Bitches Brew
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- Joined
- 8/4/13
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This hop isn't widely available in Oz so I thought that I would post some observations about my first shot at using it in an American pale ale. I am not a hop-head. I enjoy a bit of a bitter bite to balance my American pale ales and love a heady aroma of hops, but I don't aim for 50+ IBU in this style, so if that is your thing, this post probably won't help you much.
To test this hop out I rigged my system to divide my wort into two kettles to create two separate brews. In one kettle I used a combination of zythos and amarillo and in the other I used Wai-iti. I didn't attempt to keep the bitterness levels equivalent between the brews, but rather aimed to use similar amounts of each hop to compare the intensity and nature of the flavour and aroma contributed by these hops.
I employed first wort hopping to maximise the flavour coming out of early additions and soften the perceived bitterness of the brews (since I wasn't sure how high bitterness levels would effect my perception of the Wai-iti flavour and aroma). I also generously dry hopped.
As always the zythos/amarillo brew carried a strong citrus nose. The amarillo is dominant in this pairing. The bitterness was higher in this beer (45 IBU compared to 35 for the Wai-iti version).
The aroma and flavour contribution of Wai-iti was much more subdued than zythos/amarillo. However, I have to say that Wai-iti provides a really nice aroma and flavour. There were no grassy notes from the dry hopping. The flavour in my brew was definitely citrus. I didn't get any piney, herbal notes, but I'm not really that refined a judge of these things. I don't know whether I would say that I picked mandarin (as the product description claims), but it was certainly different to cascade, centennial and amarillo in the type of citrus aroma/flavour provided.
If I repeated this brew I would definitely reduce the malt backbone that I used. I think that this really effects how hops are perceived. In a lighter bodied beer this would be a really nice addition. I would be careful pairing it with other citrus hops like amarillo, cascade and centennial because I think that they would tend to over power the Wai-iti.
All in all, I'm quite happy with the hop and the brew.
To test this hop out I rigged my system to divide my wort into two kettles to create two separate brews. In one kettle I used a combination of zythos and amarillo and in the other I used Wai-iti. I didn't attempt to keep the bitterness levels equivalent between the brews, but rather aimed to use similar amounts of each hop to compare the intensity and nature of the flavour and aroma contributed by these hops.
I employed first wort hopping to maximise the flavour coming out of early additions and soften the perceived bitterness of the brews (since I wasn't sure how high bitterness levels would effect my perception of the Wai-iti flavour and aroma). I also generously dry hopped.
As always the zythos/amarillo brew carried a strong citrus nose. The amarillo is dominant in this pairing. The bitterness was higher in this beer (45 IBU compared to 35 for the Wai-iti version).
The aroma and flavour contribution of Wai-iti was much more subdued than zythos/amarillo. However, I have to say that Wai-iti provides a really nice aroma and flavour. There were no grassy notes from the dry hopping. The flavour in my brew was definitely citrus. I didn't get any piney, herbal notes, but I'm not really that refined a judge of these things. I don't know whether I would say that I picked mandarin (as the product description claims), but it was certainly different to cascade, centennial and amarillo in the type of citrus aroma/flavour provided.
If I repeated this brew I would definitely reduce the malt backbone that I used. I think that this really effects how hops are perceived. In a lighter bodied beer this would be a really nice addition. I would be careful pairing it with other citrus hops like amarillo, cascade and centennial because I think that they would tend to over power the Wai-iti.
All in all, I'm quite happy with the hop and the brew.
