I’ve seen a few single hop beers around recently. Last night at Russian River Brewery they had a single hop pale called “Row 2, Hill 56” made with just the Simcoe hop. I had to Google Simcoe to find out what it’s about. Apparently it’s really in demand. The RRB Simcoe hop ale was excellent–nice hoppy nose, but not green, nice hoppy flavor, but not bitter, a bit of citrus, great complexity. I finished off with a Porter and pizza.
Yeah, I went last night cuz Pliny is releasing Friday so I’m staying the hell away for a few days. lol
I also had a Rogue single malt ale in a 22 awhile ago.
I like them because they can help you clearly figure out where your preferences lie. that said, I don’t think they’re necessarily superior to brews that employ a blend of hops.
I was at the brewery last week, was intrigued by the ‘Row 2’ beer, but instead went for the Damnation 23. And on a relatively empty stomach, that was all I could reasonably mess with.
I’m hoping I’ll finally get to try the Younger this year.
Some of the better craft houses make spectacular single hop brews. Kern River makes the limited release Citra and Alpine does a great job with their Nelson IPA made with the Nelson Sauvign hop.
That is pretty geeky. Individual hop varieties have very distinct bittering, flavor, and scent characteristics. That I buy.
Claiming your fuggles are super distinct from your neighbor’s fuggles seems geeky. Admittedly no more geeky than one vineyard with the same exact vines selling for 10x the one on the other side of the little stone fence.
Six Point makes a Spice of Life series that uses the exact same recipe except for a different hop each month. Unfortunately its draft only so tough to do a side by side unless you stash some growlers.
We see a lot of single hop beers during fresh hop season. A few of the local brewers will make the same beer with 3 different hops. This is really cool because it’s fascinating to taste the difference side by side.
That said, this thread is not about Cris and his general dislike for beers that feature a strong sense of hoppiness; it’s about Single Hop Beers.
In the name of refocusing this thread, I’ll mention that the Mikkeller Single Hop Warrior IPA that I had on-tap at Naja’s a bit more than a year ago is easily one of the three best regular IPA’s I’ve ever had.
I think of hops the way I think of the grapes in a Rhone blend. The act of blending does not diminish the quality of the finished product; in fact most of the very best examples in both genres are all about the mastery of balancing the blended components. But there are certain grape or hop varieties whose signature appearance can make or break certain people’s opinions. For hops it’s certain overly citrusy or grassy varieties, for Rhone blends it’s usually Mourvedre, sometimes Cinsault. While I don’t find most single variety beers or Rhones to be the ‘best’ of their styles, I do very much enjoy them from their palate education standpoint. Those Mikkeller single hop beers lined up side by side are like being at a barrel blending session at Beaucastel or Tablas Creek.
Enough dialogue. Time to shut the f*^% up and drink with my wife on her birthday. Deuces.
A friend of mine who ran a beer yeast culturing company used to do batches with just two row pale malt infusion mashed to about 5% potential ABV, and a single hop variety at 25 IBUs, so that he could have a clear picture of how a yeast strain affected the aroma and flavor of a beer. Beyond being informative about the malt, the hop variety and the yeast, they were also really enjoyable beers to quaff. He called it “brewing naked,” and I did it the last time I brewed, (I stoked up the hops a tad) because they are easy and rewarding to make. Sadly, that was a long time ago.