Single Hop Experiment, Round 2

With the first round of the Single Hop Brewing Experiment going so well, the Rhode Island Fermentation Technicians (RIFT) decided to do a second round. As before, we would all brew the same Pale Ale that we used in the first round, but each of us would use a different hop. These would be single hop brews; one hop varietal would be used for bittering, flavor, aroma, and dry hopping. The goal was to allow the club to taste the differences between individual hops and learn some things about how they perform at the different stages of the boil or fermentation.

The volume of hops used for bittering would vary for each brewer, so that they each would end up with the same number of International Bittering Units (IBUs). There would be fixed amounts of hop used at the flavor (.5 ounces per 5 gallons), aroma (.5 ounces) and dry hopping (1 ounce).

Here's the run down on which hops were used in Round 2, with the typical alpha acid range for the hop and the brewer:

Hop Variety	Alpha Acid	Brewer
Sterling	5-6%	Jeff W.
Mt. Rainier	6-7%	Jeff W.
Premient	7-10%	Tom A.
Centennial	9.5-11.5%	Bil
Sorachi Ace	11.4%	Tom A.
Chinook	12-14%	Bil
Simcoe	12-14%	Tom H.
CTZ	14-16%	John

It should be noted that the first round had a number of classic American hops, a large number of which were fairly low in alpha acids. This round included some lesser known hops and alpha acids were generally higher than the last round. As before, we decided to taste these in ascending order of alpha acid strength, to reduce any risk of blowing out our taste buds. Here are the tasting notes from the June 2010 RIFT meeting.

Sterling

Very clean, with spice and clove in the nose. It contributed to a "malty nose". This was thought to be good in Belgians and Wits.

Mt. Rainier

Notes of clove, anise, licorice, and a minty flavor.

Premient

Strong complex nose. Metallic, grassiness, lemon citrus, grapefruit. Would be good in a copper ale.

Centennial

This is a brew from the first round, brought back for comparison. Citrus, lemon, dry grapefruit, smooth, piney.

Sorachi Ace

Phenolic, cat urine, pine sol. Raw hop, green hop. Smooth bitterness. This was a bit of a surprise, as we did not detect any of the "lemon" character that this hop is supposed to have. It is also a surprise after tasting Brooklyn's Brewery's Saison that features this hop and has a completely different character. This is a hop that needs to be carefully integrated into a brew.

Chinook

Papaya, fruit. Strong nose of grapefruit. Bready, yeasty. Classic American "Big C" hop for bittering.

Simcoe

Piney, papaya. Tangy, fruity, smoother than Summit. Similar to Roxy Rolles.

CTZ

The Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus offspring. Ok, John cheated a little bit here, deviating from the base recipe to make a darker, maltier, better integrated Pale Ale. That being said...

Flavors: Candy cigarettes, neutral, clean, malty, earthy. Vert tasty.

Stuff we learned:

Don't assign Citra to someone who isn't going to show up! ;-)

Single Hop Experiment

So a while back, the Rhode Island Fermentation Technicians (RIFT) decided to do a brewing experiment. We would all brew the same Pale Ale, but each of us would use a different hop. These would be single hop brews; one hop varietal would be used for bittering, flavor, aroma, and dry hopping. The goal was to allow the club to taste the differences between individual hops and learn some things about how they perform at the different stages of the boil or fermentation.

The volume of hops used for bittering would vary for each brewer, so that they each would end up with the same number of International Bittering Units (IBUs). There would be fixed amounts of hop used at the flavor (.5 ounces per 5 gallons), aroma (.5 ounces) and dry hopping (1 ounce).

Here's the run down on which hops were used, the typical alpha acid range for the hop and the brewer:

Hop Variety	Alpha Acid	Brewer
Willamette	4%	Chris B.
US Goldings	4-5%	Jeff H. (aka "Good Jeff")
Northern Brewer	7-10%	Jeff W. (aka "Evil Jeff")
Cascade	4.5-7%	Andy
Amarillo	8-11%	Brendan
Centennial	9.5-11.5%	Bil
Summit	16%	Tom H. (aka "Evil Tom")

We decided to taste these in ascending order of alpha acid strength, to reduce any risk of blowing out our taste buds. Here are the tasting notes along with a one word summary for each brew:

Willamette - "Inoffensive"

Bitterness: Not discernable

Flavor: Like flowers

Aroma: No real aroma

Overall: Session beer

US Goldings - "Tea- Like"

Bitterness: Not discernable

Flavor: Tea-like flavors

Aroma: Tea and floral aromas

Overall: Another good session beer

Northern Brewer - "Evil"

(What can I say Jeff? You weren't here and made us work!)

Bitterness: Some bitterness, the most so far.

Flavor: Crisp

Aroma: Minty

Overall: Tastes like an Anchor Steam

Cascade - "American"

Bitterness: The bitterness pops up in the finish

Flavor: Oranges, some Ivory soap in the finish

Aroma: Caramel (this ale was darker than the others), Cascade

Overall: Well integrated, balanced, what you think an American Ale should taste like

Amarillo - "Citrusy"

Bitterness: Clean bitter finish

Flavor: Grapefruit, some Orange, Tropical Fruits, Mangoes

Aroma: Subtle

Overall: First 'hop forward' beer of the bunch, a little more carbonated, nice

Centennial - "Coppery"

Bitterness: Smooth

Flavor: Subtle evergreen, earthy, piney,

Aroma: Malty, subtle

Overall: Nicely integrated, copper ale type notes

Summit - "Wow"

Bitterness: Pronounced bitterness

Flavor: Strong Piney Flavor

Aroma: Big Piney nose,

Overall: Bordering on IPA, hop forward taste with a big hoppy finish.

Stuff we learned:

Well...there's a reason that we don't tend to use lower alpha acid hops for bittering. Even at the same IBU levels, we weren't picking up on bitterness in the hops under 5% alpha. Of course, this might be exactly what you are after with some styles.

We will probably need to do some research on the other elements inside of a hop to determine why some have more prominent aromas than others.

Overall, we all found this a great way to understand the tastes and aromas that the individual hops contribute to a beer.

Big Brew

Saturday was the American Homebrew Association's 'Big Brew' day. My local brewclub, RIFT (Rhode Island Fermentation Technicians) gathered at John C's house in Exeter for a monster brew.

John has gone over the top with his brew equipment; he normally makes fifteen gallon batches, for this event he broke in a new 55 gallon mash tun and we made 50 gallons of a British Dark Mild Ale.

The sheer scale of this brew was bordering on a commercial operation.  Over 70 pounds of grain went into the batch.  

On Facebook

So I've been on Facebook for a while now and have a few thoughts...

• This is a giant digital vacuum for your spare time.
  
• The 'friending' process kind of bugs me. I mean, with true friends, there are no worries. But then you get these friend requests from people that you used to work with that you aren't really friends with and what do you do? Do you let them in and let them see your most unprofessional photos and musings, or do you ignore their requests and risk future business relationships?
  
• I had to 'unfriend' a former business associate, because it turns out that she is some kind of religious wacko. I just couldn't deal with someone quoting scripture coming across my desk every week.
  
• I need better tools for creating a inner sanctum of friends that I can truly be rude with.
  
• I find myself filtering truly funny comments because I know that it will be viewed by a wider audience.
  

Death, Taxes, You know...

Procrastination is the fine art of using up all of your spare time, so that when you finally sit down to accomplish a task, you are in the proper state of panic.

I started doing the taxes and of course, I am taking time out to blog, which hasn't happened in four months. I'm only a fraction of the way through the process and am actively stalling, just to make it harder on myself.

Lots going on in the next four days, too. We may be holding a dinner party here tonight, which means cleaning the house. I've got a meeting the night of the 15th, which means there is a hard stop to the work earlier than in past years.

My favorite year involved having a printer die on the evening of the 15th, having to drive to work and loading software on a machine there, getting everything printed out and finished at 11:43pm and then flying at 90 mph down route 93 to South Station in Boston where postal carriers were collecting envelopes on the street. I got there on the dot of midnight.

I got plenty of time...maybe I'll tune in the Masters.