A little background: Lemondrop is a new variety of hops, from the estimable Hopsteiner of Yakima, a lab that hybrids and propagates little miracles like this with the same casual brilliance that Mozart displayed in writing music. Of his musical gift, Wolfgang once said, “I write music as a sow piddles.”
Hopsteiner lights up ales “as a sow piddles”.
Lemondrop started its flamboyant little life as Hopsteiner Experimental Hop #01210. I first encountered it in a leading role in Deschutes’ unforgettable Chasin’ Freshies, back in late October of 2015, and as a supporting actor even earlier, in Stone’s groundbreaking “Delicious” IPA, in January of ’15. It’s a hybrid of the workhorse Cascade and USDA 19058 male…and what that latter hop may lack in poetry, it more than makes up in intense aromas and a very deliberate evocation of every atom of the hops world’s ability to express fresh, vivid lemons. This is very much a designed hop. It’s not at all accidental that this explosive bud makes your beer taste like LemonHeads candy and/or candied lemon rind. Lemon is one of those universally harmonious flavors that flatters and enhances almost anything combined with it. And that bright, fresh lemon character lit up both Chasin’ Freshies and Delicious in an unmistakably new way. Even craft beer newbies tasted those beers and detected something new and different.
Want to read more? Please click…