Part of the Craft Brewer’s Conference is the industry trade show.  It’s a venue for brewers and vendors in the brewing industry to meet face to face and talk about some of the new products the’ve come up with over the year.  Walking around on the trade show floor can make me feel like the proverbial kid in a candy store.  Some of the new products are things I can use at Iron Hill.  Others are pieces of equipment manufactured for much larger production breweries with much larger budgets.  I just look at these and drool….

One of my favorite things to do on the trade show floor is to check out some of the new hop varieties that have been introduced in the past year.  The hop growers and purveyors will bring bricks of whole leaf hops for us to check out.  The hops smell great right there on the table.  You can usually smell them from a couple of booths away.  But to reall get a feel for what the hop has to offer brewers conduct a “crush test”.  It’s simple but effective.  Just grab a handful, rub them between your hands and sniff.  It gives you a pretty good idea of what that particular variety will smell like in your beer.  The warmth from your hands and the crushing of the buds allows the essential oils to be released and become more volatile.  You also walk away with sticky and green but great smelling hands.  And if you’re me about a half an hour’s worth of sneezing! (believe it or not I’m mildly allergic to hops in their whole leaf form).

The two ’09 releases that impressed me the most were the Citra hops and the German Traditional hops.  The Citra as you may guess are American and loaded with Citrus characters.  I’m hoping to use these for an American IPA once I get things rolling in Maple Shade.  The German Tradition are (again, intuitively enough) a very “noble” smelling German hops.  Just perfect for a German Pilsner.  I’ve been very happy with the German Select hops I’ve used for my Pils in years past, but I’m all about experimenting with what’s out there. Can’t wait to dive into these varieties!