There are some very helpful descriptions I've found of people describing the taste of various hops, but I've found that my personal taste can be quite different.
I'd like to be able to isolate the aroma and flavor of a particular hop, without brewing a separate or even half batch for each one. Has anyone tried something like this?
When I am trying to test a batch of hops, I take a neutral pale ale, mine or commercial, cool the bottle to 32F, carefully pop the cap. Pour off a small amount of the beer and push about .5gram of hops into the bottle, and quickly recap it. Let it sit at room temperature for about 2 days and then taste. This simulates dry hoping.
What basically I do, is to buy those hops or buy a beer with those hops, make my own notes on what I smell and taste and then I surf the internet for facts, like for Warrior hops for example:
http://www.brew-dudes.com/warrior-hops/577
And then also read some reviews from Beeradvocate. Also I consult this with my friends.
If you're interested in isolating the hops, brew a mild tea of a couple of pellets and let your nose and taste buds dig into it. Use a tea ball for the hops or a small bit of cheesecloth to ensure you're not picking shredded hops out of your teeth. ;)
You could try to just make a hop tea, either using a coffee press or just stirring it into the boiling water and letting the hops settle out. I think that should give you a good idea of the hop's aroma and flavor without any other hops or malts covering it up.
Alternatively, just boil 2 quarts of water and add your hops. After 10 minutes, pour off a quart, which would give you an idea of the aroma and flavor. Boil the rest for another 50 minutes to see how much bitterness they would contribute.
Using these two methods you get to experience the hops alone, no malt or yeast characteristics to get in the way and confuse your palate.
The only way to train your palate is through practice. You can read about, theorize upon, meditate over taste descriptions, but to really get to know them, you have to practice. You can learn the aroma of the different hops by smelling some in your hands repeatedly until you can blindly identify each one. That's a helpful practice, but to really get to know how they affect beer, you have to drink.
You can buy different commercial beers, but that's not ideal because single-hop brews aren't very common, especially among hop-forward beer. Also, commercial beers are designed to give an overall experience, so the malt character will tend to be strong. And you won't be able to find several brews where the only variable is the flavor/aroma hop used.
No, the best thing you can do is brew small test batches where the only variable is the hops. What I plan to do is mash up 5 gallons of 1.040 pale ale wort, then brew five 1 gallon batches, using the same bittering hop in all of them, but changing the flavor/aroma hop across each one. Of course, this requires five 1-gallon jugs to ferment in, but it should prove to be a fun and informative experiment.
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