We’re excited to announce the latest release in our Crossbreed Series; After Midnight – A collaborative brew with Yakima Chief Hops.
We were delighted to welcome our friends in Yakima Chief Hops to our brewery in Newtownmountkennedy to brew something special. They didn’t come empty handed and brought along the experimental hop HBC 472. Our Brewers always seek new and exciting ingredients to play with in our limited edition beers and they couldn’t wait to get their hands on a new experimental hop. This is a hop that we were drawn to initially due to its interesting characteristics and flavour profile. It also helps that it is a sister hop of Sabro®, our Head Brewer John’s favourite hop.
Yakima Chief Hops maintains a strong partnership with Yakima Chief Ranches, an organisation that works to develop new hop varieties that are designed to add great value to the supply chain, from farm to glass.
The YCR breeding program is overseen by one of their grower-owners, Jason Perrault. Jason and his team work year-round alongside the Hop Breeding Company, a 50% joint venture founded by YCR, to find sustainable new promising cultivars that display exciting brewing characteristics, while being agronomically viable for their growers to produce. The promising cultivars are given an accession number such as HBC 472.
Volumes of the hops in development are increased year over year, as they progress through the program. During the initial years of the breeding process, new varieties are spread into single rows, then a small plot, then whole fields, then into many fields. Eventually, there are enough plants in the ground to evaluate the quality and consistency of a variety with a commercially harvestable volume. The YCR and HBC breeding programs have developed hop brands such as Simcoe®, Ahtanum®, Citra®, Mosaic®, Loral®, and Sabro®.
Shining a spotlight on HBC 472, this experimental variety was originally given its accession number back in 2008. It is a sister of Sabro® (both bred from ‘YCR123’), and therefore it shares a lot of the same qualities that make Sabro® unique. Sabro® and HBC 472’s mother was a Humulus lupulus var. neomexicanus which expresses itself with a background aroma of coconut and tropical fruit. Most American hops are classified as humulus lupulus var. lupulus or H. l. var. lupuloides, which have a more classic pine or citrus aroma.
HBC 472 is truly an innovative and unique variety in that alongside the coconut notes, it also expresses intense woody & vanilla notes and can have an almost oak/bourbon barrel-aged effect in the finished beer.
When asked about the collaboration between Yakima Chief and Wicklow Wolf, they had this to say:
“When we started to discuss ideas with Wicklow Wolf’s Head Brewer John and the team at Wicklow Wolf, we were extremely excited by the opportunity to work together on showcasing this unique variety, in a beer style that could truly bring out the best of its complex aroma & flavour profile.
HBC 472 is a very versatile, complex and unique hop, that we are still discovering new ways of using and new ways that it can impart its characteristics on beer. When discussing ideas with John, HBC 472 was always in the conversation and stood out as a truly abstract and innovative option to explore.
We were immediately drawn to the prospect of using HBC 472 in a darker beer style and we were confident that the hop profile would add a great deal of complexity to an Export Stout, where the roast malts would work well with the coconut, vanilla and wood character of HBC 472. We were also of course extremely excited to discover how much of the barrel aged character would translate into the beer and specifically in this beer style.
Our chief mission at YCH is to connect family hop farms with the world’s finest brewers. It has been an absolute pleasure to collaborate with John and the team at Wicklow Wolf on this project. It has been fantastic to have the opportunity to showcase this exciting new trial variety on full commercial brewing scale with the expert brewing team at Wicklow Wolf. The feedback that will be received from both from the brew team and the customers of Wicklow Wolf, will be invaluable to the breeding programme and will have a great contribution to the development of HBC 472.“
This experimental hop provides coconut and tropical fruit aromas to the beer, while imparting a barrel aged character like the beer has been aged in bourbon barrels. Brewing an India Export Stout allowed us to showcase HBC 472 and the interesting characteristics it can bring to a beer; a beautiful balance between the roast malt notes and the coconut and wood flavours thanks for HBC 472. Enjoy!
Available now in all good Independent off licences and at the Wicklow Wolf Taproom.
