Author: Paul Amico

Hailing from the land of the long white cloud, Waimea was released in 2012 by The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research and developed a reputation as an excellent bittering hop due to its substantial alpha acid content. As is the case for many Kiwi hops of late, brewers quickly came to appreciate Waimea for its ability to impart pungent aroma and flavor characteristics, most notably a blend of different citrus fruits with notes of resinous pine.

Alpha: 16 – 17%

Beta: 7 – 9%

Cohumulone: 22 – 24% of alpha acids

Total Oil: 2.1 mL/100g

Myrcene: 60%

Humulene: 9.5%

Caryophyllene: 2.6%

Farnesene: 5%

Linalool: unknown

ß-Pinene: unknown

Geraniol: unknown

Parentage: Californian Late Cluster, Fuggle, Saaz

Always excited to play with varieties I’ve never used and know little about, I decided to brew up a batch of Pale Ale hopped solely with Waimea and serve it to blind tasters for evaluation.



| MAKING THE BEER |

I went with the standard Hop Chronicles Pale Ale recipe for this batch in hopes of letting the hop character shine.

Waimea Pale Ale

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 43.2 IBUs 4.0 SRM 1.051 1.013 5.1 % Actuals 1.051 1.011 5.3 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pale Malt (2 Row) US 10 lbs 83.33 Vienna Malt 2 lbs 16.67 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Waimea 12 g 45 min Boil Pellet 13.3 Waimea 12 g 30 min Boil Pellet 13.3 Waimea 12 g 15 min Boil Pellet 13.3 Waimea 56 g 2 min Boil Pellet 13.3 Waimea 56 g 4 days Dry Hop Pellet 13.3 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Dieter (G03) Imperial Yeast 75% 60°F - 69°F Notes Water Profile: Ca 92 | Mg 1 | Na 10 | SO4 153 | Cl 50 Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

After collecting the full volume of water and adjusting it to my desired profile, I flipped the switch on my Clawhammer electric controller to get things heating up then proceeded with milling the grain.

When the water was properly heated, I stirred in the grains and check to make sure the mash was at my intended temperature.

During the mash rest, I weighed out the kettle hop additions.

When the 60 minute mash rest was finished, I removed the grains from the sweet wort and set the controller the heat it up.

Following a 60 minute boil, I used my CFC to chill the wort during transfer to a sanitized fermenter.

A refractometer reading showed the wort was right at my target OG.

After a couple hours in my fermentation chamber, I pitched a pouch of Imperial Yeast G03 Dieter directly into the wort.

The beer was left to ferment at 66°F/19°C for 11 before I took a hydrometer measurement confirming FG was reached.

With fermentation complete, I pressure transferred the beer to a CO2 purged keg.

The filled keg was placed in my keezer and burst carbonated overnight before I reduced the gas to serving pressure. After a week of conditioning, I began serving it to blind tasters.

| METHOD |

Participants were instructed to focus only on the aromatic qualities of the beer before evaluating the flavor. For each aroma and flavor descriptor, tasters were asked to write-in the perceived strength of that particular characteristic on a 0-9 scale where a rating of 0 meant they did not perceive the character at all and a 9 rating meant the character was extremely strong. Once the data was collected, the average rating of each aroma and flavor descriptor was compiled and analyzed.

| RESULTS |

A total of 12 people participated in the evaluation of this beer, all blind to the hop variety used until after they completed the survey. The average aroma and flavor ratings for each descriptor were plotted on a radar graph.

Average Ratings of Aroma and Flavor Perceptions

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being most prominent by participants:

Aroma Flavor Tropical Fruit Floral Citrus Citrus Apple/Pear Resinous

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being least prominent by participants:

Aroma Flavor Onion/Garlic Onion/Garlic Dank/Catty Berry Pine Earthy/Woody

When asked to rate the pungency/strength of the hop, most tasters perceived it as being mildly to moderately pungent.

Tasters were then instructed to identify beer styles they thought the hop would work well in.

Finally, participants were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the hop character on a 1 to 10 scale.

My Impressions: When first sniffing this Waimea hopped Pale Ale, the first thing that hit me was tropical fruit, almost like I walked by a basket of ripe mangos, plantains, and papayas. Underneath that was a very subtle hint of resinous pine. To me, the flavor was more driven by citrus than tropical fruit, though the slight piney character remained present in the finish.

| CONCLUSION |

Named after a town on New Zealand’s south island, Waimea has developed a reputation for packing a powerful alpha acid punch along with possessing a relatively high percentage of desirable aromatic oils, making it an ideal dual-purpose variety. However, it seems Waimea hasn’t received as much attention as other new varieties, despite one of the most common descriptors being citrus, a highly sought characteristic in modern IPA.

When asked to evaluate a Pale Ale hopped only with Waimea, tasters who were blind to the hop variety endorsed tropical fruit and citrus as being the most notable overall characteristics, corresponding rather well with pre-existing descriptors. Moreover, less desirable characteristics such as onion/garlic tended to be rated quite low. Given this fruit-forwardness, it makes sense that nearly all tasters felt Waimea would work well in hoppy Pale Ale and IPA, and in conversations following completion of the survey, multiple tasters said they thought it would be perfect for a hazy New England IPA.

This being my first experience using Waimea, I was generally pleased with how it worked on its own in this Hop Chronicles Pale Ale, but felt it would really shine when combined with other varieties. With the strong tropical fruit nose, I’m interested in blending Waimea with a bit of BRU-1 and perhaps even some Sabro, which could make for a beer with a uniquely beautiful tropical character.

Waimea hops are available now at Yakima Valley Hops, get them while you can! If you have any thoughts on this variety, please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Support Brülosophy In Style!

All designs are available in various colors and sizes on Amazon!

Follow Brülosophy on:

If you enjoy this stuff and feel compelled to support Brulosophy.com, please check out the Support page for details on how you can very easily do so. Thanks!

Advertisements

Share this: Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Tumblr

Email



Like this: Like Loading...