Experimental 105/220

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jceg316

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A while ago I saw Experimental 105/220 hops at GEB which I decided to buy, and got round to using them yesterday. They are described as "Black current, citrus, tropical fruits, pineapple" which I thought would go well in a best bitter. Brewed this on my Grainfather.

Batch size: 25L
Boil size: 30L
Efficiency: 80%
OG: 1.045
FG: 1.013
ABV: 4.2%

Fermentables
Lager malt 4kg
Aromatic malt 270g
Dark Crystal 250g

Hop Schedule - all hops Experimental 105/220
25g @ 60min
10g@ 15min
10g@ 10min
20g@ F.O
35g Dry hop

WLP005 British ale yeast, made a starter as this had been stored out the fridge for a while

hit all my numbers and pitched the yeast when the wort cooled to 20°C. Left to ferment in my FastFerment and already signs of activity about 14 hours on.

Not used this hope before so quite excited to see how it comes out.
 
I've just used them in an extract pale ale and my impressions were a lot of sweet tropical fruit. Be very happy to swap and compare the hops in different styles if you like.

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=69118

Once these are in the bottle I would like to do a bottle swap and compare. If you are up for it I'd also like to try the other experimental hop as I was gonna get a pack of those. Can swap an extra bottle of this or something else I have.
 
One week on I tried some out the fermentor. It's been in my FastFerment with no temp control, but with the hot weather it's been at ~23°C max. It's at 1.013 currently which is the estimated FG. The aroma is fantastic. I'm getting a lot of berries, but very complex with a lot more going on, but I can't quite put my finger on it all. Tasting it however, whilst nice I'm getting all malt and no hops. Not sure what I expected though as all my beers seem to be malt in flavour until a couple of weeks in the bottle when the hop flavour really kicks in. Nonetheless, it was still a nice beer!

Probably best to wait until it's bottled before I give a proper opinion on this hop, but so far I'm really pleased.
 
Tasting it however, whilst nice I'm getting all malt and no hops. Not sure what I expected though as all my beers seem to be malt in flavour until a couple of weeks in the bottle when the hop flavour really kicks in.

You'll find that the right level of carbonation really lifts the hop aroma and brightens the taste. Too much carbonation and the flavours are thin and washed out, too little and the flavours are there but muted and dull. This might go some way to explain why they need a little time in the bottle first.

Also for your flamout hops, if you haven't already, try adding them when the wort is below 80°C you'll retain a lot more of the more of the hop oils.
 
You'll find that the right level of carbonation really lifts the hop aroma and brightens the taste. Too much carbonation and the flavours are thin and washed out, too little and the flavours are there but muted and dull. This might go some way to explain why they need a little time in the bottle first.

Also for your flamout hops, if you haven't already, try adding them when the wort is below 80°C you'll retain a lot more of the more of the hop oils.

Interesting about the carbonation, I never really thought about what affect it would have on hop flavour. I used to batch prime but it would be rare that I'd get a batch with no issues. I found it really hard to mix the sugar in evenly, so some would be on the flat side, whereas others in the same batch would gush or in some cases explode. So what I do now is add half a teaspoon of sugar to a 330ml bottle, and this has been far more successful so far.

But now you've got me thinking about whether it's the best amount for hoppy beers!
 

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