Brew club hop challenge

[cmoewes]

I'm trying to put a challenge together for my homebrew club and wanted to get some feedback.

Every meeting (quarterly) we have a brewing challenge and I want to do a hoppy one. My idea is to have members randomly select a hop variety from a hat and then everyone will brew an IPA or Pale Ale using just that hop (so kind of a smash sort of). Then at the next meeting we will all taste them and (as normal) vote on the best beer. Additionally I want to have everyone vote which hops is in which beer and the person who answers the most correct will also get a prize.

My question is which hops to use? I have come up with the following. Any glaringly obvious omissions that would be a shame to miss or equally obvious bad choices I've included that should never be used on their own?

Thanks for the feedback.


Ahtanum
Amarillo
Cascade
Centennial
Chinook
Citra
El Dorado
Galaxy
Galena
Mosaic
Nelson Sauvin
Nugget
Simcoe
Sorachi Ace
Target
Warrior
Willamette

 

[alane1]

I know Citra, Amarillo and Nelson all have very powerful flavor/aroma qualities which is why most of them are blended with other hops. If it were me I would use some noble hops in the contest too. Cheers

 

[Brettomomyces]

Saaz, Tettnang, EKG, and Hallertau are definitely some staples with very distinct flavors that would be good in there if you wanted to include some varities that aren't usually found in hoppy stuff.

Other than that....columbus?

 

[cmoewes]

I know Citra, Amarillo and Nelson all have very powerful flavor/aroma qualities which is why most of them are blended with other hops. If it were me I would use some noble hops in the contest too. Cheers

Saaz, Tettnang, EKG, and Hallertau are definitely some staples with very distinct flavors that would be good in there if you wanted to include some varities that aren't usually found in hoppy stuff.

Other than that....columbus?

Great additions.

I actually started by going to Untappd and searching for "single hop" and then looked at breweries like Mikkeller and others who have done series of single hopped beers and used that as a starting point. Of course there were thousands of matches so...

Just added Saaz, Tettnang and Harrlertau to the list.

 

[PatrickGoss]

I would think about dropping some of those if you want it to be a challenge! Lots of people are doing beers that are all citra, simcoe, or Amarillo. I am sure there are others that are just too normal.

I think you will be surprised how good a beer galena makes on it's own.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

You could throw in some other newer/less used hops as a curve ball to mess with everyone.

Huell Melon (Hull Melon? I've seen it spelt both ways)
Motueka
Wakatu

For example.

You could also, to be slightly mean, throw in a Blend card. They have to select a blend of 3-4 hops from the list on their own and make an IPA with the blended hops. Then you have a whole big bunch of beers with single hop additions, then a single beer in the mix thats a blend that could throw everyone for a loop. Bonus points if the blended hop beer is never chosen as as the blended beer (say if everyone indentifies that beer as a single hop beer). *stipulation the brewer must use the 3-4 hops they choose for a blend in equal amounts in the dry hop otherwise they could choose a handful of bittering hops, get it to 80-90 IBUs with bitter and then aroma/whirlpool/dryhop with a super distinct hop like citra **Will there be an impartial judge that keeps track of who gets what? If so the impartial judge could work with the person after the meeting to pick the blend so the judge knows what the choices are in advance.

 

[globe]

This sounds like a great idea, wish I was in a club that did this stuff. Anyways I think the guy that gets warrior will have a disadvantage right away...but who knows. There are a bunch of experimental hops you could add to that list that would be interesting as well.

 

[cmoewes]

Yeah, I thought about some of the experimental hops but I want to make sure they are all available without having to go to far to get them.

 

[Calder]

Who is buying these hops? Are you expecting the person who gets the hop to buy 4, 6, 8 ozs of the hop. Some of the bigger brewers may have their hops, bought in bulk for $0.75 an ounce, while newer brewers may be buying them at $2.50 an ounce. Doesen't quite seem fair when some can load up on the hops at little cost, and others will be skimping on the hops to save money.

 

[cmoewes]

Who is buying these hops? Are you expecting the person who gets the hop to buy 4, 6, 8 ozs of the hop. Some of the bigger brewers may have their hops, bought in bulk for $0.75 an ounce, while newer brewers may be buying them at $2.50 an ounce. Doesen't quite seem fair when some can load up on the hops at little cost, and others will be skimping on the hops to save money.

The members buy their own stuff, not really worried too much about that but I do plan to give everyone 2 selection so they can have a little choice in what they make.

 

[m00ps]

What about some of the newer hops like Equinox, Hallertau Blanc, Huell Melon (mentioned above, awesome btw), Meridian, Pacific Gem, Belma, Kohatu, etc?

You could even have some people pick some of the experimental ones available and see if anyone can identify which hops are not commercially available yet