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Neomexicanus Hop Review: HBC 438

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Part of my series on neomexicanus hops.

HBC 438 closeup
Think about all the hottest new hops you know about: Mosaic, Azacca, Hallertau Blanc, Equinox–scores more are bursting onto the scene every year. Did you know that your favorite new hop is one of a small handful of its sisters that started its journey over a decade ago? The path to naming and releasing a hop is a long and highly selective process in which vary few varieties make it past even the first year of cultivation.

Hop Breeding Flow Chart

Hop Breeding Flow Chart – Credit Jason Perrault

Breeders begin by crossing popular existing varieties that they think will 1) produce interesting flavor characteristics and 2) possess the right agronomic traits (e.g. disease resistance, high yield, good storage, etc) and whittle the plants down year by year until only the fittest and most interesting make it into the market. In the latter stages of the process–years 8-10+–select breweries are given the opportunity to experiment and give feedback to the growers; Russian River Brewing famously rescued Simcoe from the brink and popularized it back when it was still an experimental hop variety. Finally, when the breeders, growers, and brewers all agree the variety is worthwhile the hop is given a name and released to the general market. In the mean time, the variety will unceremoniously be referred to by its codename (e.g. HBC 123, YCR 456, USDA 123456, etc).

Ron Mexico label

HBC 438 (aka Ron Mexico)
debuted at NHC 2015.

Those of us fortunate enough to attend the 2015 National Homebrewers Conference in San Diego this past year were treated to a special debut: a single-hop session IPA made by Russian River Brewing named Ron Mexico, the nickname of HBC 438, the experimental hop variety used to make it. The offspring of a Neomexicanus variety “Chuck’s Mexican” cultivated from the wild by Chuck Zimmermann and an unknown Lupulus father, HBC 438 is a rising superstar amongst the brewers who have had the rare opportunity to use it. Described as “tropical and stone fruit” with notes of “exceptionally unique herbal and mint” and possessing high levels of total oils and alpha acids, HBC 438 has taken an unusual path and jumped from a single hill to becoming commercially available much faster than most other varieties.

The biggest treat of all, however, was for those those in attendance of the seminar titled Brewing With Experimental Hops: A New Hop Variety Just For Homebrewers led by Jason Perrault, Karl Vanevenhoven, and Vinnie Cilurzo: a double whammy of 1) the breaking news that HBC 438 is going to be available to homebrewers exclusively starting this August/September and 2) that everyone in attendance was going to take some home with them! Through some finesse and friend-wrangling I managed to grab a total of five ounces of HBC 438, three of which I decided to dedicate to a single-ish hop review beer and two to blend into a multi-hop beer in the future.

Read on for details and my review.

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Brewcrafting: Prepping for BrewUnited

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BrewUnited Challenge logoAs I hope you are well aware, the 2015 BrewUnited Challenge is officially underway and I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the recipes I am going to brew. I have entered each of the three categories (Malty, Balanced, and Hoppy) in an effort to win the coveted BrewUnited Homebrew Hero award, which goes to the brewer(s) with the highest sum of entry scores. Word is that the Homebrew Hero will receive a cape as a reward, so the stakes are high! I thought this might also be a good time to discuss the different elements of the competition and examine how I go about building and brewing a recipe for a maybe continuing series I am calling “Brewcrafting.”

I know, I know, I can already hear you asking, “if you give away all your secrets will you not lose your advantage for the competition!?” Now, in both my personal an professional life I am of two core beliefs:

  1. Good ideas should be shared–a rising tide lifts all boats and all that.
  2. Good ideas are a dime a dozen–it is the execution of the idea that is important.

After all, if we remember Brulosopher’s Brewer’s Thumbprint xBmt we learned “that even when using the exact same ingredients, mash temp, and fermentation schedules, every brewer is going to produce a unique beer.” So really, if you glean enough from this to beat me in the competition you were probably going to beat me anyway. 🙂

Read on and let’s take a look!

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A Tour Through Raleigh – BBC15

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BBC15-logo-NA-only1I typically do not spend too much time writing about commercial beer, but every once in a while I will make an exception to that rule for particularly interesting beers and events.

I am currently in Raleigh, North Carolina for the 2015 Beer Bloggers & Writers Conference, an annual event that invites the greatest beer writers and hottest breweries from around the country to drink, share stories, and drink some more. I attended last year when it was in San Diego, but I am especially excited to be attending again in NC because 1) I have never been to North Carolina and 2) the beer scene is blowing up around here. The event itself is in Asheville where local favorites like Green Man Brewing and Wicked Weed mingle with newly planted facilities from western giants like Oskar Blues and Sierra Nevada, an exciting mix of truly local and the pioneers of craft brewing.

As part of the Beer Bloggers Conference experience I had the opportunity to go on a pre-conference excursion to the breweries of Raleigh led by excellent hosts from visitRaleigh and Beltline Brew Tours. My general impression is that Raleigh is on the cusp of becoming a booming beer city and the breweries we visited will be bursting at the seems before too long. Interesting to note the breweries and consumers in Raleigh have a keen fondness for classic styles, something I wish San Diego brewers would pay more attention to (one can only have so many mega-dank IPAs). All-in-all some great beers were had and I left wishing Raleigh was not so far away!

Read on for the details.

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2015 BrewUnited Challenge is On!

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BrewUnited Challenge logoI am excited to announce the 2015 BrewUnited Challenge is now officially open for registration! My buddy Olan over at BrewUnited has been working feverishly to put together what is sure to be one of the most interesting homebrew competitions this year. On top of that, he has managed to secure some amazing prizes for the winners (and the list keeps growing). Heck, there are so many prizes on the line it would almost be more expensive not to enter!

The gist of the competition is as follows:

  1. Build a recipe for the handful of styles divided up into “malty,” “balanced,” and “hoppy” using all of the required malts.
  2. Choose exactly two of the types of hops from the list of available choices.
  3. Choose whatever yeast (including Brett) you want.

You might be asking yourself, “how am I supposed to make a Mild or Brown Porter using just Pilsner, Munich, and Crystal 60?” That’s the challenge! Just because you’re limited to Pils malt does not mean you cannot take that Pils malt and toast it in your oven to recreate something like Victory or Amber malt. I have already begun researching how to toast my own malts, perhaps I will even throw up a guide once I experiment a bit.

Just remember: there are only 100 entries available for each category, so be sure to act quick to secure your spot. Good luck and happy brewing!

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