[tommymorris]

I’ve been drinking my first keg with an APA made with Lupomax Cascade from Yakima Valley Hops. The hop flavors are pretty good. I’m getting a nice mix of citrus and pine.  My beer is an APA, so it’s not off the charts hop flavor and aroma and therefore it’s hard to say if it’s better than a good crop of Cascade pellets.

What is everyone else’s experience?

What about these?
Cryo Hops
Hop Shots

[BrewBama]

I’ve used Cryo hops and really like them. I like the terpene flavors with less chlorophyll. The cost is higher but the flavor punch is stronger so less is required. The reduction of the green bite is a huge plus to me.

[RC]

I have used cryo hops plenty and I have not noticed a difference in hopiness, when used at the recommended rate. Better yield can be had, but at the small scale of homebrewing, IMO it doesn't matter much. IIRC, cryo hops were developed to improve yield (at the commercial scale), not so much hopiness.

Cryo hops definitely have their place at the commercial scale. At the homebrew scale, could be a case of expectation bias or a reality-astonishes-theory thing.

[denny]

I use cryo pretty frequently for very late additions and dry hopping  I love them so much I won't make an IPA without them. I use it at whatever rate I feel like works for my beer.  The recommended rate is based on IBU and as we all know, IBU has no bearing on dry hopping. I've tried Lupomax and it's OK, but to my senses not as good as cryo. They have mire bract material.  I have used hop shots and while they were OK, I wasn't real impressed and it was kinda hard to use.

[tommymorris]

I’ve only used Lupomax once. YVH recommends to “use 50-70% of the hops called for in your recipe.” I used about 50% in the beer I made and it turned out pretty good. But, I think for late additions in the future I might ignore that guidance and use the normal amount I would for regular hops for late and dry hops. Then it should really pop. For bitterness the hops have much higher AA, so I would definitely use the amount Tinseth says for the bitterness I am targeting.

[denny]

I’ve only used Lupomax once. YVH recommends to “use 50-70% of the hops called for in your recipe.” I used about 50% in the beer I made and it turned out pretty good. But, I think for late additions in the future I might ignore that guidance and use the normal amount I would for regular hops for late and dry hops. Then it should really pop. For bitterness the hops have much higher AA, so I would definitely use the amount Tinseth says for the bitterness I am targeting.

Personally, I don't use cryo or lupo on bittering. Seems like a waste.

[tommymorris]

I’ve only used Lupomax once. YVH recommends to “use 50-70% of the hops called for in your recipe.” I used about 50% in the beer I made and it turned out pretty good. But, I think for late additions in the future I might ignore that guidance and use the normal amount I would for regular hops for late and dry hops. Then it should really pop. For bitterness the hops have much higher AA, so I would definitely use the amount Tinseth says for the bitterness I am targeting.

Personally, I don't use cryo or lupo on bittering. Seems like a waste.

I understand, but I have so many hops in my freezer I often don’t worry so much about what I paid for a particular product. In this case, I wanted to only use that hop to make evaluation easier.

Also, maybe a bit odd, but when I open a bag of hops and then go to re vacuum seal the process is easier if I have used a a significant amount of that hop. With 3 gallon batches that often means I use what is really a flavor aroma hop for bitterness just to take more out the bag.

[Cliffs]

used it a handful of times, always as a  keg dry hop. Absolutely love it. Now I see Chinook is offered as cryo too. Definitely going to use some of that

[denny]

I’ve only used Lupomax once. YVH recommends to “use 50-70% of the hops called for in your recipe.” I used about 50% in the beer I made and it turned out pretty good. But, I think for late additions in the future I might ignore that guidance and use the normal amount I would for regular hops for late and dry hops. Then it should really pop. For bitterness the hops have much higher AA, so I would definitely use the amount Tinseth says for the bitterness I am targeting.

Personally, I don't use cryo or lupo on bittering. Seems like a waste.

I understand, but I have so many hops in my freezer I often don’t worry so much about what I paid for a particular product. In this case, I wanted to only use that hop to make evaluation easier.

Also, maybe a bit odd, but when I open a bag of hops and then go to re vacuum seal the process is easier if I have used a a significant amount of that hop. With 3 gallon batches that often means I use what is really a flavor aroma hop for bitterness just to take more out the bag.

What I've found is that the lack of tannins from the bract make for a kinda weird bittering. What I've experimented with in that case is adding some American noble to get some of that character back.

[chinaski]

I've used them as flame out/hop steep additions in my house APA and I like them a lot.  I mostly use home-grown chinook for all of the other additions so I cryo is nice to reduce some of the generous wort loss that I'd get from lots of leaf hops that I'd use otherwise.  Nice aroma punch; sometimes I'll skip dry hopping with homegrown leaf hops too if using cryo.

[erockrph]

I use cryo pretty frequently for very late additions and dry hopping  I love them so much I won't make an IPA without them. I use it at whatever rate I feel like works for my beer.  The recommended rate is based on IBU and as we all know, IBU has no bearing on dry hopping. I've tried Lupomax and it's OK, but to my senses not as good as cryo. They have mire bract material.  I have used hop shots and while they were OK, I wasn't real impressed and it was kinda hard to use.

I've had similar results with Lupomax and Cryo myself. I tried Lupomax first, and thought they were good, but not a huge improvement over traditional pellets. I had kind of written them both off under the assumption that Cryo was the same thing. When I got around to trying Cryo, I actually did see the huge improvement over traditional hops, and they are now my go-to for IPA's when they're available in the variety I'm using.

As far as hop shot goes, I use it all the time and it's my go-to for bittering IPA's. I get the pre-filled syringes from YVH, and it's pretty easy to dose a batch of beer. I prefer a moderately bitter IPA with boatloads of hop flavor and aroma, and the combo of Hop Shot plus Cryo gets me there without a crap ton of vegetal matter (and flavor). If you prefer a more biting bitterness, then I agree that traditional hops are probably better suited for bittering than hop shot, though.

[pete b]

I first tried both hopshots and cryo last year when I made a series of Julius inspred IPA's. Not only did they taste and smell great with no vegetal taste but I appreciated the smaller amount of hop material in the kettle and fermenter. I will use them again anytime I my recipe calls for more than a couple ounces of late hops if they are available in a variety I want to use.