What is your favourite English hop variety?

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seymour
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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by seymour » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:18 pm

TheSumOfAllBeers wrote:
Mon Oct 23, 2017 3:07 pm
I have posted elsewhere on ideas for using Boadicea and Olicana (have some First Gold too). I am wanting to go down the way of an all english pale ale / bitter style, but I dont have a flavour reference for the hops in question...
I haven't tasted Olicana (though I'd love to). Following are my impressions of Boadicea:

Good all-purpose bittering choice for malt-forward beer. Growers love 'em because of aphid resistance. Grassy, flowery, citrusy. It's great in Adnams and Crouch Vale brews, for instance, which proves it holds up to spicy English yeast twang. Ticks most of the boxes, and supports dark, roasty grainbills well. Often blended with Challenger.

Clibit
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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by Clibit » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:44 pm

I have liked the couple of Olicana beers I have tasted, in the pub. It's different from your average Anglo-hop, fruity in the newer way, without obvious spice or earth, but it's gentle, not intense at all. No grapefruit. No pine. Been a year since I tasted it but, from memory, maybe a bit like Summer, but more toned down. I see people criticising these new hops, but they shouldn't be compared with Citra and Galaxy, they should be judged in their own right, IMO.

There are different kinds of beer! English beers are at their best when they showcase all the ingredients, malt, yeast and hops. Just like a good German beer. If you've ever sat in a beer garden in summer in England with a flow of pints of well balanced beer, with a nice balance of malt, earthy, spicy hops and fruity yeast esters, you know it's a spiritual experience. Anyway, these New England breweries seem to be dragging American brewers towards fruity English yeasts, lower IBUs, and lower ABV. We will reach synergy eventually. :D

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