The Hop Chronicles | Armadillo (2014) Pale Ale

Author: Marshall Schott

Back in August, while going over the recipe Greg used for his yeast blending xBmt, I noticed a simple misspelling and made the edit. Later, Greg informed me he hadn’t actually spelled Amarillo wrong, but that he did in fact use an experimental hop called Armadillo. Having never heard of this variety, I asked Greg about his experience with it, he described it as being quite strong and said he thought it best to use less in the dry hop when combined with other varieties because it had a tendency to be overpowering.

When discussing different hop varieties to include in this project with Jeff from Yakima Valley Hops, Armadillo came up due to its relative novelty on the market as well as the fact it it garnered quite a bit of interest following the aforementioned xBmt article. People were interested and so was I. Unable to find much information on my own, I reached out to Jeff to see if he might be able to shed some light on the finer details this variety. He responded:

We don’t have much information regarding Armadillo due to it being in the experimental phase and not currently being produced for commercial use. Once it moves into commercial production, the hop will be analyzed for terpenes, oil content, etc.

I was excited to present a hop with so little known about it to a panel of blind tasters.

Alpha: 5.9%
Beta: 3.2%
Cohumulone: unavailable
Total Oil: unavailable
Myrcene: unavailable
Humulene: unavailable
Caryophyllene: unavailable
Farnesene: unavailable
Linalool: unavailable
Parentage: unavailable

| MAKING THE BEER |

With most of my brewing time invested in making xBmt batches, I thought it’d be cool to get my friends involved by having them make the beers for this project. I would provide them with the requisite ingredients, they’d brew the beer at their place, then they’d provide me with 8 bombers of the beer for data collection and keep the rest for themselves. The only downside to this setup is it eliminates the brewer from participating. Oh well.

First up was my good friend Wes Tarvin, a great brewer whose valves are now squeaky clean. His brew day began by hitting the flame under his kettle of strike water then milling the grain I’d given him the day before.

Once the water was to temp, he mashed in and hit the target mash temperature for our THC Pale Ale recipe.

With the mash complete, Wes collected the sweet wort in his 16 gallon kettle and began bringing it to a boil.

Wes prefers to use a stainless hop spider during the boil as it allows him to transfer more debris-free wort into his fermentors.

After an hour long boil and a 20 minute hopstand, the wort was chilled to about 80°F/27°C, racked to a carboy, and placed in a temperature controlled chamber for a few hours until it reached target fermentation temp. At this point, a starter of WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast was pitched and the temperature was controlled to 66°F/19°C.

The dry hop charge was added about week into fermentation then left for another 5 days before the beer was crashed, fined with gelatin, and kegged. It was at this point Wes informed me he still had some Armadillo leftover and suggested adding them to the kegged beer to impart even more character. Hell yeah! He placed the relatively small amount of leftover hops in a sanitized bag that he dangled in his keg using unflavored dental floss. After a few days, he simply pulled on the string to remove the bag from the beer. The following weekend, Wes provided me with my cut of beautifully carbonated and mostly clear Armadillo Pale Ale.

| METHOD |

Participants were instructed to focus only on the aromatic qualities of the beer before moving on to evaluation the flavor. For each aroma and flavor descriptor, tasters were first asked whether or not they perceived the characteristic with “yes” selections taking them to a page instructing them to write-in the perceived strength of that particular characteristic on a 1-9 scale (weak to strong); endorsing “no” resulted in the taster skipping over the rating of that descriptor directly to the next descriptor. Once the data was collected, the average rating of each aroma and flavor descriptor was compiled with all “no” responses being assigned a score of zero.

| RESULTS |

In total, 17 people participated in the evaluation of this beer, all blind to the hop variety used until they completed the survey. The average ratings for each descriptor were plotted on a radar graph.

Average Ratings of Aroma and Flavor Perceptions

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being most prominent by participants:

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being least prominent by participants:

When asked to rate the pungency/strength of the hop, a rather large majority endorsed it as being moderately pungent with few perceiving it as either mild or extreme.

Tasters were then instructed to list beer styles they thought the hop would work well in, perhaps predictably, IPA/Pale Ale received the most mentions.

Finally, participants were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the hop character on a 1 to 9 scale.

My Impressions: Of the few hops we’ve evaluated for The Hop Chronicles so far, Armadillo is the one I’ve been most excited to try. Prior to the start of data collection, I asked Wes to stay mum about his thoughts on the beer, as I wanted to avoid as much bias as possible. On first sniff, I noted a pleasantly strong essence of pine and citrus, namely lemon zest, that was supported nicely by the clean malt character of the beer. The most prominent flavor I perceived initially was green tea, though the lemon and pine character quickly came through to balance it out. The unique character of this hop made the beer fun to drink, though it’s not one I’d be inclined to use alone again, at least in such a hop-forward style. My hunch is Armadillo would meld quite well with hops like Perle and Northern Brewer, known for being somewhat minty and spicy, as well as some of the popular fruity hops. I also think it’d make for a tasty addition to a unique ESB or English Mild, perhaps even when used alone in a low to moderate amount.

| CONCLUSION |

Overall, I believe Armadillo is a solid hop variety that brewers could use to add a unique touch of piney-lime goodness to many styles of beer. While it likely won’t be the next Simcoe or Citra, it possesses some nice qualities you don’t find in other hops, making it an interesting choice for brewers looking to produce beers that stand-out in a sea of commonality. Since it’s currently in the experimental phase, inventory is limited to whatever Yakima Valley Hops currently has on-hand, and given the fact this hop may not even make it to commercial production (I hope it does), I’d suggest those interested snag some up before it’s too late!

If you’ve used Armadillo either on its own or blended with other hops, please share your experiences with it in the comments section below!

Support for The Hop Chronicles came from Yakima Valley Hops, suppliers of over 40 varieties of hops ranging from classics like Saaz and Cascade to yet-to-be-named experimental options. Offering great prices with reasonable shipping, consider Yakima Valley Hops for your next hop purchase.

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