Cat Urine Hops

Reads 18822 • Replies 18 • Started Wednesday, June 1, 2011 2:50:12 PM CT

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Message Barley69 beers 26 º places 2 º 09:47 Thu 6/2/2011 simcoe is a pine smell - not cat urine Frankly any beer that smells like cat urine you can drink. Not a good descriptor.
Message Gazza beers 727 º places 167 º 09:53 Thu 6/2/2011 Originally posted by Barley69 simcoe is a pine smell - not cat urine Not so says my nose. I don’t get anything like pine out of Simcoe at all, and we opened a fresh 5kg pack last weekend. I get sweet tropical fruits - peach, mango - along with oiliness and some cat’s piss with maybe a hint of orangey citrus too.
Message NobleSquirrel beers 3437 º places 209 º 10:12 Thu 6/2/2011 Originally posted by Barley69 simcoe is a pine smell - not cat urine Frankly any beer that smells like cat urine you can drink. Not a good descriptor. Two things. Simcoe does have a catty smell about it. Maybe you can’t perceive that due to genetics, but most people can. Second, cat urine is a valid descriptor and in traditional tasting verbiage, descriptors shouldn’t carry a negative or positive connotation, that’s the duty of the individual using the descriptor. That being said, people also use things like dank basement, horse blanket, etc. and they don’t have an inherent negative connotation. Just saying. Oh, and for me, the catty ones are Simcoe, Citra, Summit, Nelson Sauvin, Cluster. It’s all in how they are used and what with a lot of times...

Message GodOfThunder beers 1263 º places 48 º 14:01 Thu 6/2/2011 Originally posted by NobleSquirrel Originally posted by Barley69 simcoe is a pine smell - not cat urine Frankly any beer that smells like cat urine you can drink. Not a good descriptor. Two things. Simcoe does have a catty smell about it. Maybe you can’t perceive that due to genetics, but most people can. Second, cat urine is a valid descriptor and in traditional tasting verbiage, descriptors shouldn’t carry a negative or positive connotation, that’s the duty of the individual using the descriptor. That being said, people also use things like dank basement, horse blanket, etc. and they don’t have an inherent negative connotation. Just saying. Oh, and for me, the catty ones are Simcoe, Citra, Summit, Nelson Sauvin, Cluster. It’s all in how they are used and what with a lot of times... This. As I said, I actually like the cat urine smells when it comes to a beer. I hate it when it is on my carpet because my asshole cat decided to piss me off, though. That is what it smells like. No need to lie because "cat urine" has a negative connotation. A glass of Weyerbacher Double Simcoe is about the strongest on that aroma to me. That is why I think Simcoe is the strongest with it.
Message wnoble beers 1251 º 19:17 Thu 6/2/2011 The thing is that hop aromas come across differently as their concentrations in the brewhouse change. One beer might be a simcoe single hop and be cat piss as hell (which I still like) then another can come across with tropical fruits and complex citrus character. Dankness like that can be achieved by many hops if used the right way.
Message SamGamgee99 22:34 Thu 6/2/2011 I feel like I’m missing out on something because I have no idea what cat urine smells like. Most of the hops mentioned I would say have a sharp pungent dankeness to them. And I definitely get pine out of simcoe. But then again how many people have cut down a pine tree?
Message sthlm beers 790 º places 147 º 22:54 Thu 6/2/2011 Originally posted by SamGamgee I feel like I’m missing out on something because I have no idea what cat urine smells like. Most of the hops mentioned I would say have a sharp pungent dankeness to them. And I definitely get pine out of simcoe. But then again how many people have cut down a pine tree? I’ve worked in coniferous forests cutting down trees, and at a vet hospital with angry stray cats that were all too happy to piss all over their cages. Unfortunately, I don’t homebrew yet, so I never get to smell the hop varieties individually, which would really help me to ID them in beer. That having been said, I have definitely smelled cat piss in beers that I know had simcoe in them. If you break white spruce needles, they smell quite similar to cat piss as well, but pines (at least jack, white, and red) generally have a different aroma.

Message Gazza beers 727 º places 167 º 23:27 Thu 6/2/2011 But then again how many people have cut down a pine tree? I think that’s a very relevant quote - especially to the UK - as our trees are mainly oak and suchlike. There are large plantations of pines around and I’ve smelt a kind of herbal, soapy, very aromatic oilyness from them, but I’ve not smelt this in any hops as yet. Maybe we get different pines than you do?