Centennial Hops
Over time, certain varieties of hops are grouped together. Noble hops are a group of hops that have been used in beer for a very long time and they are all grown in continental Europe. Another hop group, which is much newer, is the Three Cs. These are American hops that all have names that start with the letter “C” and have come to define ales brewed in this country. (Some sources now extend the group to more than just 3….but we’ll get to that.)
The first “C” hop to be examined in Centennial Hops.
Origin: USA. It was bred in 1974 (known as CFJ90) and released to the public in 1990. It is a cross between many different varieties including:
- Brewers Gold
- Fuggle
- East Kent Golding
- Bavarian
Aroma: Pungent. Citrus-Like. Floral but not as floral as Cascade. More bitter than Cascade though.
Alpha Acid: 9% to 12%
Typical Usage: Some sources stated bitterness; other sources stated aroma/finishing hop. I think Centennial is one of those great dual purpose hops.
Beer Styles: It is a defining hop variety in American pale ales and IPA styles. Some sources stated that they would work well in darker ales too.
on June 14th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
[...] Centennial Hops [...]
on June 21st, 2010 at 9:28 am
I really like your hop profile pages and keep coming back to them for hop profiles
on June 22nd, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Sweet. We’ll keep writing them up.
on August 4th, 2011 at 7:34 am
[...] tohoto piva byly přidány chmelové odrůdy z USA (proto IPA amerického stylu) – Cascade, Centennial, Columbus a Simcoe. Hořkost dosahuje krásných 60 IBU. Slady byly sypány anglický pale ale + [...]
on October 5th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
[...] bourbon and rum cigars. The result, promises the cigar maker, is a cigar with notes of the floral Centennial’s flavor and [...]
on October 10th, 2011 at 7:00 am
[...] Centennial is a New World hop, grown in the USA and bred in the 1970s by crossing a variety of British and continental European hops before it appeared on the brewing scene in the 1990s. It’s a multipurpose hop with medium-high alpha acid concentration (the main bittering agent within the hop) and a citrus/floral characteristic, and it is used as both a bittering and aroma hop, providing American beers with some of their distinctive bite for the last 20 years. Happily in the modern world of brewing it’s fairly easy (if there’s any left after the post-harvest auctions) to get American hops in the UK and lots of brewers have been playing with overseas produce (with the USA and New Zealand being the two that I’ve heard most about) for a while. [...]
on October 28th, 2011 at 7:12 am
[...] oz Amarillo Hops (2 oz 60 minutes, 1 oz 30 minutes, 1 oz 5 minutes) 4 oz Centennial hops (2 oz 60 minutes, 1 oz 30 minutes, 1 oz 5 minutes) 2 oz Crystal hops (1 oz 45 minutes, 1 oz 5 [...]