India Pale Ales (IPA) are some of the hoppiest beers available, and for several years people have been trying to add as many hops as possible to beer. Like a global brewers game of one-upping yourself over the next guy. But it's a balancing act to make a beer taste bitter and intense with lots of hops, but still taste good. The last thing you want is to spent $6 on a pint of beer that tastes raw, harsh, and uneven.
So now brewers and hop farmers are looking at creating hops with low-cohumulone counts that still have intense bitterness. Cohumulone is the alpha acid that's responsible for less desirable bittering flavors, so growers are trying to create varietals with low-cohumulone content, but still high alpha acids. Imagine a chile pepper with a bold, intense flavor, but only modest heat. All the flavor without the fire.
That's the draw behind low-cohumulone hops. Wicked bitterness with intense flavor and aroma, but no vicious finish. I've been on a bit of an IPA-kick lately, so I wanted to try a low-cohumulone IPA myself. I hedged my bets and used 2 ounces each of three popular low-cohumulone varietals, Amarillo, Columbus, and Chinook. I mixed them evenly and added 2 ounces at 60, 15, and 5 minutes on the boil time. The result is everything I was promised, a bright, floral, citrusy aroma, with a long, piney finish of well rounded bitterness. It's not the best IPA I've ever made, but after this experiment I think I can focus my efforts and make something really stellar.
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