flyer hops . first tastes

[scuppeteer]

Hi All I brewed a Spring pale ale yesterday using Flyer as Bittering hop, then i used Flyer with a touch of Celia as finishing hops. Man that Flyer is Damn SEXY . I think this Hop will give some va va voom! back into the English hop market.I don't wan't to be rude but i think Charles Faram are mad if they put Flyer on ICE. It has fantastic bittering qualities with a super charged challenger flavour aroma. happy brewing folks

Just finished my last bottle of pale I brewed in August, very nicely matured and tasted lovely.

How much Flyer did you put in to finish with BG? Thinking I should up the rate as I was quite conservative with the original brew.

cheers

[beer gut]

Hi in Total I used 50g of Flyer in the brew.I used 10g of Flyer in the First wort I then used 22g for the main 60 min boil and then I used 18g of Flyer for the last 10 min boil and then I used Celia after the boiler had been turned off. This brew had 37 Ebu's. I Hope this helps. I have plans to brew a I.P.A. Using Flyer because I think Flyer would work real well down to in my opinion it having a super charged Challenger Characteristics. I would also like to try Flyer in a Stout or even just Dark ale style ie Brown ale or a Robust Porter.

[beer gut]

Hi All just had a little taste of of spring bitter which has been hopped with Flyer. My first thoughts are it has the full body bitterness of which we expect of challenger, yet I find Flyer has much cleaner/finer bitterness than challenger. Flyer has more floral and fruit notes than Challenger. I love Challenger but I think Flyer is a new and improved version of Challenger. Now this Bitter is still not fully conditioned yet I can't wait till it is. I think Flyer should be given a permanent place in the British hop varieties.

[simple one]

Used 100g of Flyer in 13 litres. 30 at the front end, 70 at the back end.....

Flavour I perceived - Lighter and brighter than challenger, with tropical fruit. Although nowhere near US, AUS or NZ. Really clean, less oils come through to the finished beer.... Hard to describe... I guess it's an intensity thing.

Aroma I percieved - Orangey, clovey and spicy. Quite christmasy.

Aroma didn't match flavour really.

Still green though, will report back in about a month.

[seymour]

I heard from Peter Darby today that Flyer is one of his hops. It got as far as farm trials on three farms but was intended as a high alpha variety and as it only got to 10% alpha it won't be going any further.

Did he, or anyone else for that matter, give any clues to its parentage? I'm not sure I fully believe this claim, "Flyer is a brand new experimental variety, it didn’t come out of a breeding program. One of our growers found it and thought he would take a ‘Flyer’ on it."

These things never happen in a vacuum. It would at least be interesting to know which brewing cultivars it was found growing amongst, and which males were grown within open-pollination range. Has anyone heard anything at all?

For instance, Challenger was bred in 1963 at Wye station, the "mother" was female plant number 17/54/2
bred in 1954 from a German Zattler variety which was open pollinated from an unknown male. The "mother" 17/54/2 was pollinated in 1963 with "father" male plant number 1/61/57, which was a seedling produced in 1961 by pollinating Northern Brewer with a Downy-mildew-resistant male, which was itself a seedling from a German Zattler variety with an open pollination. Thus, Challenger could be described as descended from 3/8 German Zattler, 3/8 unknown, and 1/4 Northern Brewer.

[scuppeteer]

There are many a wild story when it comes to hops Seymour. But Flyer is cultivated and it was one of Peter Darby's from China Farm near Canterbury. As you have seen not all the breeding program hops have names, mostly numbers, Bramling cross' correct name is OT48.
Many of our known varieties have unknown parentage, or grand parentage. I guess that's why they (hops) keep us so interested and why I love finding wild ones to play with.

[beer gut]

So do think they will scrap Flyer? Because I think that would be a BIG mistake in my book because we need new fresh hops to keep brewers interested in British hops. NZ and America are developing new hops all the time and I think we need new hops like Endeavour and Flyer and Sussex whole hop. I don't know much about hop growing or how long it takes to get the hop to the brew house but what I do know is that we need some new hops if we want people to use British hops rather than use foreign hop varieties I hate to nag but I really like Flyer and I would hate it to be scrapped I have just bought some Endeavour hops which I am looking forward to brewing with.

[scuppeteer]

So do think they will scrap Flyer? Because I think that would be a BIG mistake in my book because we need new fresh hops to keep brewers interested in British hops. NZ and America are developing new hops all the time and I think we need new hops like Endeavour and Flyer and Sussex whole hop. I don't know much about hop growing or how long it takes to get the hop to the brew house but what I do know is that we need some new hops if we want people to use British hops rather than use foreign hop varieties I hate to nag but I really like Flyer and I would hate it to be scrapped I have just bought some Endeavour hops which I am looking forward to brewing with.

I hope Flyer will become more commercial too. But from initial breeding to only farm trials can take 3 or 4 years or longer. Then once farmers have agreed to grow them will take another 3 years to develop a decent crop. One example is Pilgrim, I think this was first developed in 1993 but not released until 2000. Now this is a lovely hop IMO but it is still overlooked, hence the price, one of the cheapest UK varieties. The problem with hops is, you can't just plant them anywhere, unlike cereal crops, they need an awful lot of man hours and infrustructure to get going.
The Sussex is nice and has a really unique flavour, not a huge amount grown and only on 1 farm not far from my work. We know the farmer quite well, lovely old boy.
Next on my brew list is a Porter with late Flyer then a pale with Endeavor.

So many hops so little time!

[beer gut]

Yeah I have some brewing plans using Flyer in a I.P.A. I might blend hops with flyer or I might do a single hop instead. I have plans to brew a ESB which I will use Endeavour for bittering and aroma i will also a other Hedge grove hop sovereign most likely at the finish. I would not mind getting my hands on some of that Sussex hop. I would think Endeavour with it's flavour profile should work well in darker ales but the guy from Charles faram told me that Flyer would not suit the darker ale styles. However what I say is you won't know unless you try when it comes to brewing. I think as we are British we should support are British farmers.

[simple one]

More Flyer tasting notes. (after 1 month in bottle)(recipe in thread)

Aroma: Satsuma/clementine peel, although average/high intensity. Some background straw.
Flavour: Very challenger, Straw like, Watered down peach/tropical fruit
Carbonation: A medium/high carbonation level suits this hop.

I initially thought this hop was just a high oil chally clone, but it is much more than that. Green stages taste bland. But once it has had time in bottle it begins to change for the better. Hence review above.

I will update in 2 months.

[seymour]

...I initially thought this hop was just a high oil chally clone, but it is much more than that...

Even if that were only the case, that would be fine with me. Personally, I find Challenger hops divine (one of the few hops which I truly love the bittering, flavour, and aroma qualities)! Can't wait to try these Flyers.

[simple one]

Based on my recommendation I hate to think anyone will think them intense.... like US intense. But on a UK level, they are strong.

[scuppeteer]

My 6.5% porterish thing is nicely bubbling away, 100g Flyer in at flame out. Hopefully a good experiment to see how they work with other hops and a different style.

[scuppeteer]

Just done a FG check from the FV, if this turns out anywhere near as good as it tastes right now, I will be one very happy brewer!

[dreadskin69]

i have a flyer IPA in the fermenter at the moment. smells great and should come in at around 58 ibu's. ive kept 100 grams over for the dry hop too. im looking forward to trying this! and yes, the UK needs to get on the ball with hop development! we will drop the ball if we dont run with this one!