Beer Book Review – For the Love of Hops

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If you are a hophead and cannot get enough bitter IPA’s and DIPA’s and the ever expanding hoppy styles then this book will truly make your head spin.  The backstory on what goes on to bring the hops to life and let alone get them into your beer is simply amazing and Stan Hieronymus does a skillful job of marrying the anecdotes with the science while also letting the stories room to breathe as well.

I will be the first to admit that many parts of this book went over my head.  I am not a science guy nor am I a brewing guy so there were parts that I had to read and re-read a few times.  This was no fault of Hieronymus.  It just took me awhile to get it.  I can’t spell ethyl-4-methylpentanoate let alone remember that it’s odor compound is fruity.

But I thoroughly enjoyed the opening of each chapter where Hieronymus either takes us to a hop yard to talk to a farmer or back in history to Wye College in England.  And even better is the section on many of the known hop varieties.

IMG_3667It is a helpful cheat sheet to use the next time you have an IPA.  All you have to do is figure out which hops are in the beer that you have and then check out the data on each one.  Geeky to the extreme, I know.  There are some really cool color photographs as well.  I could have used more. And I would have liked more diagrams in the section of hop backs and torpedos but those are minor quibbles to a book that somehow manages to be all things to all people.  Even homebrewers will get a charge from the recipe section.

IMG_3669Now that I have read this one, I have put the Yeast and Water books on my list for Christmas to complete my set!  You can buy the book via Amazon HERE.

A Hoppy Odyssey for Green Flash

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6 Hoppy Beers to be released throughout 2013. That is the trip or “Odyssey” for Green Flash and these beers are not just limited to San Diego! They will be on draft where you usually drink Green Flash.

Here is the info on the planned beers:

February – Black IPA:
“This American-style Black IPA is nearly jet black and perceived to have high hop bitterness, flavor and aroma with medium-high alcohol content, balanced with a medium body. The appearance may trick you into thinking you are about to enjoy a traditional stout beer when in fact your senses are about to be overwhelmed with our Black IPA. Juicy, fruity, floral, and pine from Pacific Northwest hops gives the beer a classic West Coast IPA hop character. The Black IPA is further characterized by a balanced and moderate degree of caramel malt and subdued dark roasted malt flavor and aroma.” 7.2% ABV, 85 IBU
Hops used: Warrior, Citra, Cascade

April – Imperial Red Rye IPA:
“Bigger, bolder, and hoppier is what you get in Green Flash’s Imperial Red Rye IPA…how unusual! This is quite possibly the most amount of flavor that can be packed into a glass of red ale. Columbus hops set the stage for the newly available Mosaic hops (released in 2013) to shine through the rich crystal malt base and a touch of rye malt adds a spicy dryness to accentuate the hop character further.” 8.5% ABV, 80 IBU
Hops used: Columbus and Mosaic

June – Citra Session IPA:
“When new and unique ingredients become available we often feel inspired to make a new brew highlighting that ingredient, here we are highlighting a newer hop variety called Citra. This pale gold Session IPA is brewed with high quality Maris Otter and Vienna Malt but the flavor is dominated by the Citra hop. 100% Citra hop is used to bitter and flavor the brew with additional Citra in the dry hop for aroma intensity. Citrus notes of lemon, orange and grapefruit are the main traits of the hop with light floral and lemon grass undertones. The abv at only 4.5% makes this hop laden brew an easily sessionable quaffer.” 4.5% ABV, 45 IBU
Hops used: Citra
THIS IS THE ONE THAT I BE WATCHING FOR (RIGHT AFTER THE CEDAR PALE)

August – Cedar Plank Pale Ale:
“This hoppy pale ale starts out as 30th Street Pale Ale and then undergoes Spanish cedar aging. Wood aging imparts an intense cedar aroma which dominates the dry hop. The flavor contributions from the Spanish cedar include peppercorn spiciness and a tannic dry mouth feel that makes the hop flavor and bitterness linger in the finish. The wood adds a fun and unique twist on a classic American Strong Pale Ale, “The wood is good!” “6.3 % ABV, 45 IBU
Hops used: Warrior, El Dorado, Cascade

October – Symposium IPA:
“We originally brewed this beer for the 2008 Craft Brewers Conference for the attendees that came from all around the world. The 2008 Symposium IPA was brewed a la San Diego Style with inputs from several brewers around town. This IPA is highly quaffable, pale copper in color, and lighter in body with a profound emphasis on hop extravagance as we added hops at every step throughout the brewing process. We all enjoyed the beer so much that we just had to bring it back for our 8th Anniversary in 2010. Now it’s being released as key brew for our 2013 Hop Odyssey”. 7% ABV, 75 IBU
Hops used: Simcoe, Tomahawk, Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial

December – Double Columbus IPA:
“Brewed with 100% Columbus hops this double IPA is an absolute Columbus hop bomb! Its resinous hop character comes through with huge grapefruit zest and pine notes throughout the brew. The big juicy, fruity, citrus hops add a resinous and almost sticky hop presence in the body making the medium body from crystal malts seem even richer and fuller. This is a hop head’s treat!” 8.8% ABV, 98 IBU
Hops used: Columbus

Review – Anthem Dry Hopped cider

I do like cider but rarely do I get it. I usually see so many beers that I want that the apples get shunted off to the side for another day. But when I saw a cider that was dry hopped with Cascades, well I picked it up.

Anthem ciders are crafted at the Wandering Aengus Ciderworks in Oregon. This one was an extremely light yellow and very bubbly. It wasn’t sour but it was stomach gurgly inducing acidic. The aroma was a battle of apple farm and that signature Cascade hop. A bit muddled to me. The taste grew on me even though it was much brighter tasting when cold. Again, though I got quite a bit of fight between these two distinct flavors. They didn’t seem to quite flow together. And though it did catch my eye and get me to pick up a cider, it did not win me over in the end. But it sure is a pretty beverage to look at.

Old Hops

Snoqualmie Brewery up in Washington state has a new brew that uses hops resurrected from 130 years ago

“But a century after time and trouble all but erased the Snoqualmie Hops Farm from the Valley, beer is once again being flavored with the wild descendants of those original Meadowbrook vines. In September, volunteer pickers collected hops from vines preserved at the farm’s interpretive center. Those flower buds were used to flavor a special, limited edition dry-hopped Meadowbrook Farm Ale,…”

Whiskey and Hops

If you can’t get enough hops and must have it in every spirit you drink, well you are in luck. A distillery fronted by Marko Karakasevic has made two version of hop flavored whiskey using Bear Republic’s Racer 5 IPA.

Yoy can get Charbay Hop Flavored Whiskey R5 Clear or the more expensive Charbay Hop Flavored Whiskey R5 Aged.

The website goes on to say, “The beer is distilled in double copper alambic charentais pots 24 hours a day for nine days straight before being aged for 22 months in French Oak. The result offers a definite whiskey taste profile with clear notes of hops, fruit, and malt when sipped. Distiller Marko Karakasevic, who started such experimentation with a pilsner-fueled light whiskey for Charbay nearly fourteen years ago, says he used 6,000 gallons of Racer 5 to produce 590 gallons of the spirit.”

Karakasevic is also working on a version using Bear Republic’s stout.

Randall Jr.

Occasionally, some Randall action happens at special beer events. But it is not commonplace at bars. But now for an Andrew Jackson you can get the Jr. version from Dogfish Head and start experimenting.

“So you’ve tried to acquire the Randall 3.0 and it’s either out of stock or out of your price range, right? Well, we heard you and here’s the answer! The same concept in a much more convenient size and price tag. The Randall Jr. allows you to infuse your favorite brew with just about whatever ingredients you can think up. Midas Touch with lime and mint? Yes please! World Wide Stout with espresso beans? You betcha! Just place the ingredients in the Randall Jr. and pour the beer right over them. Place in a cold climate such as the fridge for 10 minutes or so and you’ve got an amazing concoction on your hands! Share with a friend…or not…we’re not judging.”

Learn about Hops

I briefly mentioned the Simple Earth Hops people a while back and now Matt Sweeny has announced 2-hour educational “Brewing Up a Community Hops Webinars” in March, April and May of this year, on the third Saturday of each month with a morning and evening session on each day.

From the press release, “commercial topics to be covered include marketing local hops, establishing a commercial hopyard, processing hops, how to use earth-friendly growing practices and lots of time for questions and answers. The cost for each webinar is $20, tickets are available at Eventbrite” and a full schedule is available online.

Critical Hit

What do you get when you let Ninkasi go wild with 11 hops?

This: CRITICAL HIT BARLEY WINE “comes with a warning – It is hopped to high heaven. 11 varieties of Hops. Two-hundred and twenty pounds of them, for only 17 barrels of beer! Its high gravity nature has been mellowing for a year to warm the cheeks and soul. Critical Hit will be released for the first time in limited release 22oz bombers and draft. Available Jan, 2012 100 IBUs 11.7% abv”

And to learn about other Ninkasi beer releases head to the excellent Brewpublic site.

Aramis – Calypso – Sonnet


Since it is #IPAday. It is more than appropriate to talk hops. Specifically three new hops that we might see more of because Stone is using them. Will they take off like Citra or Falconer’s Flight?

Here are some thumbnail sketches and I will let you decide….
from the Stone Brewing blog: “The Aramis hop is a brand new hop variety from Cophoudal in Alsace, France. Its parentage includes the Strisselspalt hop, a German style hop from Alsace. Strisselspalt has a very unique aroma-herbal like a German noble hop, but with hints of lemon as well, but it also has a very low alpha acid content, which makes it tough for using in craft ales. Aramis was at 8% alpha acids, so a really nice level.”

Here is what a home brew supply store’s take on Calypso. It “is a new breed of high alpha-acid hop with a pleasant, fruity aroma and flavor, with hints of pear and apple. It is typically used in ales, stouts and barleywines.”

Sonnet is a variation on the tried and true East Kent Goldings with a bit of peach flavor.

Top 5 IPA’s


Happy #IPADay!

Last month, I tallied some figures about my first 1,000 beers that I have rated. So you know that my highest ranked IPA was the canned version of Punk IPA from BrewDog and that my favorite DIPA was the Kern River Citra.

Here are the other IPA favorites of the last two years…..
Russian River Blind Pig – better than PtY and more plentiful
Hair of the Dog Blue Dot – when fresh this has a great bite to it
BridgePort Hop Harvest – 2009 was a great year. Looking forward to 2011
Mikkeller Single Hop Nelson Sauvin – grape and IPA. And it works!
Mammoth IPA 395 – super spicy and herby.