[clibit]

I had a first taste of these hops last night in a Single hop beer by the Rooster brewery simply called Jester. These hops are described by the industry thus.... "Jester® has an intense, punchy aroma of new world proportions, with flavour notes of Grapefruit and tropical fruits."

Now I think this is an exaggeration to say the least. The beer I had did not have an intense punchy aroma of New World proportions.

However, this is neither an attack on the British hop growers or even on Jester hops. The beer was lovely. Rooster make really nice beers and this was excellent. I had a second pint, and I rarely have two the same when there is a choice. On a school night anyway. I really wanted another.

https://untappd.com/b/rooster-s-jester/597000/photos

Let's just describe things accurately. It's a very tasty hop and I would happily brew with it, but it is much more like an English hop than a New World hop, in my opinion. And if we can increase the range of tasty English hops that will suit me just fine, let the countries with warmer climates knock out the big hops, and let's focus on what our conditions produce best, which is lovely floral/spicy hops that make a welcome change from the Citras and the Galaxies, and produce beautiful beers when paired with our top quality British malts and yeasts. You can't grow mangos and pineapples in Northumberland, can you? It's not going to happen, so stop pretending and trying to convince people, and believe in the nature of English hops. Sales to the USA have doubled in the last 2 or 3 years. Cos they're different.

I'll get some Jester hops at some point, and I am keen to try Archer and Flyer hops, two new English varieties which were both recommended on another forum by an American brewer. Look out too for Minstrel, Olicana, Epic and Endeavour hops, more new English varieties, and I believe there are more to follow. There are 27 English varieties currently available to brewers, I've only brewed with 11 of them so far:

http://www.britishhops.org.uk/british-hop-varieties/

 

[brumbrew]

The 27 hop bucket list?

 

[Wicks]

I had a bottle of the Jester IPA from M&S (Adnams brew it) at the weekend. I was not too keen on the flavour, sort of dry grassy, definitely different to my palate, like no other beer I've tasted.

 

[dan125]

I'm enjoying a best bitter I made using only endeavour hops at 60mins, 10mins & dry hopping- 100g in total in a 23 l batch, and same thing here. They are nice but I'm not getting the fruitiness talked about in the description. They have a very mild flavour/aroma, tasty, but mild. Although I think the Nottingham yeast may have stripped a bit of the flavour out.

 

[Notlaw]

Someone should do a British version on the DFH 90 minute IPA with all of the British varieties in it. :lol:

In all seriousness, this could be a good hop for me actually; a kind of halfway house between English classics and New World bangers.

 

[geetee]

In my experience some of the English hops have nice flavour but are a much more laid back than American hops. I found this with the fruity Slovenian hops they had a bit more fruit than English but still a bit more subtle than American versions.

Is everything from US big, bold and up front? ( No need to answer)

 

[clibit]

In my experience some of the English hops have nice flavour but are a much more laid back than American hops. I found this with the fruity Slovenian hops they had a bit more fruit than English but still a bit more subtle than American versions.

Is everything from US big, bold and up front? ( No need to answer)

I'll answer anyway - it's no, on the hop front.

 

[duncans]

I had a bottle of the Jester IPA from M&S (Adnams brew it) at the weekend. I was not too keen on the flavour, sort of dry grassy, definitely different to my palate, like no other beer I've tasted.

I remember having one of these and wasn't overly impressed with the hop. There was a boudica hopped one as well. Probably both worth revisiting.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I had a first taste of these hops last night in a Single hop beer by the Rooster brewery simply called Jester. These hops are described by the industry thus.... "Jester® has an intense, punchy aroma of new world proportions, with flavour notes of Grapefruit and tropical fruits."

Now I think this is an exaggeration to say the least. The beer I had did not have an intense punchy aroma of New World proportions.

However, this is neither an attack on the British hop growers or even on Jester hops. The beer was lovely. Rooster make really nice beers and this was excellent. I had a second pint, and I rarely have two the same when there is a choice. On a school night anyway. I really wanted another.

https://untappd.com/b/rooster-s-jester/597000/photos

Let's just describe things accurately. It's a very tasty hop and I would happily brew with it, but it is much more like an English hop than a New World hop, in my opinion. And if we can increase the range of tasty English hops that will suit me just fine, let the countries with warmer climates knock out the big hops, and let's focus on what our conditions produce best, which is lovely floral/spicy hops that make a welcome change from the Citras and the Galaxies, and produce beautiful beers when paired with our top quality British malts and yeasts. You can't grow mangos and pineapples in Northumberland, can you? It's not going to happen, so stop pretending and trying to convince people, and believe in the nature of English hops. Sales to the USA have doubled in the last 2 or 3 years. Cos they're different.

I'll get some Jester hops at some point, and I am keen to try Archer and Flyer hops, two new English varieties which were both recommended on another forum by an American brewer. Look out too for Minstrel, Olicana, Epic and Endeavour hops, more new English varieties, and I believe there are more to follow. There are 27 English varieties currently available to brewers, I've only brewed with 11 of them so far:

http://www.britishhops.org.uk/british-hop-varieties/

I'm kinda stuck in a love affair with new world hops, I figure if I want EKG I can just buy something from Shepard neame :-?

great post tho' lord vader you've reminded me I should really keep a track of what i've used in one place. they are in my recipe notes but they are 20 pages long now!

so far i've used...

galaxy - citra - amarillo - galaxy - tettnang - citra - tettnang - admiral - apollo - chinook - admiral - amarillo - palisade - galaxy - tettnang - simcoe - moteka - amarillo - simcoe - mandarina baveria - galaxy - amarillo.

so my hop leaderboard reads: - no of brews

galaxy 4
amarillo 4
tettnang 3
simcoe 2
admiral 2
citra 2

 

[clibit]

I'm kinda stuck in a love affair with new world hops, I figure if I want EKG I can just buy something from Shepard neame :-?

great post tho' lord vader you've reminded me I should really keep a track of what i've used in one place. they are in my recipe notes but they are 20 pages long now!

so far i've used...

galaxy - citra - amarillo - galaxy - tettnang - citra - tettnang - admiral - apollo - chinook - admiral - amarillo - palisade - galaxy - tettnang - simcoe - moteka - amarillo - simcoe - mandarina baveria - galaxy - amarillo.

How was the palisade, do you remember?

"I figure if I want EKG I can just buy something from Shepard neame."

If you want Amarillo and Cascade you can buy Punk and all sorts of UK brewed American hop beers. Cost a bit more I guess, but so do the hops. I like New World hops and UK hops. I'm drinking a brew I made with Bramling Cross, it's great. The Brit Hop recipe makes a lovely beer. A good blend of English malts, hops and yeast is a cool thing. Ramp up the bitterness to get a bigger hit.

And I like to mix English and American hops in a brew. Goose Island IPA gave me the idea.

 

[markcc]

I tried to get some Jester at the end of last year, but the crop was such that I don't think even the commercial contracts got fulfilled in full, so there wasn't any for home brewers.

I've brewed with Endeavour which I thought was a bit underwhelming.

Better was GP75, an experimental line I got from Stocks Farm. Nice and fruity.

 

[Halfacrem]

I remember having one of these and wasn't overly impressed with the hop. There was a boudica hopped one as well. Probably both worth revisiting.

I had a bottle of the Jester IPA from M&S (Adnams brew it) at the weekend. I was not too keen on the flavour, sort of dry grassy, definitely different to my palate, like no other beer I've tasted.

Add me to the list! I had the M&S Jester last night. This was not a pleasant experience for me at all. Not sure if it was the hop or the malt, but I'm not going back for seconds to find out.

 

[jceg316]

I really like some British hops, and am always buying packs of hops I've never heard before, especially if they are British grown. I've used Boadicea before and goes really well in english/Belgian style blondes. I have a pack of jeater on the way and it's been described as lychee and berry flavours.

It would be good to get a British hop which has "new world" flavours to it. These are the flavours saught after by home and craft brewers and if we can make them domestically that would be much better for the environment and make buying the hops cheaper.

I'm growing a cascade, Chinook, amongst other varieties but will be interesting to see how they come out, compared to their American grown counterparts.

 

[jceg316]

Also I'd like to add about those M&S beers, I've had a few of them including some of the single hop variety and they are very inoffensive. Pleasant, but nothing ground breaking, and they don't really show off the hops to their fullest either.

 

[HisDudeness]

on the whole i would agree but I did enjoy the 9 English Hop beer and I liked the ones st austell have done for them too

 

[Irishwizard]

Just popped my first bottle of Jester smash, and the results are.... in
Very young, but I had to try it
well, its bloody lovely
fruity with a touch of earthiness
so it a bit like a very fruity EKG i guess
Another 2 weeks conditioning i recon thats a winner
It seems to me, a very underrated hop thats apparently in short supply.
Would I do it again?? oh yes, certainly