Examining Chemical and Sensory Differences of New American Aroma Hops Grown in the Willamette Valley, Oregon

Abstract

The influence of growing region on hop quality is examined in three American aroma hop varieties (Mosaic®, Simcoe® and Strata®) from eleven locations throughout the Willamette Valley, OR. Hops from each site were analyzed for total oil content, α- and β-acids, and the oil was analyzed via GC-FID to quantify selected aroma compounds. Single-field IPAs were brewed using composite samples from each field and assessed via sensory evaluation. While hop variety had the largest influence on chemical differences, as expected, Analysis of Variance revealed differences between fields within the same variety. Sensory discrimination and descriptive testing of the single-field IPAs also showed significant region-based differences among samples within the same variety.

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Keywords:

• Hop aroma quality
• regional identity
• sensory
• terroir

This article is related to:

Potential Determinants of Regional Variation of Three American Aroma Hops Grown in the Willamette Valley, Oregon

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank key individuals for their contributions to the success of the project. At OSU, the undergraduate lab members, Ricky Molitor, Drake Graham, Mason Klauss, and Jordan Chulyak, assisted with harvesting samples and performing chemical analysis. We would like to acknowledge Jeff Clawson, Syd Lee, and Silas Shanafelt for brewing the single-hop beers. Within the Coleman Agriculture team, we benefited tremendously from the insights of Liz Coleman. The authors thank Leandra Weydt for the creation of the Oregon hop map. We are also grateful for the guidance of Elizabeth Verhoeven and Shaun Townsend. This work would not have been possible without all of you.

Additional information

Funding

This work was made possible by support from Coleman Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Foundation’s Competitive Grant Program.