What is your favourite hop?

[beer gut]

Hi leedsbrew i have been informed from Rob he owns the malt miller online home brew store he is getting some more simcoe in stock this december . I used Simcoe in my I.P.A and i was very impressed , my personal note on simcoe is you get a piney/ lemony aroma if added early in the boil but f you add the hop late in boil i beleive you get a deep fruity aroma with hints of passon fruit and mango.Sorry for rambling just love these new hops.

[naffolddog]

Brewers Gold for me at the moment - lovely tropical fruit aroma. I can't stop sniffing them... or is that just too weird?

[leedsbrew]

Hi leedsbrew i have been informed from Rob he owns the malt miller online home brew store he is getting some more simcoe in stock this december . I used Simcoe in my I.P.A and i was very impressed , my personal note on simcoe is you get a piney/ lemony aroma if added early in the boil but f you add the hop late in boil i beleive you get a deep fruity aroma with hints of passon fruit and mango.Sorry for rambling just love these new hops.

Thanks for the heads up matey!

[beer gut]

No worries m8! iam happy to help and happy brewing

[Manx Guy]

I have to say like hops! Choosing favourites is very difficult.. I'm warming to northdown alot at the moment...


Classic English aroma and good AA content too, making it a good choice for English IPA's


Happy brewing!

Guy

[beer gut]

Yeah i love Northdown to! i use it in alot of my dark ales, the other good thing with Northdown is it mixes real well with the british classic hops ie Progress, East kent Goldings and fuggles.Iam planning on buying some Green Bullet hop next week i have heard some cracking reviews on green bullet.It has a great alpha this year 13.7% aaau's which makes great value for money as copper hop and as the aroma is supposed to be mind blowing i will be using as aroma hop aswell. Happy brewing

[lancsSteve]

Have been getting a little obsessive over hops recently and their lineage. What I want to try is *real* Syrian goldings I.e. UK fuggles (yes, fuggles not goldings) grown in Slovenia and NOT a super Syrian with no link at all e.g. Bobek and Aurora are both northdown x wild Slovenian so classed as 'Super Styrian' hops and apart from growing area have no link genetically to Styrian goldings at all. So arguably fuggles *should* be a better substitute than bobek or aurora!

Been looking at data at http://www.freshops.com/hops/usda-named ... a_id_21285 and the highly readable article at http://www.google.com/m/url?client=ms-a ... jWWM-4bxuA which includes interesting note that for dry hopping you should get hops out of cold storage for 24hrs in advance!

However I digress: have hops are currently saaz and spalt but next ones I'm keen to try out as a character hop are nelson sauvin - ideas and recipes for those welcome!

[monk]

I've not liked the super styrians I've tried. Perhaps it's for the reason you mention, lancsSteve, because i really like Fuggles a lot. I just made an IPA with Columbus (Tomahawk) and Centennial, two hops I also enjoy a lot.

[mysterio]

Have been getting a little obsessive over hops recently and their lineage. What I want to try is *real* Syrian goldings I.e. UK fuggles (yes, fuggles not goldings) grown in Slovenia and NOT a super Syrian with no link at all e.g. Bobek and Aurora are both northdown x wild Slovenian so classed as 'Super Styrian' hops and apart from growing area have no link genetically to Styrian goldings at all. So arguably fuggles *should* be a better substitute than bobek or aurora!

The trouble is Fuggles taste nothing like Styrian Goldings, Bobek taste quite similar!

[lancsSteve]

The trouble is Fuggles taste nothing like Styrian Goldings, Bobek taste quite similar!

As I've never tried 'real' styrian goldings I can't comment but your view seems to be a consensus from those who have tried both (compared with opinions that abound on subbing fuggles for styrians from some US forums who have evidently not used styrians, bobek or UK fuggles)

The hop database states that:

This hop and USDA 61019 are referred as Styrian by the
trade. They are exported widely from Yugoslavia to
many countries around the world. This selection, like
the preceding Yugoslavia Golding, is nearly identical
to Fuggle from which it was developed. The name
"Golding" is a misnomer, since this hop is a Fuggle
type and differs significantly from the English"Golding" hops.

However

Styrian 21049
CULTIVAR: Styrian, Savinjski Golding, Yugoslavia Golding, Savinja Golding (synonyms)
MAJOR TRAITS: Early, resistant to Downy Midlew, European aroma properties
OTHER INFORMATION: Major Yugoslavian export hop primarily to Mexico,
Kenya, and South America, formerly also exported to the United States.

sounds like it's the one we've come to know as Styrian and is a signature in TTL and others and which bobek is similar to. So maybe both views are right but refer to two distinctly different hop variations - both fuggle derived...

There were 3 runs of these super styrians A (Aurora, Apalon, Atlas), B (bobek, blisk, buket) and C (Cicero, Celeia and Cerera + others) some of which have evidently disappeared into obscurity while some thrive but the 'styrian' name doesn't mean they have much in common with styrian goldings.

The super-styrians thing and confusion is clearly not limited to us homebrewers though - of Ahil it says:

OTHER INFORMATION: This hop together with its sister selections Apolon (USDA21051), Atlas (USDA 21052), and a related selection,Aurora, (USDA 21053) entered the hop trade in the 1970's
as "Superstyrian" hops. The implication was that they be similar to Styrian (Fuggle-type) hops but higher in alpha acids content. In reality they are Brewer's Gold seedlings, and their quality characteristics are
different from the true Styrian (USDA 21049, Savinski Golding). This has caused considerable confusion in the world hop trade. In recent years the acreage of Superstyrians has been reduced in favor of the old
established Savinski (Styrian) Golding (21049). The acreage of Ahil in Slovenia has remained very limited.

Looks the brupaks 'styrian goldings' are at least sometimes Celeia hops so not the 'real' styrian goldings but a super styrian version from the C series: http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/celeia-va ... 0-gms.html

One hop I'm currently v. intrigued by is 'Sonnet' - anyone tried these? Great name and description
http://www.barleybottom.com/menu/product/&ID=283

Think I'll try doing some single hop / single malt brews again for summer to try some of these out - means a single mash and doing two boils can give a lot of interesting variety...

[leedsbrew]

I've used the true styrian (savinjski) before, and I find it alot better than bobek. I find bobek heavy beers to have a very 'soapy' flavour. Infact my mate had a pint of the last Hob Gobling clone I did and he though there was washing up residue on the glass and wanted another on. It was the beer! I thought it was just me,so I gave him a glass I knew had gone through the dish washer and I had rinsed clean!

I have never had that taste with savinjski styrians! Seem to be like hens teeth though!

[lancsSteve]

I've used the true styrian (savinjski) before, and I find it alot better than bobek. I find bobek heavy beers to have a very 'soapy' flavour. Infact my mate had a pint of the last Hob Gobling clone I did and he though there was washing up residue on the glass and wanted another on. It was the beer! I thought it was just me,so I gave him a glass I knew had gone through the dish washer and I had rinsed clean!

I have never had that taste with savinjski styrians! Seem to be like hens teeth though!

That's a few with the 'soapy' view on bobek... Looks like the hop shop might have 'real' styrian goldings:

http://www.hopshopuk.com/products/view/ ... n-goldings

But might need some careful checking. THe info from that US database implies they will be becoming more common not less:

In recent years the acreage of Superstyrians has been reduced in favor of the old established Savinski (Styrian) Golding (21049).

Which sounds like good news.

My lord can hops become a scary obsession for the levels of data and history and information if you start to look!

[TC2642]

According to country, Nelson Savin, Aurora, Bramling X and Amarillo are topping the list for me.

[mysterio]

As I've never tried 'real' styrian goldings I can't comment but your view seems to be a consensus from those who have tried both (compared with opinions that abound on subbing fuggles for styrians from some US forums who have evidently not used styrians, bobek or UK fuggles)

I have tried both, in fact I bought a 5 kilo package of original Styrian Goldings from Farams when hops were dirt cheap. I found them to be fairly similar, however I have not used Bobek extensively. Only a couple of times. UK Fuggle is completely different. It is not as assertive.

I have got some Bobek to brew with over Christmas. I will look out for the soapy flavour, and may back off a little on them. I would be careful that you're actually getting the original Styrian Goldings, It is very probable that they are either bobek (and they're not telling you) or that they're old.

[Garth]

Styrians are apparently back in stock with Farams, I took a delivery of them in the brerwery just before I left last month.