Yakima Chief Hops “Survivables” Table

Last year, Scott Janish said that Idaho 7 was one of the greatest hot-side hops he ever used which ultimately led to its inclusion in my Mountain IPA #1 and #4 recipes. This week, Janish summarized recent Yakima Chief Hops (YCH) research on beer soluble compounds that best “survive” the brewing process among 35 hop varieties – Idaho 7 topped the list.

After reading Janish’s blog post, I watched the Sulfur: The Next Aroma Frontier webinar on the YCH website. Fortunately, YCH included a chart toward the end of the webinar that showed the breakdown of compounds for each hop variety in parts per million.

Using Paint.NET, I measured the pixel size for each compound for each hop variety and then scaled the pixel measurement to match the part per million values on the original chart. I transcribed the values into a sort-able table below. In a way, this data is a continuation of the Comprehensive Hop Acid/Oil Chart I shared back in November (also from YCH) – though I hope to eventually combine the two charts.

For context;

  • Butanoic acid, 3-methyl butyl ester is an ester with fruity apricot, pear and banana aroma (Millennium ranked highest)
  • Methyl geranate is a monoterpene with floral, green and fruit aroma (Bravo ranked highest)
  • 2-Methylbutyl isobutyrate (2MIB) is an ester that has a green apple and apricot aroma (HBC 472 ranked highest)
  • Linalool is a monoterpene with floral and citrus aroma. It is a good indicator of overall intensity of hop aroma and flavor (Loral ranked highest)
  • Geraniol is a monoterpene with rose-like aroma (HBC 692 ranked highest)
  • 2-Nonanone is a ketone with fruit, floral and herbaceous aroma (Idaho 7 ranked highest)
  • 3-Mercaptohexanol (3MH) is a thiol with grapefruit and gooseberry aroma. It can be converted by certain yeasts into 3MHA (passionfruit/guava) (HBC 520 ranked highest)

While Idaho 7 measured greatest in total compounds for an individual hop variety, TRI-2304CR Cryo Blend was created by YCH based on this research as a way to optimize these compounds and create a super “survivables” product. I’m working on the math to determine which blend of hops will closely match the Cryo Blend (since is only limited to commercial application at this time).

YCH CodeHop VarietyButanoic acid, 3-methylbutyl esterMethyl geranate2MIBLinaloolGeraniol2-Nonanone3MHTotal
Cryo BlendTRI-2304CR3112511725010619136785
ID7Idaho 719921531486464189729
MOSMosaic25192641346731167679
BROBravo8223103134640111643
CITCitra619545239331192621
MLMMillennium4222139122110250587
MTHMt. Hood615053270221158571
EKUEkuanot2886145120503136568
SIMSimcoe1916456128672595554
CRYCrystal011725259471456518
LORLoral11813330636022490
COMComet67536150198189484
HBC 692HBC 6922231031281671142476
CHIChinook111097883676120473
SABSabro176811111000156470
HBC 520HBC 520362550042342468
WARWarrior11676712861697437
NUGNugget1914782230681420
LIBLiberty0283929261736417
ELDEl Dorado84797111118120404
ORGANIC SIMOrganic Simcoe19924789471761373
PALPalisade8457581253122359
HBC 522HBC 522017112348383356
HBC 472HBC 4723171645828064334
VG1Amarillo3612515611070326
HBC 630HBC 6301717109100141450320
AHTAhtanum0167317817025317
WILWillamette3363117314845309
CMRCashmere11336742222578278
HBC 344HBC 34481731956097253
ORGANIC VG1Organic Amarillo047251288042250
TRMTriumph178221420061250
CASCascade3452510611319212
CLUCluster1111706122628209
SORSorachi Ace0388331789203
AZAAzacca36506161756198

6 Responses

  1. Thank you for you effort putting this together. A side note on 3MH is that the paper probably don’t show 3MH survivables because any thiol present in the wort prior to fermentation will most likely quickly be oxidized into flavorless disulfide forms. They are most likely measuring the hop with the largest conversion of S-conjugates thiol precursors like Cys3MH into 3MH

  2. It seems to me that the data published by YCH must be incomplete since a blend of hops cannot have a higher amount of total compounds than the hop that has the highest. I think I remember another slide they had in a presentation they made in a YouTube video where they also had Centennial and it had an incredibly high amount of total compounds, much higher than Cryo Pop, so I think they use that or another hop similarly high in survivables

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