You may be a fan of the Stone IPA and hate Troeg’s Perpetual IPA. They’re both IPAs, so what gives? Not all hops are equal. Some variety of hops create flavors and aromas of citrus, while others add a burst of mango or spike of bitterness. To figure out which hops play well on your palate, look for single-hop beers – brews made with just one variety of hop.
“It’s the best way to really get to know a hop,” says Cam O’Connor, brewmaster at Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon.
Good examples of single-hop beers, which always feature aroma hops (as opposed to bittering hops), are hard to find, but O’Connor says that even two- or three-hop IPAs can give you a good sense of what each hop brings to the table. You’ll usually have to consult a beer’s label or brewery’s website for info about which hops are in a beer, but sites like homebrewstuff.com also have reliable, basic info about hop characteristics. Once you start paying attention to hop varieties, you’re bound to encounter these five, which O’Connor says are craft brewers’ favorites right now… CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY AT MEN’S JOURNAL
