This month we welcome John Rocco of Farmhouse Brewing Supply out of Janesville, Wisconsin to talk about all thing Hops!
John recently donated 6 varieties (24 ounces) of newer hops to the Barons. A few of our members volunteered to brew a batch of beer with these hops. We used a modified Zombie Dust clone and scaled the quantity of hops required to get all of the IBUs within +/- 2pts. The base recipe will be available in this month’s Baron’s Mind.
The hop parallel includes the following hop varieties:
Polaris: 18.5% Alpha. Huge alpha acid content. Has a fruity, fresh, glacier candy flavor (mint).
Eureka!: 10% Alpha. Black currant, dark fruits, strong herbal notes, pine tree, Mint, pungent, light grapefruit rind, citrus, Tangerine. Good oil content drives flavor. Simcoe on Steroids!
EXP 9326: 6.3% Alpha. Cascade-like with grapefruit, tropical and strong berry aromas.
EXP 6297: 13.3% Alpha. Notes of candied grape, orange and vanilla cream.
Denali: 14.2% Alpha. Juicy Fruit, Pineapple, tropical, citrus. Very clean bitterness and full flavor driven by exceptional oil content.
Ariana: 10.2% Alpha. Depending upon the style of beer brewed and timing of the addition of the hops, brewers have noticed grapefruit, gooseberry, citrus and vanilla flavors. Ariana is said to be ideal for dry hopping, when it imparts its most intense fruity flavors.