They're a little overdue, but it's time to get around to posting the tasting notes for the rest of my most recent batch of single-hopped beers.
Next up is the beer I brewed with the experimental hop variety Armadillo. These are leaf
hops from the 2014 harvest from Yakima Valley Hops. To be honest, the
raw hops left a lot to be desired right out of the gate. There wasn't
much aroma to them at all. On its own, that's not necessarily a bad mark
for whole hops. But the pound of hops I got reminded me of the bottom
of a bag of chips. There were few whole cones; it was mostly loose
bracts. There was also very little of the stickiness and springiness that I
often feel in good-quality hop cones.
In the beer itself, I
picked up a rather mild hop character in the aroma. There was some
herbal character with notes of citrus and lime. The flavor was even
milder - there were faint citrus notes, some resinous pine and faint
floral notes as well. The bittering character was a clinging resin on
the back of the tongue. It's not as abrasive as something like Chinook
or Columbus, but it's not particularly smooth either.
Overall, my
experience with Armadillo is a swing and a miss. I'm sure some of this
may be attributable to the quality of the hops I received, but I don't
see much good use for the hops I have on hand. They could possibly be a
decent bittering hop for an IPA, but that's all I got.
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