The Hop Chronicles | Simcoe (2016) Pale Ale

Author: Jason Cipriani

Developed by Select Botanicals Group, Simcoe hit the scene in 2000 quickly rose to the top of many a brewer’s favorite variety list not only for its high alpha acid and low cohumulone content, but for the pungent citrus and pine characteristics it lends to beer. While some claim to perceive a cat urine aroma in beers hopped with Simcoe, the variety has stood the test of time and continues to be used quite heavily in modern American Pale Ale and IPA.

Alpha: 11.5 – 15%
Beta: 3 – 4.5%
Cohumulone: 17 – 21%
Total Oil: 0.8 – 3.2 mL/100g
Myrcene: 40 – 50%
Humulene: 15 – 20%
Caryophyllene: 8 – 14%
Farnesene: < 1%
Linalool: 0.5 – 0.9%
Geraniol: 0.8%
ß-Pinene: 0.5 – 1%
Parentage: Unknown due to YCH keeping lineage a secret

Due in large part to Simcoe’s massive popularity, I’ve had several commercial beers hopped with it, many in which it was the star variety. I’ve also made quite a few beers hopped heavily with Simcoe, some of which were delicious, while others exhibited an overwhelming “catty” character. I was excited to see what blind tasters would think of a simple Pale Ale hopped solely with the highly praised Simcoe variety!

| MAKING THE BEER |

The recipe for this beer was designed specifically for The Hop Chronicles with an easy drinking grist and copious amounts of Simcoe hops.

Simcoe Pale Ale

The night prior to brewing, I built an adequately sized starter using Imperial Yeast L28 Urkel.

Once the yeast was spinning, I proceeded to collect my brewing water then weigh out and mill the grains.

The next morning, I loaded the recipe into my Grainfather controller and had it begin to heat my strike water. A little bit later I mashed in then checked to make sure I hit my target mash temperature.

A pH reading about 15 minutes into the mash came in a little higher than planned, indicating something with my water was a little off, but nothing to be alarmed over.

Following the 60 minute saccharification rest, I removed the grains and proceeded to sparge.

Once the sparge was complete, I began heating the wort to a boil, weighing out the kettle hop additions during the wait.

The wort was boiled for 60 minutes with hops added at the points indicated in the recipe. When the boil was finished, I used the Grainfather CFC to very quickly chill the wort.

A hydrometer measurement at this point showed I hit my target 1.052 OG on the nose.

I placed the filled Brew Bucket in my fermentation chamber and had to let the wort warm for a little bit, as my icy cold Pueblo, CO groundwater chilled it too much. Once it was at my desired fermentation temperature of 66°F/19°C, I pitched the starter. Checking on it the following morning, I noticed the airlock bubbling away. After 5 days of active fermentation, I raised the temperature in my chamber to 72˚F/23˚C and let it sit another 3 days before taking a hyrdometer measurement that confirmed FG had been reached.

I then added the dry hop charge, which mingled with the warm beer for 3 days before I moved on to cold crashing and kegging.

Three days later I proceeded with cold crashing and kegging the beer. The filled keg was then placed in my keezer, and the beer was burst carbonated overnight before I reduced the gas to serving pressure. After a few more days of conditioning, it was clear, carbonated, and ready to serve.

| 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 rating of 9 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 |

A total of 13 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:

Participants were then asked to rate the pungency of the overall hop character.

Next, they were instructed to identify beer styles they thought the hop would work well in.

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

My Impressions: Simply put, this is the best American Pale Ale I’ve ever made. The bitterness was smooth and didn’t linger, something I’m compelled to believe is due to Simcoe’s low cohumulone, which I thought played quite nicely with the subtle malt sweetness. Unexpectedly, I didn’t perceive any of the catty aroma or flavor I’d picked up in other highly hopped Simcoe beers, rather it had a well rounded citrus and pine character that I really enjoyed.

| CONCLUSION |

Based on the blind taster data, one could conclude that Simcoe imparts moderately pungent citrus, tropical fruit, and pine characteristics that work well in American Pale Ale and IPA. Despite the apparent consensus among brewers that this variety has a tendency to produce a certain cat urine quality, those who evaluated this single hop Simcoe beer didn’t seem to notice it much, as that descriptor was rated fairly low for both aroma and flavor.

For fun, I informally surveyed a few tasters following a data collection session, asking them to guess what hop they thought I used to make this Pale Ale. Not a single person correctly identified Simcoe, while most thought it was either Mosaic or Citra.

To my palate, the Simcoe hopped Pale Ale I made did share some characteristics with some of the more commonly used modern hops of the day, though I felt it wasn’t quite as in-your-face as some newer varieties, which is kind of nice. The beer tasted like beer, not hop juice, and while I’m pretty certain I’ve experienced the catty thing from Simcoe in the past, it was delightfully absent in this batch.

I forgot how great Simcoe is and while I definitely plan to use it more often in combination with other varieties, I’m looking forward to brewing more single hop beers with it as well.

Simcoe is available now in various package sizes at Yakima Valley Hops, get them while you can! If you have any thoughts on this variety, please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Support for The Hop Chronicles comes 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 fresh from the source. Offering great prices with reasonable shipping, consider Yakima Valley Hops for your next hop purchase.

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