HBC 522

Like Centennial and Cascade: floral, orange and grapefruit, and pine needles, per John I. Haas.

Dual purpose

Origin United States

Bred by Hop Breeding Company

Owner Hop Breeding Company

One source

Smells like: Floral, Orange, Grapefruit, Pine, Citrus
Bitterness: High (9.5–12% alpha)
In the glass: 5 beers here
Usually paired with: Citra, Simcoe, Mosaic
Swap it for: Centennial · compare them →

Brewing values

range on filetypicalbreeder or labmerchant

Alpha acid

9.5–12% typical 10.8

9.5 12

1 source, spread of 2.5%

John I. Haas9.5–12

Beta acid

4.5–5.5% typical 5

4.5 5.5

1 source, spread of 1%

John I. Haas4.5–5.5

Total oil

1.4–2.3 mL/100g typical 1.9

1.4 2.3

1 source, spread of 0.9 mL/100g

John I. Haas1.4–2.3

Alpha to beta runs about 2.2:1, which is what governs how fast the bitterness fades in storage.

Oil composition

Not enough of this hop's oil is accounted for to show a breakdown. The sources on file name components totalling 59.7% of total oil — most of the balance is myrcene, which the source for this record doesn't publish. Rather than scale what's here up to 100% and invent the rest, here is only what was actually measured:

Myrcene36.9%
Humulene13.2%
Caryophyllene8.4%
Farnesene0.5%
Linalool0.6%
Geraniol0.1%

Aroma

Floral
Orange
Grapefruit
Pine
Citrus

In the glass · 5 beers from 3 breweries

Best Guess IPA Cloudburst Brewing
Latest Greatest IPA Cloudburst Brewing
High Fives Reuben's Brews
Experimental IPA #2 – PMA IPA Stoup Brewing
Fist Bump Strong Pale Stoup Brewing

Brewed alongside · in 5 beers that use HBC 522 with other hops

Citra 480%
Simcoe 360%
Mosaic 360%
Cascade 240%
Centennial 120%
Krush 120%
Superdelic 120%
Peacharine 120%

Counted from the hop lists of every beer in What's in the can: what Pacific Northwest brewers actually put next to HBC 522.

What to swap it for

Centennial 63

aroma 90 · oils — · chemistry 90 partial data
Cascade 51

aroma 70 · oils — · chemistry 75 partial data
Idaho 7 47

aroma 51 · oils — · chemistry 90 partial data
HBC 1134 47

aroma 55 · oils — · chemistry 84 · shifts dual to aroma partial data
Belma 47

aroma 50 · oils — · chemistry 90 · shifts dual to aroma partial data
Magnat 47

aroma 48 · oils — · chemistry 92 partial data

Scored on aroma overlap, oil composition and acid chemistry, then nudged up where a brewer has vouched for the swap by hand. An axis we haven't measured earns nothing, so a hop known only by its acid numbers caps out around 30 — the score is how much evidence there is for the swap, not just how close the numbers happen to be. Anything under 50 is a different beer, not a substitution.

Pedigree

Columbus. A 2006 cross of Columbus with male 986-2.

Notes on this record

purpose defaulted to dual, unconfirmed -- Haas recommends it for lagers through imperial IPA without naming a role.

For brewers and data folks: this hop as JSON · the source file