Author: Marshall Schott

Taking its name from the Haitian god of agriculture, Azacca was bred by the American Dwarf Hop Association and is lauded by brewers of hop forward beers for its ability to impart intense tropical fruit and citrus character.

Alpha: 14 – 16%

Beta: 4.0 – 5.5%

Cohumulone: 38 – 45% of alpha acids

Total Oil: 1.6 – 2.5 mL/100g

Myrcene: 46 – 55%

Humulene: 14 – 18%

Caryophyllene: 8 – 12%

Farnesene: <1%

Linalool: not available

Geraniol: not available

ß-Pinene: not available

Parentage: Toyomidori and ADHA 94/95

While I’ve personally enjoyed many hoppy ales made with Azacca hops, it took me until now to get around to using it myself, and given the love this variety has been receiving lately, I was excited to see how how blind tasters would describe it in this edition of The Hop Chronicles!

| MAKING THE BEER |

I designed a beer with a simple grist in hopes of helping boost any of Azacca’s unique characteristics.

Azacca Pale Ale

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 33.9 IBUs 5.1 SRM 1.051 1.012 5.2 % Actuals 1.051 1.008 5.6 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pale Malt (2 Row), Rahr 8.375 lbs 72.04 Pale Malt, Maris Otter 1.625 lbs 13.98 Vienna Malt 1.125 lbs 9.68 Victory Malt 8 oz 4.3 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Azacca 6 g 30 min First Wort Pellet 13.7 Azacca 14 g 15 min Boil Pellet 13.7 Azacca 60 g 1 min Boil Pellet 13.7 Azacca 90 g 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 13.7 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Flagship (A07) Imperial Organic 75% 60°F - 72°F Notes Water Profile: Yellow Bitter in Bru’n Water Spreadsheet

I made a large starter of Imperial Organic A07 Flagship yeast a couple days before brewing, about half of which was slated to be harvested for later use.

The afternoon prior to my brew day, I started the long process of collecting my RO water.

Once that was going, I weighed out and milled the grains.

I got started the next morning by heating the full volume of brewing liquor to strike temperature then mashing in with the help of my buddy, Tim.

With the grain fully incorporated into the water, I checked to confirm I’d hit my desired mash temperature.

A measurement 15 minutes later showed I’d also nailed my target mash pH.

I weighed out the kettle hop additions during the 60 minute mash rest.

When the mash was complete, I collected the sweet wort.

The wort was transferred to my kettle and boiled for an hour with hops added per the recipe.

When the 60 minute boil was finished, I quickly chilled the wort to slightly warmer than my groundwater temperature.

After taking a refractometer measurement showing I’d hit the my planned OG, I racked 5.5 gallons/21 liters of chilled wort to a Brew Bucket, moved it to a temperature controlled chamber, and pitched the yeast. Activity in the airlock was observed just 4 hours later and signs of fermentation were beginning to dwindle 3 days post-pitch, at which point I raised the temperature to 72˚F/23˚C to encourage complete attenuation. After another 4 days, I took a hydrometer measurement that indicated FG had been reached before adding the dry hop charge.

I gave the beer 3 days to mingle with the dry hops then proceeded with cold crashing, fining with gelatin, and kegging.

The keg was placed in my cold keezer where it was burst carbonated for 18 hours before I reduced the CO2 to serving pressure and allowed the beer to condition for another few days before serving it to participants.

| 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 18 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 Tropical Fruit Stone Fruit Citrus Melon Stone Fruit

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being least prominent by participants:

Aroma Flavor Onion/Garlic Onion/Garlic Dank/Catty Dank/Catty Grassy Earthy/Woody

Participants were then asked to rate the pungency of the overall hop character.

Next, they were instructed to identify beer styles they thought the hop would work well in.

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

My Impressions: My only prior experience with Azacca being in beers brewed by others where additional varieties were used, I wasn’t too sure what to expect and was quite surprised with how strongly I perceived the stone fruit character in this beer. One taster, after completing the survey, said the beer had a “peach rings” aroma and flavor, which jibed well with my impression. Underneath that, I got hints of citrus, though not the typical grapefruit I was expecting, but more like the zest of an orange. Overall, while I thought the Azacca character in the beer would have been more in-your-face given the amount of hops used relative to the simple grist, I’d say it was squarely in the moderate range, which to me isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

| CONCLUSION |

There’s always something exciting about trying out an ingredient for the first time, especially when the end result is a fantastic experience, which was definitely the case with Azacca hops. With its moderately pungent tropical and stone fruit characteristics combined with solid bittering potential, its no wonder this variety has been gaining the favor of Pale Ale and IPA brewers since it was released.

I typically expect single hop beers to be largely unidimensional, and while I do believe Azacca would play well with other varieties in the mix, I was surprised how well it held up on its own. I absolutely plan to load up on more Azacca for use in combination with other classic “C” hops in hoppy American styles and I’m thinking I may also use it as the sole variety in a crushable American Wheat ale I’ve been thinking about brewing.

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

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

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