The Hop Chronicles | Kazbek (2021) Pale Lager

Author: Martin Keen

Taking its name from a dormant volcano in the country of Georgia, Kazbek hops are often referred to as Super Saaz, which is appropriate seeing as it’s the progeny of Saaz. Known to impart notes of citrus, sweet fruit, berry, and noble spice notes to beer while possessing relatively low levels of alpha acid, Kazbek is widely viewed as an aroma variety.

Alpha: 4.0 – 7.0%
Beta: 4.0 – 6.0%
Cohumulone: ​​35 – 40%
Total Oil: 0.9 – 1.8 mL/100g
Myrcene: 40 – 55%
Humulene: 20 – 35%
Caryophyllene: 10 – 15%
Farnesene: < 1%
Linalool: < 1%
Geraniol: < 1%
ß-Pinene: unknown
Parentage: Saaz and a wild Russian landrace hop

I’ve brewed with Saaz many times over the years, and considering how much I love this classic noble hop, I was excited to see how a pale lager made entirely with Kazbek would turn out.

| MAKING THE BEER |

I started with our standard Hop Chronicles pale lager recipe, I made minor adjustments to the hop schedule to ensure a proper level of bitterness.

Kazbeck Pale Lager

After collecting the full volume of water, adjusting it to my desired profile, and getting it heating up, I weighed out and milled the grain.

When the water was properly heated, I incorporated the grains and set the controller to maintain my desired mash temperature of 154°F/68°C, after which I prepared the kettle hop additions.

Once the 60 minute mash was complete, I removed the grains and proceeded to boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at the times stated in the recipe.

When the boil was complete, I used my Exchilerator Maxx CFC to quickly chill the wort.

A refractometer reading showed the wort was at my target OG.

After transferring the wort to a sanitized fermented, I direct pitched a single pouch of Imperial Yeast L13 Global.

The beer was left to ferment at 64°F/18°C for 3 weeks before I took a hydrometer measurement confirming FG was reached.

With fermentation complete, I cold-crashed the beer for 24 hours then pressure-transferred it to a CO2 purged keg, which was placed in my keezer and burst carbonated overnight before the gas was reduced to serving pressure. After a week of conditioning, it was ready to serve to blind tasters.

| METHOD |

Participants were instructed to focus only on the aromatic qualities of the beer before evaluating the flavor. For each aroma and flavor descriptor, tasters were asked to write-in the perceived strength of that particular characteristic on a 0-9 scale where a rating of 0 meant they did not perceive the character at all and a 9 rating meant the character was extremely strong. Once the data was collected, the average rating of each aroma and flavor descriptor was compiled and analyzed.

| RESULTS |

Special thanks to the White Street Brewers Guild for allowing me to crash a recent meeting to collect data. A total of 20 people participated in the evaluation of this beer, all blind to the hop variety used until after they completed the survey. The average aroma and flavor 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:

Next, participants were asked to rate the pungency/strength of the hop.

Tasters were then instructed to identify beer styles they thought the hop would work well in.

Finally, participants were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the hop character on a 1 to 10 scale.

My Impressions: Aromatically, I detected citrusy notes, mostly lemon, with a hint of spice, while the lemon was slightly more prominent in the flavor. Given the lower hopping rate, the overall hop character was quite mild, but more noticeable than I expected.

| CONCLUSION |

When most people think of Czech hops, it’s likely they conjure images of the classic noble variety known as Saaz. Seeing as Kazbek was bred from Saaz, it possesses some similar characteristics, though with a touch more amplification, hence its colloquial moniker of Super Saaz.

The most prominent characteristics noted by tasters of a pale lager hopped solely with Kazbek were tropical fruit, citrus, and stone fruit, while pine, onion/garlic, and dank/catty were among the lowest rated descriptors. Interestingly, while existing descriptions of this variety tend to include spicy, tasters of this pale lager rated it quite low in terms of flavor. A majority of tasters felt the hop pungency in this beer was mild, which is likely a function of the lower hopping rate, though IPA/APA was the style most felt it would work well in.

As far as preference goes, it seemed tasters felt this beer was moderately enjoyable, which I suspect is due to the simple nature of the recipe rather than the hop characteristics. Personally, I was impressed what Kazbek contributed to this pale lager, especially seeing as I used so little. I definitely feel this hop would pair well with others and plan to use it in different amounts and styles in the future.

Watch this on The Brülosophy Show!

Kazbek hops are available now at Yakima Valley Hops, get some while you can! If you have any thoughts on this variety, please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

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