Five Blades Brewing

Neomexicanus Wild Hop IPA Review

December 28, 2014 by Derek Springer 6 Comments

Part of my series on neomexicanus hops.

In my last post about neomexicanus hops I noted that Sierra Nevada recently released an IPA made solely from (almost the entire worldwide crop of) neomexicanus titled Harvest Wild Hop IPA: Neomexicanus Varietal as the final release in this year’s Harvest series. Since publishing that post have made it my personal goal to search every bottle shop in San Diego until I found some to try; it took me nearly three weeks, but I finally found my white whale. This blog is usually not a place where I review commercial beers, but since this beer is the closest many folks will come to trying this new variety I am making an exception.

Details

Style: IPA
Description: A few years back, we caught wind of rogue hop heads in the Southwest who began collecting some of the wild hops they found while scrambling down hillsides near their home in New Mexico. These bizarre, multi-headed, native U.S. cones have a flavor like nothing we’ve tasted, and for the first time, we’re showcasing their unusual melon, apricot and citrus aromas and flavors in our beer. Neomexicanus is the literal wild card in our five-bottle Harvest series which features single hop, fresh hop, wet hop, and wild hop beers.
Neomexicanus Variety: While not explicitly stated, the “multi-headed” variety they are referring to is likely Medusa.
Malt: 2-row Pale, Caramel [60?]
IBUs: 55
ABV: 6.5%
Availability: Nationwide in December/January.
Reviews: RateBeer | BeerAdvocate | Untappd

[Read more…]

Neomexicanus Hops: What’s Available

December 15, 2014 by Derek Springer 4 Comments

Part 2 of my series on neomexicanus.

If you recall from part 1 of this series, there is a “new” variety of Humulus lupulus available to homebrewers called neomexicanus that has been cultivated from wild plants in New Mexico. Though the variety is nearly 500,000 years old, it has only recently been cultivated into varieties compelling to brewers. Thanks to the efforts of enterprising backyard hop growers like Todd Bates and professional growers like Eric Desmarais at CLS Farms we are on the frontier of an exciting new hop variety.

Hop Wheel (Tim Kreitz)

Much like neomexicanus’ European sister lupulus there is not a simple way to describe the characteristics of the hops; whether through happenstance or selective breeding there exists a broad spectrum of bitterness, flavors, and aromas that the hop can possess. Instead of attempting to describe the characteristics of neomexicanus in broad terms I am going to examine what is available at the moment whether for brewing, growing, or drinking.

[Read more…]

Neomexicanus Hops: A Primer

December 8, 2014 by Derek Springer 9 Comments

Part 1 of my series on neomexicanus hops.

Photo by epicbeer

Humulus lupulus: the brewer’s favorite flowering plant. Its pungent flowers, commonly referred to as hops, are responsible for the signature bitterness in beer and contribute a complex bouquet of flavors though concentrations of myrcene, humulene, xanthohumol, myrcenol, linalool, tannins, and resin. Though the lupulus variety takes up the lion’s share of the homebrewer’s attention, you might be surprised to discover there are actually five distinct varieties of the plant (six, if you include hybrids):

cordifolius – Eastern Asia and Japan
lupulus – Europe, Asia, and Africa
neomexicanus – Western North America
pubescens – Midwestern US
lupuloides (aka americanus) – Eastern and northern North America

As a follower of Stan Hieronymus’ blog I was recently tipped-off to the fact that a monastery in New Mexico has successfully cultivated and is selling homebrew-sized batches of neomexicanus hops from their website. Though they are perhaps the most expensive hops I have ever purchased–$50 for six ounces–like any good homebrewer my desire for experimentation knows no limits! I’ll be writing more about the beers I make with the neomexicanus hops, but since the variety is new to the homebrew and even professional brewing scenes I thought I’d do a bit of research and share the details.

[Read more…]

Mit Schuss – Berliner Weisse

October 13, 2014 by Derek Springer 7 Comments

Check out the rest of my recipes in the index.

Depending on who you believe, the Berliner Weisse was originally a specialty of the town of Hamburg, Germany that was copied and developed by the 16th century brewer Cord Broihan, or alternately brought to Germany by migrating Huguenots who developed the beer from the local red and brown ales as they moved through Flanders into Northern Germany. Whichever story you choose one thing is for darn sure: it really hits to the spot on a hot summer day (and boy there seem to be plenty lately).

The goal of this beer was to be a by-the-numbers sour mashed Berliner Weisse as a model for the presentation I was giving to my club and is one of the simplest grain bills in my recipe database. Don’t feel like a Berliner needs to be anything fancy (a bit of melanoidin malt is fine if you want to replicate a bit of the character from a decoction mash), what you’re looking for is a simple wheat base for lactic tartness and maximum refreshment. The recipe as-is is actually a really nice base for making a fruit beer (if you’re not the syrup type), I’ve had good success adding two pounds of kumquats in secondary to make a Kumquat Berliner that was really well received. Otherwise, feel free to sub out WLP011 European Ale with any clean, dry ale yeast. Some folks also like a bit of Brett character in their Berliners, so you can also pitch some Brett in addition to or in replacement of the Sacc.

Note: this recipe requires a sour mash, but please don’t be intimidated! Sour mashing is fun and easy to be successful at if you follow a few techniques. Really all we’re doing is creating an optimal environment for Lactobacillus and sub-optimal environment for things like Clostridium, Acetobacter, and mold. If you’re not familiar, please refer to my presentation on sour mashing, it should have everything you need to get started!
[Read more…]

De Kleine – Belgian Session IPA

September 28, 2014 by Derek Springer Leave a Comment

Check out the rest of my recipes in the index.

I’ll be the first to admit: I’m not typically an enthusiast of non-sour Belgian beers. Don’t get me wrong, I love the spirit of experimentation and the “anything goes” attitude that Belgian styles showcase, but I find most Belgians I try are have too much ABV/spice/pretension/etc for me to fall in love with them. I’d wager I’d really love to dig into a nice Belgian Pale Ale, but folks aren’t really clamoring for sessionable Belgians around here and imported examples usually arrive ravaged by light and heat.

To continue my trend of “being the beer I wish to see” (apologies to Gandhi) I set out to make my own sessionable Belgian ale. My goals for this recipe were twofold: 1) create an easy-drinking Belgian and 2) create something that would help me place well in my homebrew club’s first competition, the grand prize of which is getting the beer brewed by Rip Current Brewing. The styles of the competition were picked specifically because they’re outside the wheelhouse of Rip Current’s current offerings (they want a diverse set of offerings to sell, after all), but I’m no dummy: Rip Current is renowned for their hop-bombs and by brewing something that’s both diverse and halfway in their wheelhouse I’m hoping will increase my chances of being selected as the winner.

With an eye on what a brewery would need to sell of I won, I harnessed the beer trends of the past few years and came up with “De Kleine,” Dutch for “small,” a sessionable Belgian IPA. Drawing inspiration from Stone’s Cali-Belgique (Stone IPA brewed with a Belgian yeast), I decided to experiment with how much Belgian character I could extract from a session strength recipe while doubling down on citrusy American hops. Otherwise, the rest of the recipe is Belgian to the core: the malt bill is pure Belgian malts and the yeast is a classic strain from Rochefort.

[Read more…]

« Previous Page

Recent Posts

Neomexicanus Wild Hop IPA Review

Details

Neomexicanus Hops: What’s Available

Neomexicanus Hops: A Primer

Mit Schuss – Berliner Weisse

De Kleine – Belgian Session IPA

Menu

Affiliate Disclosure

Feeds