Author: Marshall Schott

Originally bred in 1974 and released in 1990 by Washington State University, Centennial hops rapidly became a workhorse among American brewers and remains so to this day. Noted to be used in popular commercial beers such as Russian River’s Pliny The Elder and The Alchemist’s Heady Topper, Centennial has paved a solid path for itself, becoming a staple among brewers of hop-forward styles.

Alpha: 7 – 12%

Beta: 3.5 – 5.5%

Cohumulone: 23 – 27% of alpha acids

Total Oil: 1 – 3 mL/100g

Myrcene: 55 – 65%

Humulene: 10 – 20%

Caryophyllene: 5 – 7%

Farnesene: <1.0%

Linalool: 0.6 – 0.9%

Geraniol: 1.2 – 1.8%

ß-Pinene: 0.8 – 1.0%

Parentage: Brewers Gold, Fuggle, Golding, Bavarian, unknown

Referred to by many as Super Cascade, Centennial is said to impart characteristics of citrus, most notably grapefruit, as well as floral, herbal, and spicy notes. With few exceptions, most commercial examples of Centennial hop usage is in conjunction with other similar varieties, leaving us curious how it would present when used in a simple beer all on its own!

| MAKING THE BEER |

In order to allow the Centennial to be in the spotlight, I designed a recipe with a simple grist and clean yeast.

Centennial Pale Ale

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 35.0 IBUs 5.3 SRM 1.057 1.012 5.9 % Actuals 1.057 1.012 5.9 % Fermentables Name Amount % ESB Pale Malt (Gambrinus) 7.875 lbs 68.48 Pilsner (Weyermann) 3.625 lbs 31.52 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Centennial 15 g 60 min Boil Pellet 7.3 Centennial 10 g 30 min Boil Pellet 7.3 Centennial 30 g 15 min Boil Pellet 7.3 Centennial 30 g 5 min Boil Pellet 7.3 Centennial 52 g 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 7.3 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Safale American (US-05) DCL/Fermentis 77% 59°F - 75°F Notes Water Profile: Ca 87 | Mg 1 | Na 10 | SO4 125 | Cl 62 | HCO3 200

The night before brew day, I collected the water for this full volume no sparge batch, adjusting it with minerals and acid to my target profile, then weighed out and milled the grain.

I hit the flame under my kettle first thing the next morning, adding the slightly overheated liquor to my mash tun for preheating before stirring in the grain to hit my target mash temperature.

A measurement 15 minutes into the mash revealed I’d nailed the pH predicted by Bru’n Water.

After a 60 minute rest, I collected the full volume of sweet wort in my trusty graduated bucket before transferring it to a kettle.

As the wort was heating, I measured out all of the Centennial hops that would be added to the kettle.

Once the wort had reached a rolling boil, I set a timer for 60 minutes and began making kettle hop additions.

At the conclusion of the boil, I quickly chilled the wort to a few degrees warmer than my groundwater temperature, which is a bit warmer than my desired fermentation temperature.

I took a refractometer measurement between stirs while chilling that showed a I’d achieved a respectable OG.

The chilled wort was transferred to a fermentor then placed in my cool chamber to finish chilling to my target fermentation temperature of 66°F/19°F.

I returned about 4 hours later to pitch a vitality starter I’d made earlier with Safale US-05 dry yeast. The following morning, about 12 hours later, I noticed airlock activity indicating active fermentation. I allowed the beer to ferment for 3 days before bumping the temperature up to 72°F/22°C.

With signs of active fermentation absent after another 3 days, 6 days total, I took a preliminary hydrometer measurement and added the Centennial dry hop charge.

After 3 days on the dry hops, I took a second hydrometer measurement that matched the first, confirming fermentation was indeed complete.

The beer was cold crashed, fined with gelatin, then kegged 9 days after being brewed.

The filled keg was placed in my keezer where the beer underwent a brief period of burst carbonation before I reduced the gas to serving pressure. After a few days of cold conditioning, the beer was carbonated, clear, and ready to serve!

| 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 rating of 9 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 Citrus Floral Spicy/Herbal Earthy/Woody Earthy/Woody Spicy/Herbal

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being least prominent by participants:

Aroma Flavor Onion/Garlic Berry Berry Onion/Garlic Dank/Catty Apple/Pear

When asked to rate the pungency/strength of the hop, the majority of tasters perceived it as being 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: Prior to sampling this single-hop Pale Ale, I fully expected to be greeted with a strong grapefruit character and maybe a touch of pine. But that’s not what I got, not at all. Instead, I found any citrus notes to be muted, overshadowed by a blend of floral and spice that immediately took me back to my early days of drinking when “craft beer” basically just meant Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It took me a few samplings to really wrap my mind around what it was I was tasting, wholly a function of knowing the hop that was used and having a very specific idea of what to expect. While a bit of a shocker, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this beer, in fact as other participants pointed out, it was reminiscent of earlier times and was quite crushable to boot.

| CONCLUSION |

I believe it was Socrates who said something about true wisdom coming from knowing that one knows nothing. This experience proved to me I’m far from wise, as I’ve assumed for years to know the character imparted by Centennial hops to point of referring to is a favorite variety of mine. I’ve tasted a particular commercially available beer hopped with Centennial once before, it was years ago, I’d already knocked a few other beers back, and I was’t necessarily in evaluation mode, so I can’t really say how I perceived it then. While the beer I made for this edition of The Hop Chronicles was perfectly fine, I’m realizing now what I thought I knew about Centennial was likely built on my perception of beers where it was used in conjunction with other hops. To this end, I remain a huge fan, though I’ll likely shy away from using it on its own in the future.

A comparison between this data and that from a prior edition of The Hop Chronicles certainly seems to support the notion that Centennial is a “super” Cascade, both imparting very similar characteristics while the former clocks in with a slightly higher AA%. With modern hops with new aromas and flavors popping up so frequently, Centennial is a classic variety that can hold its own in old school Pale Ale as well as meld beautifully with other hops in newer beer styles.

If you have any thoughts on Centennial hops, please feel free to share them in the comments section below!

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