The experimental hop fairy visited my house again recently, and this time it’ll be a lavishly alphanumeric best bitter type of deal.
EXP04190 (as Steiner calls it on their label) will be the featured soloist – here’s what the internet tells me:
EXP 4190: Experimental variety from Hop Steiner. Pleasant, mild citrus aroma. Bred from Fuggles and Cascade.
Current alpha: 3.6%
Beta 5-6.5%
CoH 30-32%
Total Oil 1 – 1.5 Ml/100g
Crumbling up a pellet, I definitely smell its parentage – I don’t think it’s entirely power of suggestion. There’s a distinctly Fuggle-esque sweetness and warmth with earthy and grassy overtones. The citrus character is also there, mild as advertised; it’s not out-and-out ruby red grapefruit juice, more like Cascade in translation, rather like the dried-citrus quality of Sterling – oranges and lemonade layered under that earthy/grassy warmth. Overall, I think it has a pretty English expression – mild in intensity, inviting instead of overpowering.
Enough smelling my green hands – let’s get on with it:
EXP04190 XX
Target OG: 1.046
Grist:
- 95% MCI Stout Malt
- 5% UK 70-80°L Crystal
Mash:
- 152°F for 75′
- 170°F for 10′
Boil:
- EXP04190 (pellet, 3.6% aa) at 60′ to 25 IBU
- EXP04190 (pellet, 3.6% aa) at 20′ to 8 IBU
- EXP04190 (pellet, 3.6% aa) at 0′, 4 grams per gallon
Fermentation:
- Chill to 65-66°F, O2 and pitch with some second-gen Wyeast 1203 Burton IPA Blend
the beer engine 
Nice to someone else out there trying out these new Experimental hops. Looking forward to brewing with mine and comparing notes. Sounds tailor made for an ESB.
I am curious to see how the stout malt works, I haven’t seen anyone use it except in a stout.
Love Best Bitters lately. This one seems to be a great experiment! Hope all success with this brew!
I may have missed the boat already, but what are everyone’s thoughts regarding Wy 1203?
Newfangled hops and yeast are good, but I fear all of these special, one-time-only ingredients will lead to much disappointment. For a case in point, I cite Wy 1026 PC. I’ve finally found an English yeast that attenuates to my liking; at least behaves as desired according to my current brewing practices, but it is no longer available. I had to raid the LHBS for leftover smackpacks of this stuff, and I’m considering commissioning my wife, who works as a microbiologist for a large biotech company, to make slants of the cultures that I do have in my chest freezer.
Why do you torture me so, Wyeast?
Consider me subscribed! Have you tried multihead hops? Did you like them? I think they would shine in a beer like this.
Half way between fuggles and cascade sounds a lot like glacier to me.
When the hop fairy visits your house how do come with a recipe to best understand the hops? I have a couple of oz of a hop that I want to get to know a little bit better, but I’m at a loss determining the parameters of a recipe. Is there a target OG and IBU that you shoot for when testing ingredients (or a target percentage for specialty malts)?
How does one get the experimental hop fairy to visit? If I stick a bottle of beer under my pillow at night, will she bring me cool hops?
How can I get the experimental hop fairy to visit MY house?