Hop Hog Clone

[Nick JD]

I was at an American Micro once and they can pick the homebrewers in the first sentence. Then their eyes squint up a little bit and it's like you're asking them for their online banking password.

Could fully taste Citra in an IPA and the brewer was like all, NOPE!

Then we wander over to the big cool store area and there in ******* massive stacks are a gazillion boxes of Citra. I look at the guy and do the roll eyes.

Maybe he thought his beer was better than it was, or I was some kind of industrial espionage agent putting on a false accent?

Asking brewers what they put in their beers is like asking a woman if she fakes her orgasms. Fat chance you'll get a straight answer.

 

[technobabble66]

Ianj84 - same. Well at least for the calibre of Epic & 8 wired
Interesting read:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/lifestyle/beer/7397635/Outsourcing-brewing-has-its-pitfalls

I'm curious about the Amarillo - I'm still trying to learn to identify individual hops. Currently I'm getting pretty good at indentifying that it does indeed have some hops in it (of unknown type & quantity) ;-) hence my reservation about galaxy but really I don't know. I thought galaxy was the *only* hops I could identify (passionfruit kinda stands out in a beer!). If I'm wrong on this one I really suck at this tasting thing!!

Edit: slow typing.
KH: look fwd to the comparison! I'm pretty sure I'd go with the Citra. Interesting he stopped playing after the mention of Amarillo...
NickJD - agree. I researched JS's Hop Thief ale pretty heavily & the brewers claim different combos at different times (while referring to the same batch). A bit of obfuscation, methinks. Mind you, various forums also indulge heavily in Chinese whispers to muddy the waters also (that's why I was being a bit pedantic about info sources).

 

[krausenhaus]

I'm a bit confused about a contract brewer in NZ knowing the hop schedule for Feral beers.

Ianj84 are you getting confused with an Epic or 8wired beer (Hop Zombie, Hopwired, etc.) or did the guy have something to do with Feral too?

 

[ianj84]

No im not confused !

he just knew Brendon from feral and told me there's Amarillo in it.

 

[Nick JD]

Add to this the variation in "Bintage" year on year with some of these hop varieties (I'm talking to you, Amarillo!) and trying to pick a hop is difficult.

I recently could have sworn a Centenial beer was Amarillo, but I think Amarillo has faded as the hops become more established (maybe the bigger the rhizomes get the different the hops become?).

Add to this a bad drought (no plant produces well if it's stressed) or constant rain leading to fungal issues etc, and year on year a fantastic hop can be a dud.

Funny how we don't consider "vintages" in beer, but maybe VB was awesome in 1987 due to a great fruity PoR harvest and fat, plump barley full of protein. Maybe not, but it's an interesting topic - especially for poor commercial brewers trying to establish as standard brew. I feel sorry for these micros who can't obtain the ingredients for their best sellers.

Which brings me back to the reason I think some micros are so sketchy about their recipes ... they change them all the time and hope no one notices. Yup, that's not Riwaka, it's Galaxy and Cascade.

 

[technobabble66]

So is that the 4 then : centennial, citra, cascade, & Amarillo ??
Sounds great to me.

 

[mxd]

That's fantastic, mxd!!
...um... Do you remember what they were?? ;-))

no :chug: but there we other non drunks there

 

[krausenhaus]

So is that the 4 then : centennial, citra, cascade, & Amarillo ??
Sounds great to me.

I'm still pretty sold on Galaxy - I've had Hop Hog at the brewery twice in the last week and in stubbies at home and I think it's there, but I'm definitely no expert. Plus I heard it directly from a brewer.

Either way, the above combination will make an awesome beer.

Like I said, I'll have a better idea when I compare my IPA this weekend, plus I'm gonna have a crack at a clone for the next brew.

 

[slash22000]

Galaxy is an Australian hop, cheap and readily available to an Australian brewery, I wouldn't be surprised to find it in any hoppy Australian beer.

 

[technobabble66]

I'm still pretty sold on Galaxy - I've had Hop Hog at the brewery twice in the last week and in stubbies at home and I think it's there, but I'm definitely no expert. Plus I heard it directly from a brewer.

Either way, the above combination will make an awesome beer.

Like I said, I'll have a better idea when I compare my IPA this weekend, plus I'm gonna have a crack at a clone for the next brew.

I should b able to try it at the brewery tmrw, so I'll keep a tastebud out to spot the galaxy!

Galaxy or Amarillo I probably shouldn't care anyway. I love the galaxy I dryhopped into a LCPA clone(ish) a few months ago.

I should really b more focused on how to get that depth of flavour & keep the IBUs below 50...

 

[technobabble66]

NickJD - yeah, I think The vintage thing plus creative recollection makes comparing year-to-year across different beers v difficult. And that many beers don't seem to keep well beyond a couple of years.

Hops could possibly vary enormously given the multitude of constituents that noone really knows what they do, plus the sensitivity of taste & smell.
I certainly know of big variances in grain quality & composition from year to year via a friend in grain logistics (stock feed, sadly; not brewing grains).

 

[Nick JD]

Other thing is, let's say you own a micro and have a really successful beer start to become popular and it constitutes 75% of your sales ... but it has, say, Amarillo as the only hop in it.

And you can only get 1.5 tonnes of Amarillo when you need 3.

But PoR is a fraction of the price of Amarillo - and you only use it for bittering - most people won't notice.

Then the year after, you can only get 500kg of Amarillo, so you fortify it with Cascade and Cluster.

And everyone's going, "Their IPA used to be better, I think."

Year after that it's bittered with isohops and flavoured with Galaxy. Tastes nothing like it used to but only the homebrewers notice.

 

[pressure_tested]

so has anyone made one of these recently? I'm brewing an IPA in two weeks and the gang really loves hop hog. Not really looking to clone it, just want to make something where the bitterness is balanced with the american/australian hop flavour & aromas.

 

[Econwatson]

Hey all!

I spoke to a woman at GABS who claimed to be married to the brewer at Feral.

We played a little hops guessing game where I eventually guessed my way to the three hops. She said:
Cascade
Citra
Centennial

Just thought it might be useful to somebody, it didn't seem like she was making it up, because she seemed to be racking her brais to remember!

 

[Josho]

The brew took out 1st place in last years beer awards,
Im sure if you asked nicely they might actually give you a bit of an idea on whats in the brew,

they are pretty good fellas.

 

[NewtownClown]

Hey all!

I spoke to a woman at GABS who claimed to be married to the brewer at Feral.

We played a little hops guessing game where I eventually guessed my way to the three hops. She said:
Cascade
Citra
Centennial

Just thought it might be useful to somebody, it didn't seem like she was making it up, because she seemed to be racking her brais to remember!

If her name was Gabby, then it is Brendan's wife.

I detect slight passionfruit (galaxy?) from the bottle but none at all from the tap. Actually prefer it from the tap.

 

[slcmorro]

Reviving this old thread... does anyone have anything further on the previous mentioned recipes and in particular, their hop additions?

 

[MashPaddler]

Having read the thread amarillo and galaxy hops get a good run. I have smelt passionfruit in the aroma but it is subtle, and reckon amarillo is a good bet too. I have an amarillo IPA which I dry hopped with whole hop galaxy on Sunday - Kegging on Thursday and I will do a side by side next week with the feral to see if it is a similar hop profile. I wasn't going for a clone though (mine's sitting at 6.5% and has a good dose of special B so it won't be identical.

It smells fricken delicious either way.

 

[Byran]

Had one on sat night on tap and I did get the stonefruity (amarillo) vibe but it could be a different hop all together........

 

[krausenhaus]

I asked the guys at the Feral stall at GABS and they told me that the fourth hop (on top of Centennial, Cascade & Citra) changed from time to time, and is sometimes Simcoe. I'm thinking it's Simcoe when Amarillo isn't available maybe?