Author: Marshall Schott

Centennial is occasionally referred to as Super Cascade, as it is known to impart many similar characteristics with a touch more pungency. A solid majority of the annual Centennial yield is grown in the Pacific Northwest, but it doesn’t all come from the same farm, leaving it susceptible to variations caused by terroir, farming practices, and other seemingly minor differences. It’s for this reason breweries send teams out to participate in hop selection during harvest season, as it allows them to pick the best of the bunch before the various lots are blended and shipped out to others.

Consistently rated as being one of the best craft beers in America, Bell’s Two Hearted Ale is an orange-hued American IPA noted for being hopped entirely with Centennial, which contributes layers of orange and grapefruit zest with hints of apricot and pine. However, the Centennial Bell’s brews with are hand selected to ensure consistency and quality, which is important for such a lauded beer.

I was recently contacted by David Curtis, who manages the Bell’s General Store, a homebrew shop attached to Bell’s Brewery. David explained that as the biggest user of Centennial hops in the world. Bell’s gets first dibs on selection and naturally chooses what they believe to be the cream of the crop. As a fan of Brülosophy, he was curious to see how these Centennial Select hops compared to regular Centennial from the same crop year and offered to send me a couple kits. As a fan of Two Hearted, I obliged.

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the differences between an IPA hopped entirely with Bell’s Centennial Select and the same IPA hopped entirely with standard Centennial.

| METHODS |

Two Hearted Ale is a classic American IPA that some might sways “Midwest” given its orange-ish tint from the dose of Crystal malt.

Bell’s Two Hearted Ale

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.2 gal 75 min 64.3 IBUs 7.0 SRM 1.065 1.013 6.9 % Actuals 1.065 1.01 7.3 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pale 2-Row Malt 10 lbs 74.07 Pale Ale Malt 3 lbs 22.22 Caramel Malt - 40L 8 oz 3.7 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Centennial 35 g 45 min Boil Pellet 9 Centennial 35 g 30 min Boil Pellet 9 Centennial 100 g 5 days Dry Hop Pellet 9 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Flagship (A07) Imperial Yeast 75% 60°F - 72°F Notes Water Profile: Ca 130 | Mg 1 | Na 43 | SO4 209 | Cl 75 Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

The week before brewing, I received a the kits David sent from Bell’s General Store, one with Centennial Select and the other with standard Centennial, both of which were stored in the freezer until use.

I started by brew day by collecting two identical volumes of filtered water and adjusting them to match the profile David shared with me.

I milled both sets of grain into separate fabric filters while the water was heating up then moved on to preparing the kettle hop additions.

Once strike temperature was reached on each batch, I mashed in, gave a gentle stir with my giant whisk, then checked to make sure both achieved the same target mash temperature.

Each mash was left to rest for 60 minutes.

At the end of either mash step, the grains were removed and the worts were brought to a boil that lasted 75 minutes per instructions.

When the boils were complete, the worts were quickly chilled to 66°F/19°C thanks to my cool winter groundwater.

Refractometer readings revealed both batches achieved the same OG.

The worts were allowed to settle for 10 minutes before being transferred to sanitized Brew Buckets.

I placed the filled fermentors next to each other in my fermentation chamber controlled to 66°F/19°C then used some remnant wort to make vitality starters with Imperial Yeast A07 Flagship.

The yeast was pitched 4 hours later and signs of fermentation were visible later that evening. In an effort to reduce the risk of oxidation, I added the dry hop additions 32 hours after pitching the yeast.

With signs of fermentation all but absent after 9 days, I took hydrometer measurements confirming FG had been reached in both beers.

At this point, I swapped the airlocks out for CO2 filled BrüLoonLocks then reduced the temperature of the chamber.

After 2 days at 34°F/1°C, I transferred the beers into CO2 purged kegs.

The filled kegs were placed in my keezer and burst carbonated overnight before I reduced the gas to serving pressure. After a week of conditioning, they were both nicely carbonated and ready to serve.

| RESULTS |

A total of 20 people of varying levels of experience participated in this xBmt. Each participant was served 1 sample of the beer made with Bell’s Centennial Select and 2 samples of the beer made with standard Centennial hops in different colored opaque cups then asked to identify the unique sample. A total of 11 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to accurately identify the unique sample in order to reach statistical significance, though only 5 did (p=0.85), indicating participants in this xBmt were unable to reliably distinguish a Bell’s Two Hearted Ale clone hopped with Centennial Select from one made with standard Centennial hops.

My Impressions: Out of the 5 triangle tests I attempted, I selected the unique sample just once, and I’ll admit it was a pure guess. To my palate, both beers tasted identical, even when comparing them side-by-side. The Centennial character was strong in both and melded well with the classic IPA grist. An easy-drinker, to be sure!

| DISCUSSION |

According to Wikipedia, terroir is defined as “the set of all environmental factors that affect a crop’s phenotype, including unique environment contexts, farming practices, and a crop’s specific growth habitat.” In regards to hops, many believe terroir has a qualitative impact on quality, not necessarily that certain growing conditions are good or bad, but that hops of the same variety grown in different soil by different farmers using different processes can end up being different, at least to some degree. One way the industry gets around this is by blending hops from various lots to create a more homogenized finished product that’s also a bit more consistent, assuming any terroir differences weren’t terribly vast.

For the more discerning craft brewer or homebrewer who happens to be friends with hop growers, there’s hop selection, a fun process that allows one to hand select hops from specific lots prior to blending. Again, this isn’t really a better/worse scenario, but rather a way for those who are able call first dibs on the hops they subjectively perceive as having more of the character they’re looking for. This is exactly what Bell’s Brewery does with their Centennial Select, which is hand selected for use in Two Hearted Ale and other beers. Curiously, tasters in this xBmt were unable to reliably tell apart versions of Two Hearted Ale made with either Centennial Select or standard Centennial hops.

Having had the incredible experience of not only hanging out in Yakima during hop harvest, but participating in both mock and actual hop selection, I’m comfortable claiming that hops from various lots can definitely be different. However, this difference isn’t always huge and can shift on an annual basis, which leads to me wonder if the lack of a perceptible difference in this xBmt had mostly to do with the possibility the 2018 Centennial was just more consistent than in the past. I really don’t know, and while both beers in this xBmt were quite tasty, if I’m a craft brewer with the means and sensory proficiency, I’m definitely down to hand select what goes in my beer.

If you have any thoughts about this xBmt, please do not hesitate to share in the comments section below!

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