I tapped this yesterday at our National Homebrew Day/Big Brew celebration.

This IPA came out great!

Ingredients for five gallons:
7.0 lbs Generic Unhopped Light Liquid Extract
2.0 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
1.0 lbs Caramel Malt 40L - Cracked and steeped, removed at ~165 F.
0.75 oz Amarillo (9.8% alpha acid) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 hour
1.0 oz Amarillo (9.8% alpha acid) - added during boil, boiled 15.0 minutes
2.0 oz Amarillo (9.8% alpha acid) - added during boil, boiled 3.0 minutes
0.25 oz Amarillo (9.8% alpha acid) - steeped after boil
1 Tablespoon Irish Moss - added during the boil, boiled 10 minutes
2.0 packets Fermentis Safale US-05
Primed with 1/2 cup of honey

I am very pleased with this beer!

Amarillo is a wonderful hop for American style beers. It has a great citrusy flavor and aroma. If you haven't tried it I strongly recommend you give it a go.

- Scott

Sounds great! I'm curious, was the honey you primed it with at all perceptible in the final brew?

Honey tends to impart a nice dense head but in terms of flavor and aroma the honey does not really come through.

- Scott

I like Amarilo for pale ales as well, a bit more sophisticated than Cascade in my opinion. To get my moneys worth I'd probably use a stronger hop like Green Bullet for bittering in a highly hopped beer, seeing as little of the aroma will come through after an hours boil. Though I guess Amarilo is fairly high in alpha acid anyway. I love the picture!

Joseph

To get my moneys worth I'd probably use a stronger hop like Green Bullet for bittering in a highly hopped beer, seeing as little of the aroma will come through after an hours boil.

You're right it would probably be more efficient to use a high alpha acid hop for bittering.

However, my intention was to give Amarillo hops a try and to get a feel for its character. The place I bought the hops from sold the Amarillo in 4 oz. packages. I used one package for brewing and other 4 oz. package for the Hop-O-Matic. Using 4 oz. for the Hop-O-Matic was probably a bit over kill and 2 oz. would have been fine but....

I have two 4 oz. packages of Simcoe which is another hop I don't have any experience with. I'll probably do much the same thing with that hop to get a feel for it.

Several people at the National Homebrew Day/Big Brew meeting had never heard of Amarillo hops. I think quite of few batches are going to brewed around here with that particular hop in the near future.

- Scott

I have no idea what Simcoe Hops taste like. Tonight I drank a beer, Brewdog's 5am Saint, which does have Simcoe in it but apparently in conjunction with Cascade, Centennial, Amarilo and Nelson Sauvin as well. The result is strangly remenicent of pine needles..

I personally love simcoe. It definitely has a "piney" flavor, but I like it. I've dry-hopped with it before, which ends up with a pleasant aroma reminiscent of pine needles and grass, with a few herb/flower notes thrown in. If you get a chance to use them, go for it!

I love Simcoe hops (very piney). I would highly recommend Amarillo. I use them a lot for dry hopping my IPA's and they really seal the deal.. Nothing like a good dry hopped Amarillo beer..

Today I went to this highly specilised boutique beer cellar I recently found just a five minute drive from home.

They stocked about 8 varieties of the beer called "Mikkeller: Single Hop IPA", and each beer was the same IPA beer just with a different hop used in each recipe. I remember there being an Amarilo, Nelson Sauvin, Nugget, Simcoe, Tomahwawk, Cascade, and other I don't remember.

They would be great for comparing hop types without having to brew yourself 5gal batches for each variety, except these beers were quite pricey themselves.