New British Hops -your experinces

[JonB]

As I'm sure many of you are aware Charles Faram have been releasing a number of new varieties in recent years (Jester, Godiva, Harlequin, etc.).

I've been playing about a bit recently with Mystic, Harlequin and Olicana. I'm really enjoying the results in IPAs and pales, they're definitely different to more American varieties.

Has anyone else played with them? What did you do and how did it go?

[clarets7]

Olicana single hop ale from last year: -
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=83930

[JonB]

Nice!

I did something similar last year and really enjoyed that.

You said it was definitely fruity, out of interest what srt if fruit did you get?

In mine I think the flavour was more or less a 50/50 split between floral and fruity, but more sort of mango/pineapple/grapefruit fruity. I think I need to brew that one again...

[clarets7]

Nice!

I did something similar last year and really enjoyed that.

You said it was definitely fruity, out of interest what srt if fruit did you get?

In mine I think the flavour was more or less a 50/50 split between floral and fruity, but more sort of mango/pineapple/grapefruit fruity. I think I need to brew that one again...

I'm rubbish at describing flavours, but there was definitely some grapefruity citrus flavour mingled with tropical, but nothing overpowering. Some bottles that had been left in the house rather than in a cool garage developed a slight resinous flavour. In my notes I compared it to Adnams Ghostship, but better. I'd forgotten that, I'll have to brew it again as well!

[bitter_dave]

On the topic of 'new' (or rather old) UK hops, I tried Ernest hops a while ago for the first time after I got 100g from Bushell of hops. The beer made was superb. It had this fruity apricot/citrus thing going on as I recall. I then bought a kilo of them from another supplier and the resulting beers had this kind of piney flavour that you get in loads of beers these days hopped with US varieties that I don't much like. I now have loads unused in my freezer!

[clarets7]

On the topic of 'new' (or rather old) UK hops, I tried Ernest hops a while ago for the first time after I got 100g from Bushell of hops. The beer made was superb. It had this fruity apricot/citrus thing going on as I recall. I then bought a kilo of them from another supplier and the resulting beers had this kind of piney flavour that you get in loads of beers these days hopped with US varieties that I don't much like. I now have loads unused in my freezer!

Same here, first beer with Ernest was fine, really nice, but second has that resinous piney flavour that is a bit overpowering. However, these were both using the same batch of hops, first was only a small stove top batch that got drank very quickly, second 20L that got stashed away for a while for various reasons. May have just been something wrong with that last brew or maybe the beer doesn't keep well?

Edit: I actually did a brew with Ernest before those two that went into a barrel, didn't get any resin/pine notes on that so maybe something else is happening - last brew was using Brewlabs Lancashire yeast, maybe that doesn't go well with highly hopped beers?

[bitter_dave]

Same here, first beer with Ernest was fine, really nice, but second has that resinous piney flavour that is a bit overpowering. However, these were both using the same batch of hops, first was only a small stove top batch that got drank very quickly, second 20L that got stashed away for a while for various reasons. May have just been something wrong with that last brew or maybe the beer doesn't keep well?

Edit: I actually did a brew with Ernest before those two that went into a barrel, didn't get any resin/pine notes on that so maybe something else is happening - last brew was using Brewlabs Lancashire yeast, maybe that doesn't go well with highly hopped beers?

Curious that you had different effects with the same batch of hops. I could tell the first set of hops were different in terms of aroma etc when I opened the packet. The first 'good' batch I made lost a fair bit of it's aroma quite quickly, but was something special for a few weeks. (Didn't go crazy with the hops). I probably did use different yeasts on the later beers, can't remember and not great at keeping notes. In any case, the second batch of hops were not as good. I guess hops are a bit like fruit, you never know what they are going to be like. Can't go too wrong with hops like first gold, challenger, and Styrian Golding's though imo.

[Cobnut]

I have used a few of these modern British hops.

Godiva: my HBC did a challenge with these - Brew whatever beer you want as long as you only use the Godiva hops. A variety of different beers, some good, some not so. IMO the best was a Japanese rice lager which really showcased the hops (which came direct from Faram). My own, a beer made as a weakened version of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale using Godiva rather than Cascade, was a disappointment.

Endeavour: I made a single hop pale ale/golden ale for a party to send off my Daughter and her BF on their "Aussie Endeavour" last year. I was a little disappointed in the hop aromas and flavours, but it seemed to be well received at the party (well it all got drunk!). I was expecting a bit more "New World" from the hops than I got.

Ernest: my records tell me I made a single hop beer with these hops, but for the life of me I can't recall what it was like...clearly memorable!

I also have 100g of Jester (from Dorothy at "A Bushel of hops") in the freezer from a couple of seasons ago which I must use sometime...too many beers, too little time!

[JonB]

Some interesting experiences here certainly.

I do wonder if the "New World-ness" of these hops is just oversold. I've never found them as potent as US hops (especially not in the citrus-like flavours) but I do like the fruit flavours that come through when used in late kettle hopping, and I think these would blend nicely with a lot of the more malt-forward British styles.

I've used Opus (not sure if that is commercially available yet, this was from a competition), which was supposed to be very "sticky orange." It definitely had an orange character but not as much as I was expecting. Made a nice Chocolate orange porter though...

Mystic and Harlequin I've found to be a fun combination, you get a lot of stone/berry/maybe a bit of tropical fruit flavours and a classic "sharp" bitterness. I found this works nicely with a more malty IPA grist.

Also did an Olicana Single Hop ale as noted earlier. That was amazing, fruity and floral and really easy drinking.

[MashBag]

I did some Ernest, very nice, but I really like cascade.

[Dennis King]

+1 for Ernest a great hop.

[nickjdavis]

Was going to say that I brewed a Rice Lager using Godiva for a club challenge but looks like someone has beaten me to it!!

It was a really simple beer (75% Pilsner, 25% Flaked Rice), mashed low (64) for dryness and fermentability and all of the hops were added in the stages during the final 15 mins...no traditional bittering addition. This was designed to extract as much flavour and aroma from the hops as possible, whilst still remaining balanced....wasnt supposed to be a hop bomb sort of lager. A dry hop addition was also employed.

The plan was to produce a light, crisp, dry lager, with notes of white grape and gooseberry, that the Godiva promised. As a beer, I utterly nailed it...it was excellent. I brewed it again last year and unfortunately the aromas were dominated by lashings of fruit and the beer lacked the same delicate balance the initial version had.

I think if you pick an appropriate style for some of these new hops and think about what you are going to brew and how the hops will combine with the malt, then you can really get the most out of them. Just throwing a new hop at an established beer that you already make wont often showcase what the hops are all about.

I've previously used Jester to good effect in a Red Ale as well.