Sam Adams Latitude 48 Deconstructed

I was eagerly awaiting this sampler and commend Sam Adams for putting this out. This is yet another reason I love Sam Adams. This sampler is meant to be a learning tool to help drinkers identify the distinct flavors in beer. With knowledge is power. The beauty of this sampler is you get to taste the characteristics of five different hops with the exact same malt profile for each beer. If you happened to be a homebrewer and wanted to complete this experiment, you would invest approximately $250.00 (5x5 gallon batches) and about 30hrs of brewing time. Thank you Sam Adams for my $14.00 hop lesson.


Again, I would like to reiterate this is a learning tool. These beers were not meant to be some outstanding rendition of a single hopped Hallertau IPA. I’ve seen a lot of forum responses stating these weren’t very good IPA’s and (place beer name here) is a way better IPA. That was not the purpose of this sampler, to create a superior standalone IPA, instead it was to allow people to taste 5 different hop characteristics in the exact same beer.

I chose to taste these beers back to back. I’ve recently learned the best way to taste the differences in beers is to taste them back to back. Your memory likes to play tricks on you after a few beers, so that stout with the chocolate taste isn’t as chocolaty two months from now when you drink another one. Also since these IPA’s are essentially the same beer it would be very hard to distinguish the differences if you didn’t taste them one right after the other.

Hallertau

The Hallertau version had a very earthy/grassy nose with hints of malt poking through. The Hallertau hop is a noble hop sought after for it’s clean bittering qualities and is evident in this IPA. The bittereness was very clean and crisp. It did not linger long after you swallowed and is very refreshing. The taste could be described as earthy, piney, and floral. This taste was very familiar to me from other brews, I just didn’t realize it was due to the Hallertau hop. Now I know!

Zeus

The Zeus version had big grapefruit smell in the nose. The taste followed suit and exploded with huge grapefruit taste. The Zeus had good taste character with the citrus/grapefruit flavor but did have a somewhat harsh ending. The bitterness lingered a lot longer than Hallertau and was not near as clean.

Ahtanum

The Ahtanum version was very flat smelling in terms of hop presence. The nose was very malty with no real hop aroma. The Ahtanum reminded me of the Hallertau in terms of taste. There is a small faint taste of grapefruit at the beginning followed by earthy/piney flavors very similar to Hallertau. It is like Hallertau’s rougher younger brother. It is earthy/floral with a deeper taste than Hallertau and not as clean.

East Kent Goldings

The EKG version had a very sweet candy like smell. The sweetness was not entirely from the malt but came from the hop aroma. The taste was very malty and sweet with a slight after taste of earth/pine. This was a very subdued bitterness and was more of a background flavor. There was not much in terms of hop flavor going on in this one.

Simcoe

The Simcoe version had a somewhat sweet smell with some earthy pine thrown in for good measure. This version had a very clean bitterness to it. The flavor is a resinous earthy taste and was very pleasant. If you read my review of the Latitude 48, I stated there is a whole mouth quality to the bitterness. I believe the Simcoe hop is responsible for this. This would be a very good bittering hop for homebrewing.

Latitude 48

After tasting each bitter contributor, the original Latitude 48 was sampled. The East Kent Goldings sweet smell was apparent on the nose. It had a good balance between the bitterness, the hop flavor, and maltiness. I would guess that the Simcoe is the main culprit for most of the Latitude’s bitterness. I noticed the darker earthy tones (Ahtanum) that I would not have noticed before. I was looking for the grapefruit character (Zues) but couldn’t really find it. Overall, the Latitude 48 is still one of my favorite IPA’s due to its super clean bitterness and complexity of hop flavors. FatCat was the lone taster in this event and subsequently had to drink 6 IPAs before they got warm. Well they got warm, but I finished them anyway. I was going to try to recap them but I remembered something I read the other day. What was it? Oh yeah “Go Big or Go Home”.

Cheers!

Hop University - Extra Credit - Hop Composition Chart

If you made it all the way through Hop University here's your reward.  I compiled the composition data for some common hops and posted them in a spreadsheet.  This should make choosing your hops for your homebrew easier.

Hop University – Day 3 How to choose hops for homebrew

It is the final day and you are close to graduating. This last bit is geared exclusively towards homebrewers and how to utilize the Hop University knowledge. For those of you who are not homebrewers, I do have a reference below from a Beer Advocate thread giving you examples of commercial brews with specific hop profiles. If you want to experience specific hop flavors, this list will be a good start. The Sam Adams Deconstructed sampler was a great way to try different hops profiles, but I think it is very close to being sold out in the area.


You have a good idea of what you want your hop profile to be, now what? Well now you have to do some leg work and pick out the hops which will fit your intended profile. Luckily, I’ve done most of the leg work for you. You have two choices for the resource you can use to help define the hops you will use. If you are doing a traditional style, you can find the style guidelines in the BJCP guide and it will usually tell you what hops to use. You can also find websites or books that will explicitly tell you what hops are traditional for a style. That is the easy way out.

The other avenue you may choose is to make up your own hop profile regardless of what tradition says. Going this way is a little more tricky because there are no guides on the internet for the style in your head. You have to decide what hops to use on your own. There are several great resources for the composition of hops and their oils. Yakima Chief and Hop Union provide Hop handbooks that list information like the Alpha Acid percentage, Beta Acid percentage, Cohumulone percentage, as well as the percentage of the four essential oils (Myrcene, Humulene, etc.). It will be a good idea to look at both handbooks as each will have more information in different areas than the other. You can now narrow down the hops that will fit into your intended hop profile.

Hop University - Day 2

OK homebrewers and the brave few who have made it to day 2.  Hop history is down, on to the fun stuff, how hops are used in beer making.  We’ve discussed that hops offer bitterness to beer which balances the sweet malt.  In order to get the bitterness out of the hops, they must first be boiled in the beer (wort).  The boiling causes the hop oils to isomerize and become soluble in the beer.  The hop oils contain two types of acids, Alpha acids and Beta acids.  Alpha acids provide the bittering component.  The Beta acids do not isomerize in the boil making them insoluble and provide only hop aroma to the beer.

Hops are typically rated based on their Alpha acid percentage by weight.  This rating gives the brewer a guideline for how much bitterness can be expected from a particular hop.  For example, a Cascade hop is around 4.5 Alpha acid % and a Galena hop is around 12.5 Alpha acid %.  So the brewer will need to use a lot less of the Galena hop at 12.5 AA% then they would Cascade at 4.5 AA% hop to get the same amount of bitterness.  Brewers measure the amount of expected bitterness for their beers with IBUs (International Bitterness Units).  The higher the IBUs, the higher the expected bitterness in the final beer.  Below are some typical values for certain styles of beer.

Light Lager (Bud Light, etc) – 5-10 IBU

Dry Stout (Guinness) – 30-45 IBU

American Pale Ale (Sierra Nevada) – 30-45 IBU

American IPA (Founder’s Centennial) – 40-60 IBU

Double IPA (Stone Ruination) - 60-120 IBU

Generally speaking the higher the IBU the more bitter the beer will be.  Although the Dry Stout and the American Pale Ale have the same IBUs, the stout has sweet malts which will balance the bitterness.  So even though they could have the same IBU, the stout will seem less bitter because of its sweeter malt components.

Now that we know how hops provide bitterness to beer, we need to figure out what is it going to taste like.  There are two types of Alpha acids, Humulone and Cohumulone.  Humulone is thought to provide the softer more desirable bitterness.  Cohumulone in contrast is thought to be harsher in its bitterness and therefore less desirable.  The next consideration is the four main essential oils in hops which contribute to flavor.  They are Myrcene, Humulene, Caryophyllene, and Farnesene .  The two oils that brewers are concerned with (at least I only worry about the two) are Myrcene and Humulene.  Myrcene lends a more citrusy and tropical note to the beer while Humulene has a more spicy and floral signature.   With information regarding the Cohumulone levels and the amounts of the essential oils in particular hops, brewers can get a good idea of what hop characteristics they can expect from their finished brew.  Below are some examples of hop flavor characteristics for certain styles.

IPA – Bell’s Two Hearted – uses Centennial hops which are high in Myrcene causing big citrus and grapefruit character.

Pilsner – Pilsner Urquell  - Uses Saaz hops which are high in Humulene lending a mellow spice and floral note.

American Lager – Sam Adams Boston Lager – uses Hallertau which is high in Humulene making it spicy.  It is also low in Cohumulone so the bitter is more pleasant and less aggressive.

IPA – Bridgeport The Czarr – is brewed with Chinook hops which are high in Cohumulone and give it a very aggressive, harsh bitter character.

 References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Adlupulone#Adlupulone

http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/3808775

Hop University - Day 1

Ever wonder how to choose hops for your homebrew? Ever think, I don’t homebrew so what the hell is a hop? Well fret no longer because I present to you over the next couple of days Hop University! In my personal quest to brew an IPA, I have conducted extensive research on hops. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale and Founder’s Centennial IPA inspired me to single hop my IPA. So I set off on a quest to pick my one magical hop that will make FatCat’s IPA the best ever. My research, coupled with the Sam Adams Deconstructed sampler, has given me great insight into which hop I will choose. If you wish to attend Hop University proceed onward and bask in the knowledge of hoppy goodness.




Day 1 – Background and History of Hops

Hops (Humulus Lupus) are used in today’s brew to provide a bitter flavor to balance the sweetness of the malt. Only the female flowers/cones are used in the brewing process. The bitter flavor was the original reason for brewers to use hops in brew, but hops had a much greater impact on the brew and those who drank it than flavor alone.

The first documented cultivation of hops was in the year 736 in the Hallertau region of present day Germany. Hops were not used in beer in that area until 1079. Before then brewers used dandelion, burdock root, marigold, horehound, ground ivy and Heather as bittering agents. When hops are used in the brewing process, it not only provides a bittering element but also provides an antibiotic effect to help ward off bacterial infections. The Discovery Channel documentary, “How Beer Saved the World”, explained how the beer and the hops used in the beer had health benefits for people in the past. Hops prevented the beer from spoiling and provided a safe alternative to water. Untreated water will eventually develop bacteria that would cause illness and even death in ancient times. Beer which had been boiled with hops was more resistant to bacteria and could be consumed with lower risk of getting sick. Beer was also prescribed to treat illnesses in ancient times. It turns out the chemicals from the hops actually have a limited medicinal effect which can help treat some illness.

Hops are a climbing plant and grow on vines. These vines can grow upward of 25ft in a single season. The main hop producing regions are Hallertau in Germany, Yakima Valley in Washington, Williamette in Oregon, Canyon County in Idaho, Kent and Worcestershire in the UK. Only female plants are allowed in the hop fields to prevent pollination. The hop cones are harvested and dried before being used for brewing. Commercially the only major use for hops is in beer with some other minor uses in other beverages. Hops are also used in herbal medicine to treat anxiety, restlessness, and insomnia. But beware hops are not all rainbows and butterfly dust, they are toxic to dogs. So don’t let Fido eat any.

The source for most of my information was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops.