What is your favourite English hop variety?

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Padalac

Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by Padalac » Wed Jun 10, 2015 5:20 pm

seymour wrote:
Padalac wrote:I quite like endeavour..
Interesting. How were they used?
Humm, now you got me.. It was actually in a mild, alongside first gold. So that was subtle. But the smell from the bag seemed good, and the beer had a nice hop character. I'll probably try it something else at some point though.

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seymour
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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by seymour » Wed Jun 10, 2015 9:15 pm

Padalac wrote:
seymour wrote:
Padalac wrote:I quite like endeavour..
Interesting. How were they used?
Humm, now you got me.. It was actually in a mild, alongside first gold. So that was subtle. But the smell from the bag seemed good, and the beer had a nice hop character. I'll probably try it something else at some point though.
I believe you, it makes sense. Mild ale typically has a low IBU to begin with. First Gold are smooth and delicious, and would round out and improve Endeavour. Both First Gold and Endeavour are relatively high AA%, so you would only need very little of each to hit your targets. So I'm sure there wasn't enough Endeavour present to detect the harsh stuff I complained about. The beer I tasted used them throughout the boil, plus another 2 pounds per barrel dry-hops!

If you do use them in a higher IBU style, I'd love to hear your impressions.

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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by Clibit » Thu Jun 11, 2015 1:10 pm

The UK hop industry seems to be trialling lots of new types and then seeing which ones get taken up by the bigger breweries. Will be interesting to see where are in a few years time. I've never tried quite a few English hops, like Jester, Endeavour, Minstrel, Eric, Olicana, Archer, Boadicea, Sovereign, Pioneer, Beata, Sussex, Flyer, Phoenix, Pilot. Most of them are not easy to get hold of, and I think some of them will disappear.

I was heartened to read that sales doubled last year, because of American craft breweries buying large amounts, so maybe acreage will expand and some of these hops will enter the fray on a larger scale. Perhaps if Fuggles hops are cut right back, as it seems they will be, these newer hops will at least get farm and market space to expand, those that are in greatest demand. From a very ignorant, layman's perspective, I suspect that the aim should be to produce high quality English style hop breeds, rather than trying to emulate new world hops. Stick to what we are good at, and provide an alternative, rather than trying to grow hops like those grown in hotter climates, and compete with them. Germany has 30% of the hop market, and most of their hops are not like new world hops, so they are probably our closest competitor, not USA, NZ, Oz etc. That said, a lot of the English hops are pretty similar, so there is room for more variety and new aromas, I'm sure.

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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by Monkeybrew » Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:24 am

Image

Ok, so this has changed things somewhat!

If I didn't know, I would have guessed that this beer had contained either US or NZ hops.

Don't get me wrong, It's no Citra, but it certainly throws up some lovely subtle tropical fruit flavours =D>

Cheers

MB
FV:


Conditioning:
AG#41 - Vienna Lager - 5.6%
AG#42 - Heritage Double Ale - 10.5%

On Tap:
AG#44 - Harvest ESB - 5.4%
AG#45 - Amarillo Gold APA - 5.2%

Sir-Rooty

Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by Sir-Rooty » Thu Dec 01, 2016 8:18 am

seymour wrote: I believe you, it makes sense. Mild ale typically has a low IBU to begin with. First Gold are smooth and delicious, and would round out and improve Endeavour. Both First Gold and Endeavour are relatively high AA%, so you would only need very little of each to hit your targets. So I'm sure there wasn't enough Endeavour present to detect the harsh stuff I complained about. The beer I tasted used them throughout the boil, plus another 2 pounds per barrel dry-hops!

If you do use them in a higher IBU style, I'd love to hear your impressions.
Just thought I'd refresh on this thread regarding Endeavour. I have to say my opinion is swinging to Seymour's experiences so far. A few months back I brewed a single hop high IBU, high ABV IPA with them. Initial tastings before and after primary were incredible - I couldn't believe how much blackcurrant flavour was coming through. Subsequently a fairly heavy dry hop, crash cooled and then in the bottle. I probably left it a bit too long before bottling so may have lost some of the hop aroma's perhaps.

Now I was still calibrating some new kit and so I had underestimated the efficiency so I ended up with nearly 7% ABV instead of the 6% target but I really don't think this has influenced the result too much. I've sampled three bottles over the last month or so. Coarse bitterness, little fruit coming through on the taste and aroma-wise - there is very little or nothing. I accept that my technique may have impacted and the high alcohol is undoubtedly masking any subtlety but still I'm not that enthusiastic. :roll:

Problem is I still have a fairly large quantity of leaf and pellets in the freezer! Can anyone recommend something to blend with them for the next run of the IPA?????

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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by scuppeteer » Thu Dec 01, 2016 8:51 pm

Endeavour is my new favourite. I've brewed a single hop and loved it, also a standard bitter for a friends wedding in the summer. That was 60min Northdown, 10min Bramling Cross and Endeavour at 1 min it was very popular.
My next IPA will be 75% Endeavour late with 25% English Cascade. 60 and 20min additions will be First Gold.

The current Endeavour I have is 10.5% AA. For the single hop I FWH with a small amount and then higher additions at 15mins to up the IBU's, it worked well and no harshness at all.
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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by BigMouth » Thu Dec 01, 2016 10:06 pm

Two from first gold, fuggles and ekg late on with admiral as a bittering for English beers.
So much so I planted first gold, fuggles and cobb (a goldings) last spring.

Sir-Rooty

Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by Sir-Rooty » Fri Dec 02, 2016 9:22 am

scuppeteer wrote:Endeavour is my new favourite. I've brewed a single hop and loved it, also a standard bitter for a friends wedding in the summer. That was 60min Northdown, 10min Bramling Cross and Endeavour at 1 min it was very popular.
My next IPA will be 75% Endeavour late with 25% English Cascade. 60 and 20min additions will be First Gold.

The current Endeavour I have is 10.5% AA. For the single hop I FWH with a small amount and then higher additions at 15mins to up the IBU's, it worked well and no harshness at all.
Thanks for the reply. Ok so I'm figuring that my issues could be rooted in the amount I used for bittering then? I note both of your brews either used little or none for that. Think I might fall back on the trusty Challenger for bittering on my next run then and concentrate the Endeavour on late additions.

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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by gaunt_paul » Fri Dec 02, 2016 5:57 pm

I love EKG, for early and late additions. All sorts of flavours come out, suits strong malty beers really well I find. I'd like to get to know challenger some more too.

McMullan

Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by McMullan » Fri Dec 02, 2016 8:59 pm

There are loads of fantastic English hops, but Challenger, overall, for me, if I had to choose. I got a big batch of high AA a couple of years ago and I think I'm on the last kg.
:( I'll Be getting more :D

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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by seymour » Mon Dec 26, 2016 5:07 pm

We dry-hopped a special-release cask of The Civil Life ESB with loads of Pilgrim hops, and I was very pleasantly surprised: reminiscent of orange marmalade, ripe apricots, berry fruit, very very juicy. Still recognizably English in character, but BIG like New World hops. I highly recommend Pilgrim for late kettle additions or dry hopping.

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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by Rookie » Mon Jan 09, 2017 11:47 pm

gaunt_paul wrote:I love EKG, for early and late additions. All sorts of flavours come out, suits strong malty beers really well I find. I'd like to get to know challenger some more too.
You can't go wrong with EKG.
I find challenger to be similar in taste which is why they play so well together.
I'm just here for the beer.

bournio

Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by bournio » Tue Jan 17, 2017 10:12 am

I've done a saison with Endeavour which has come out lovely, I think the fruitiness goes nicely with the yeast flavour.

My personal favourite is Sovereign, which has a very typical bittering characteristic, but as an aroma hop it's quite amazing, almost like a typical English hop, but with a bit of a sort of puddingy spice-fruitiness.

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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by BrannigansLove » Tue Jan 17, 2017 12:55 pm

EKG.

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Re: What is your favourite English hop variety?

Post by DaveyT » Thu Apr 06, 2017 1:58 pm

BrannigansLove wrote:EKG.
Me too. They never fail to impress me. Plus, I can't think of a single style where it wouldn't work.
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