Dry Hopping vertical tasting

13 hopped beer

Picking 13 varietals of hops we dry hopped them for a week in Corona. 4 to 5 pellets were placed in a Corona at 65F for 5 days and shaken daily then chilled to 41F for the final two days prior to tasting. I choose Corona based on its neutral flavour. I would love to report to you that I could rate the fruitiness, herbalness etc in an accurate table but the fact of the matter is that hops are complex in how they present there aromas and flavours. If two hops are piney, the type of pineyness and the many other flavours could all be different. That being said there are some interesting lessons I learned. Here are my impressions of the hops.

1. Zythos - Bitter medicine, not much happening
2. Citra- Abundance of lemons and some fruitiness
3. Falcon Flight - Pine, vanilla with lots of fruit
4. Sothern Cross (NZ) - Lemon, reminiscent of a German Pils 
5. Saaz (CZ) - Smells like Pilsner Urquel
6. Pacifica (NZ) - Dry crisp taste, very mellow
7. Motueka - Lemon Citris with herbal overtones.
8. Warrior - Hoppy smooth complex
9. Centennial  - Sweet fruit with herbal finish, grapefruit
10. *Chinook - BAM! Lots of aroma, Lime 
11. *Simcoe - Pine clean flavour
12. Amarillo - Puckering hoppiness
13. *Columbus - Pine with lots of fruit.

* - Top Aroma hops

Hop flavours are complex. To break down the flavours into fruitiness  herbalness etc is watering down what the hops have to offer. My ah-ha moment is that these hops have pairings that start to make sense. For example. I think the fruitiness of a Columbus and the Lemon of Citra may go well together. Falcon Flight may pair with Chinook to give a more balanced flavour.

Based on this experiment I'm now dry hopping a 10 gallon IPA with 2 oz of Citra (Fruit, Lemon), Simcoe (Pine) and Columbus (Pine and Fruit). I'm hopping that the Pine and Fruit balance nicely. More on this later in my next post.

I plan to do this again and will change three things. Add more hops (10 pellets per bottle) to get more of what the hops have to offer, secondly focus on a style of hops for a certain beer category and, not use beer but vodka cut with water to make it 5% ABV. 

The chart below is nice but note the exceptions. Like I said hops are complex.

Growing Hops 2013

2012 Hops

Just planted 5 new rhizomes in my yard. Centennial x2, Chinook x 2 and Cascade. I dug a hole that was about 12 inches deep and filled with near equal parts of sand, potting soil and organic fertilizer. After one week the rhizomes have grown up through the soil (2 inches) and sprouted leaves. This rounds out my hop crop to the list below. Stars indicate amount of crop produced in 2012. Note my Sterling hop died in 2011 after one year.

Chinook Rhizome

1. Cascade x 2 (*****)
2. Zeus x 3 (****)
3. Magnum x 2 (*)
4. Chinook x 2  (new for 2013)
5. Centennial x 2 (new for 2013)
6. Willamette x 1 (***)

Notice the white dots on the rhizome. These I'm told by Thyme Garden are the rhizomes reaction to being too moister  These dots will disappear  when they are planted and start to grow in the ground. From the first signs of growth this week there seems to be nothing wrong with the rhizomes.