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Azacca Hops Profile and Information

I went to my local homebrew shop and purchased a few hops that I had never seen before.  Any time I see a variety that is new to me, I pick up an ounce to brew a SMaSH with for my own knowledge but also for yours.

The new hop variety I bought was a packet of Azacca hops. These hops were introduced to the market in 2013 and have been used in some commercial beers such as Victory Brewing’s Hop Ranch and Cigar City’s Azacca.

Before they were given their brand name, they were known as Experimental Hop #483. Once it decided the variety was going to be released, it was named after the Haitian god of agriculture.  Off of the top of my head, I am not sure many other hops have been named after a god except maybe Zeus hops.

Origin: This variety was cultivated by the American Dwarf Hop Association (ADHA) and they are based in Moxee, WA, USA. They are a pretty cool organization dedicated to changing the way hops are produced and they are focused on dwarf or low trellis hop varieties. You can find them at http://www.adha.us/ It appears we will be seeing more new hops from them.

The parentage of Azacca hops includes Northern Brewer, Summit, a Japanese hop Toyomidori, and a few unbranded varieties.

Aroma/Flavor: Here are the descriptors – intense tropical flavors and aromas. Mango is a big one, Papaya is another.

Your citrus notes are in there too – Grapefruit, lemon, orange and are sustained throughout the length of the taste. Other fruits include pears and apples.

Then, there are piney descriptors too. We brewed with these hops and formed our own opinions.  Check out our Azacca SMaSH Beer tasting post!

Alpha Acid: 14 to 16%

Typical Usage: This variety should be used in late additions to really maximize all of those intense tropical hop aromas and flavors. I will be putting brewing up a single malt, single hop brew to showcase this hop and we will roll out a tasting video so you can understand more about this hop from us.

Azacca hops sounded tremendous and they lived up to their hype in my brew.

As always – Brew ON!

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6 Comments

  1. I recently used Azacca hops in a single hop session IPA. Azacca is pretty tasty and has a nice aroma, but wasn’t quite as prominent in the beer as I was hoping given my personal tastes. Maybe it would be better in combination with something else, or perhaps with a bigger dry hop quantity? (or a different recipe) Tasting results for my beer are here.

  2. Thanks Andy. Let’s see if our notes match yours.

  3. Looking forward to seeing your results!

  4. Me too, Andy.

  5. Azacca is an interesting hop. It was one of the hops used in an experiment I did with several other brewers. I found it interesting that many of the aromas did not carry through to a lot of flavor in the finished beer. However, this may have been due to age or just the recipe used to brew the beer.

    We did 10 different hops in the experiment, and it was a great opportunity. Here is my review of the Azacca beer: https://youtu.be/jkuBlDwbmko

    I’ll be interested to see your thoughts on the hop. Brew on, indeed!

  6. Thanks Jake – really great stuff. Love the chatter on this variety.

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