I think the bad tagline for this hop would incorporate something about them being “out of this world.” See, I told you it was bad.
Anyway, Galaxy hops were bred in 1994 by Hop Products Australia. This company owns a hop garden called Rostrevor in North Eastern Victoria where they were grown for the first time. It’s now grown in both Victoria and Tasmania.
It is a cross between an Australian female and a male Perle hop. Here are the stats for Galaxy hops:
Origin: Australia
Aroma/Flavor: Pleasant, Citrus, Passionfruit
Alpha Acid: 13.0 – 14.8%
Typical Usage: Mostly bittering, although noted as a dual purpose. Could be used as flavoring hop as well.
Beer Styles: I didn’t see any clear indications in my research about beer styles. My opinion is that they would do well in American Pales and IPAs.
chemgeek
sounds like another hop variety we don’t really need. Too much like the well established centennial hops.
JW
chemgeek – it would be very hard to really appreciate the flavors/aromas of the hops until you have them in a beer. Flavor descriptors are usually very generalized and never do the true experience justice.
Has anyone ever seen these in the US market? It might be worthwhile brewing a single-hop beer with Galaxy and compare it against, say, a Centenial single-hop beer. Or roll it into a homebrew club activity so everyone can try it – the club event we are in the middle of is linked below (excuse the self-promotion).
http://www.lugwrenchbrewing.com/2010/01/single-hop-beer-experiment.html
Best of luck.
-JW
Sean
Brewed a single-hop IPA with galaxy about 2 months ago and cracked the first few bottles a day ago. I haven’t used a hop before that has such an upfront fruity aroma before, like sticking your nose in fresh passionfruit. The passionfruit taste came through in a nice way too, not subtle but not overwhelming. While I think it’s great for bittering, late additions of galaxy add fantastic fruity aromas and flavors and is where I think it really shines.
John
Galaxy is fantastic! Not really like Centennial at all. Give it a go in small amounts in an APA….Bittering, flavouring and dry hopping…..simply beautiful.
Brian Yaeger
Just got a sample from Widmer Bros for their new Galaxy-Hopped Barleywine! Hope this isn’t a year late and an Australian dollar short.
John
Cool Brian. Sounds like a great beer.
mountaintophops
Hill Farmstead in Greensboro, VT brews a DIPA with only galaxy hops that is (hyperbole aside) only of the finest tasting brews I’ve ever had. It has a wonderful citrusy aroma, a crisp bitterness up front & an incredibly smooth finish… all in all I’m a big fan of galaxy hops & hope more brewers start using them…
Jim S
Schlafly in St. Louis released the seaonal IPA last month, Tasmanian IPA. It is a single hop using Galaxy hops. Had it on tap and in bottles. Color is so light it almost looks like a Miller Lite, but the flavor is anything but. Very unique, I recommend trying to get your hands on some.
http://schlafly.com/beers/styles/tasmanian-ipa/
Joost
Use 2oz of these in a 5gallon pale ale 5minutes before end of boil. Leaves a slightly sweet peachy taste up front. Accent this with some honey and relatively low bittering hops. Crafting a beer around it.
John
That’s sounds great.
Jim
Chemgeek : You couldn’t be more wrong and way off on Galaxy. It outshines Many hop varieties and is a multi purpose hop of star qualities, no pun intended. You should really try brewing with it before sticking your foot in your mouth. Just saying…
Mark
Does anyone in the US sell the Galaxy rhizome?
John
We have not seen Galaxy rhizomes for sale…yet.
bill sinni
Galaxy, along with other hops from Australia and New Zealand are great. I think it is against the law to ship rhizomes or whole hops from New Zealand and Australia to the United States.
John
Ah, that’s too bad. Maybe one of the hop growers can try to bred US Galaxy…