While on vacation this summer, I purchased 16oz of Mapuche hops from Hace Cerveza, a homebrew store in Bariloche Argentina. Why Mapuche? Because it was something I had never heard of.

Brewer’s Notes

There is very little information online about Mapuche. I found one page with some details and one homebrewer who had used them (here).  The general consensus is that they are grapefruit-flavored.  After opening the bag, there was a grassy aroma, that was not as strong as typical US “C” hops.  The Mapuche smelled more like Cascade than Columbus, Saaz, or Mosaic, the other hops I had available.

As I recently changed offices, I also changed my provider for ingredients, ordering them through Williams Brewing here in Oakland.  The ingredients showed up within 48 hours of the order, and the ice pack included with the yeast was still cool (not cold).  The yeast seemed to have an off color, but was recent enough (expires on 2/2014), and was reasonably active after re-warming and pitching.  The malt extract I ordered was much darker than expected, so my SRM is going to be way off. I’m hoping it does not negatively impact the beer.

The base recipe for this beer is very similar to the St. Philip Saaz single-hop beer I brewed back in February.  The goal is to have a simple backbone that will allow us to focus on the taste of the hops.  This recipe calls for a flamout hop addition, this was done and steeped until the Wort temp was 160F.

The brew day for this beer was uneventful, though I was a bit distracted since I had a pie in the oven as well.  As commented above, the SRM is higher than expected due to the change in malt extract, but the finished wort was very drinkable with a mild astringency in the background.  There is some grapefruit flavor, but I’m not sure if it is just because I expect that.  There were quite a bit of burnt sugars in the bottom of the kettle, hopefully that will not translate to carmel taste in the beer.  Placed in the fermenter with a target temperature of 68-69F.

OG: 1.058 @ 82F, target 1.062
FG: 1.014 @ ~65F, target 1.014

Fermenting Notes

Primary

Target Temperature range: 68F
After using ice to get the wort into the temperature range, we switched to heating mode. Ambient temperatures have been very cool.  We had a power outage on November 4th, and I did not reset the fermentation controller after power was restored, resulting in the temperature decrease over the last 2 days in primary.  This heavily skewed the standard deviation.

Average: 67.96F
Standard Deviation: 3.17

mapuche_primary

Secondary

Target Temperature: 68-69F

11/6/2013 – 1.015 @ 62F.  Fruity flavor, but doesn’t seem to come from the malt. Like a very light cough syrup flavor, not texture. Fairly dry for 1.015, with good mouthfeel. Very cloudy.  Mild hop aroma as it warms, not very bitter with lingering bitterness and slight citrus / grapefruit on finish.  No pine, resin, etc.  Does not have the same strength as the Saaz single-hop did.

Average: 68.55F
Standard Deviation:0.61

mapuche_secondary

11/17/2013 1.014 @ 65F – Bottling with 3.5oz light DME for ~ 2.1 vols of CO2.  Flavor is fairly citrus with a light citrus nose. Strong malt backbone.  Did not taste much, as we needed to get it bottled and put away!  No longer had the cough syrup flavor.

Tasting Notes

This beer doesn’t have the crisp flavor I was hoping for. It also has a very cloudy, amber color, which I believe is due to the malt extract that was used to create the base wort. This malt flavor comes through with some caramel notes and heavier mouthfeel. The hops are present, and the beer has a fairly one-dimensional flavor to it. There is some bitter citrus in the middle of the taste and at the end, with a fairly clean finish. In general, the Mapuche gives a slightly milder citrus-type flavor to the beer, with more perceived bitterness. A recipe that can give a mild, clean bittering and use the hops against a sharp, crisp malt background may show off the capabilities more than we have so far.

Recipe