Thanks to my “connections”, I’m now stocked up on hops for the year and beyond. I’m about to vacuum seal, but the varieties are somewhat astounding and most of which I’ve never used before save for Nugget, Amarillo, Palisades and Santiam. Naturally, I’m quite excited to be stocked in a year of otherwise limited selection and high prices, but there are two specific varieties that I’m itching to get into a beer.
Amarillo is one of my favorites, and I’m going to have to brew another Amarillo Red. The meaty citrus flavor is just wonderful and filling in all the right ways for a hop-lover’s palate. Summit, a new variety, was highlighted in one of my favorite beers of 2007: Widmer’s W’ 07 pale ale. Right now I’m trying to get some tips for recreating the robust pale.
Some of the varieties I need to do my homework on because I’m not sure what they “do” yet. I’ll probalby have to enlist some help and do some fancy batch-splitting to try out the hops in identical smaller batches.
Anyway, here’s the rundown:
Domestic
- Amarillo (~ 10% alpha)
- Apollo (~ 20% alpha)
- Bravo (~ 15% alpha)
- Glacier (~ 5% alpha)
- Nugget (~ 13% alpha)
- Palisades (~ 8% alpha)
- Santiam (4.8 % alpha)
- Summit (~18% alpha)
New Zealand
- Nelson Sauvin (12.6% alpha) 3.5oz
- NZ B Saaz “Motueka (6.3%)3.5oz
- Pacific Jade (14.6%) – 3.5oz
- NZ Transitional Hallertau – Organic (7.1% alpha)
- Green Bullet (12.6% alpha)
Vacuum-sealing is fun, but takes some time. I usually end up cutting the bricks with one of my wife’s nicest knives, but towards the end, it was having some serious problems cutting. One look at the blade and it was clear why: The blade was thick with hop resin.
