Back in early September and late October respectively I wrote about the wonderful Citra and Apollo hops, the former under the post; On the Citra hops bandwagon! I mentioned that All Gates were on it and was pleased for a change to be a leader not a follower.

I have recently been completing our brew schedule for 2011 and wishing to remain a leader but still wanting to continue a partial theme of one hop beers I have now looked nearer to home than the U.S.A., this time East to Poland. Again we are not quite at the forefront as I know that in 2009 the excellent Acorn Brewery  mashed a series of twelve European single hop variety IPA’s to include a number of Polish hop varieties.

I know very little about Polish hops but have managed to track down a number of varieties to include the aroma hop “Lubelski”, (Lublin). It’s a “fine aroma” hop with a rich and long tradition, originating from the Saaz hop. Lublin is cultivated in the Polish growing regions Lublin, Poznan and Opole. Also a new Polish variety “Sybilla” which I believe is comparable with the German “Tradition” and “Splat Select” hops. It’s from IUNG Pulawy and is registered as a bitter hop but has typical aroma characteristics. It is a mix of Lublin and Slovenian Styrian Golding.

Also some “Marynka”, a typical bitter hop with dual characteristics, i.e., it contains both high aroma values and high bitter content. I have also sourced the high alpha variety “Magnum” and the new Polish variety “Junga”, the latter also from IUNG Pulawy. It was bred form the varieties Northern Brewer and Marynka and it’s a typical bitter hop with big and heavy cones.

Since September I have been climbing poles, jumping through hoops and cajoling and pleading with a polish hop merchant who normally only deals in truck loads, to let me have just 20kg of each of the above varieties. He finally relented last week and the hops should be with us in the next few weeks.

In the next few months we will be brewing one gyle with each hop variety on a single hop basis, around 4.2%ABV; using 3.5kg – 4kg of hops in each brew dependent on alpha levels etc.

Like our Citra and Apollo beers we will base the brews on existing malt recipes and then use the Polish hops instead of the existing hop. We will be releasing the beers throughout 2011 along with further U.S.A single hop varietal ales, Summit, Simcoe and Bravo, on a monthly basis; so when you see them I suggest you get them whilst you can as simple math tells me we will have just enough for five gyles of each!

OKRZYKI!!

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Tags: Acorn Brewery, Apollo, Bravo, Citra, Junga, Lubelski, Marynka, Polish Hops, Polish Magnum, Simcoe, Summit, Sybilla

This entry was posted on Monday, December 6th, 2010 at 9:19 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.