Author: Marshall Schott

For the first foray into this project, I used a relatively new hop variety that, at the time of purchase was referred to as Experimental Pine Fruit, though recently adopted the name Eureka.

Alpha: 18.0 – 19.0 %

Beta: 5.0 – 6.0 %

CoH: 27 % of alpha acids

Oil: 3.10 ml/100g

Myrcene 43.00%

Humulene 29.80%

Caryophyllene 14.20%

Farnesene 0.20%

Linalool 0.40%

Parentage: Apollo, Merkur

I’d actually heard about before through Matt Humbard’s experimental hop series on his blog, Ph.D. In Beer. In that post, Matt commented on how aromatically pungent he perceived this hop to be:

The aroma is really forward… almost overwhelming. It is PINE NEEDLES (YES!!!) and grapefruit with a slight mild floral character and definitely some dankness/sulfur you can get from a few hops at times. Really prominent aroma, I can’t state that enough here… very aromatic.

I’ve been pining to play with this one for awhile and was excited by the prospect of using it in our THC Pale Ale recipe!

| MAKING THE BEER |

Being the first single-batch brew in months, this brew day was a piece of cake. I got a starter of WLP090 going a couple days ahead of time, overbuilding enough to harvest for future use.

I woke up early a couple days later and began heating the entire volume of brewing liquor for a no sparge mash. Once mashed in, I weighed out the hops.

While somewhat familiar, their aroma was far more pungent than I’m used to, even my daughter commented on it as she walked by the bench they were sitting on. Once the boil was finished, I chilled the wort to 175°F with my King Cobra IC, it took about 30 seconds, then added the huge hopstand addition and let it steep. The smell filled my entire garage, it was pretty remarkable. When the hopstand was complete, I cranked my water to full blast and finished chilling to my target fermentation temperature of 66°F. I filled the carboy, placed it in a fermentation chamber, then pitched the WLP090 starter. The beer fermented for a week before I added the dry hop charge, which sat in the beer for 3 days. After a hydrometer measurement confirmed the target FG had been reached, I crashed it, fined with gelatin, and racked it to a keg.

| RESULTS |

I invited 11 experienced craft beer drinkers to participate in this project including many certified and provisional BJCP judges. All tasters were informed of the general purpose of The Hop Chronicles, though the hop variety was not revealed. Participants were provided a sample of the beer then instructed to complete a survey asking them to rank the intensity of pre-determined aroma and flavor characteristics on a 0-4 Likert scale where higher ranks corresponded to stronger perceptions of a particular characteristic. The rankings for each descriptor were then averaged and plotted on a radar graph.

Average Ratings of Aroma and Flavor Perceptions

You may have noticed the mean differences between descriptors aren’t that huge (e.g., 1.09 between citrus and apple-pear on flavor), which is likely a function of the relatively small scale (this is something we’re changing). While we’ve no valid method to prove whether one characteristic is significantly more prominent than another, ordering the descriptors by their mean ratings gives some idea of what participants generally perceived from this hop, and hence what one might expect when using this hop.

The 3 aroma and flavor characteristics endorsed as being most prominent by the tasters were:

Citrus

Resinous

Tropical fruit

The 3 aroma and flavor characteristics endorsed as being least prominent by the tasters were:

Grassy (aroma)/Floral (flavor)

Berry

Apple-Pear

Tasters were also asked about the pungency/strength of the hop. A majority of 7 endorsed strong, 1 person thought it was extreme, and the other 3 felt it was moderately pungent. None of the participants perceived this hop as being mild.

Finally, we asked each taster to indicate the beer styles they think this hop would work best for. In resounding agreement, everyone selected hoppy styles including IPA, IIPA, and APA, with a few suggesting it’d work well in an American Red or Saison.

My Impressions: I took note of my impression prior to collecting data so as to avoid as much bias as possible. What I perceived the first time I sampled this beer did not change at all as the beer sat around. For me, the aroma was marked by an intense resinous character backed up by moderate citrus and tropical fruit (guava), which largely overwhelmed any malt or yeast contribution. Interestingly, the flavor came across to me as slightly more balanced, though still definitely hop forward, with stronger notes of pine and peach. I perceived the bitterness imparted by Eureka as being a tad sharp, though rather pleasing, similar to what I get from Northern Brewer and not quite as biting as Chinook. I’m in full agreement with the panelists in thinking this hop is perfect for hop forward beer styles.

| CONCLUSIONS |

Experimental Pine Fruit, which now goes by the name Eureka, is a hop that seems to impart rather pungent resinous, citrus, and tropical fruit character. One taster commented it was like Simcoe on steroids, though I personally get more resin from Eureka. On its own, this hop made a tasty and perfectly drinkable hoppy APA, though I have a feeling it’d work even better paired with complimentary hops that amplify citrus and/or tropical fruit qualities. Also, we chose to use a relatively clean fermenting strain for this project in order to let the hop character shine, I’d love to taste a Eureka hopped beer fermented with a more characterful yeast such as The Yeast Bay’s Vermont Ale. Mmm.

Recently, it seems Eureka has been getting a bit more attention from brewers, which I see as a testament to its radness. If you’ve ever used this hop, please don’t hesitate to share your experience in the comments section below. Cheers!

This issue of The Hop Chronicles is sponsored by Yakima Valley Hops, suppliers of over 40 varieties of hops ranging from classics like Saaz and Cascade to yet-to-be-named experimental options. Offering great prices with reasonable shipping, consider Yakima Valley Hops for your next hop purchase.

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| Read More |

18 Ideas to Help Simplify Your Brew Day

7 Considerations for Making Better Homebrew

List of completed exBEERiments

How-to: Harvest yeast from starters

How-to: Make a lager in less than a month

| Good Deals |

10% Off Chapman Equipment ThermoBarrels using code: THINKBEERDRINKBEER03

Brand New 5 gallon ball lock kegs discounted to $75 at Adventures in Homebrewing

ThermoWorks Super-Fast Pocket Thermometer On Sale for $19 – $10 discount

Sale and Clearance Items at MoreBeer.com

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