Hop of the Week: Palisade

Continuing on with the Hop of the Week submission I have decided on a lesser known variety of hop that is relatively new to the homebrewing world. There is not much published information or reviews on this hop so I would like to add to some of the information out there by describing some of what I saw with this hop.

PALISADE®

Origin/History
Palisade is an aroma type cultivar bred by Yakima Chief Ranches.

Agronomics
Low susceptibility to downy mildew, Podoshaera with good pickability of a medium cone.

Brewing Quality
Used for it's aromatic properties and moderate bittering.

Alpha acids:	5.5-9.5%
Beta acids:	6.0-8.0%
Alpha:Beta Ratio:	1.0
Cohumulone (% of alpha acids):	24-29%
Total Oil (Mls. per 100 grams):	1.4-1.6
Caryophyllene (as % of total oils):	16-18%
Farnesene (as % of total oils):	0%
Humulene (as % of total oils):	19-22%
Myrcene (as % of total oils):	9-10%

Storability is good.

Information above provided by Yakima Chief

I was only able to come up with a few commercial examples with the use of this hop. Both of which I have never had a chance to try and would probably be hard to find unless you live in the area of the brewery. 

Palisades Pale Ale

This classic American ale has a beautiful light gold complexion backed with a firm, biscuity malt character and a thirst quenching hoppiness thanks to Pacific Northwest grown Palisade hops.  5% abv

Palisade Pale Ale (Hop Project beer)

Palisade hops have moderate bittering potential but are used more for their floral aromatic qualities. They impart a smooth hop flavor with subtle dark fruit flavors (non citrusy).

I have read that big brewery down in St. Louis uses Palisade hops as the bittering hop in their craft brew rip off American Ale. I have yet to try that stuff either, if someone offered me one I give it a whirl but I am not gonna buy a 6er. 

Researching information from the homebrew product websites and other hop dealers I noticed that a lot of them referred to hop as a citrus type bittering/flavor hop. Well I would agree with them that it is a dual use hop however, I did not pick up any citrus when using this and agree a lot more with Sly Fox's description above. It's just misinformation that was given and then reused by any dealers that obtain Palisade hops to sell. 

I have used this hop in a pale ale, amber ale, and an old ale. Here is what I found out about the hop when using it in my own brews.

Aroma: Very floral and somewhat grassy. Maybe a hint of apricot. When the old ale was fresh I submitted it to a competition and got a response in the aroma section as "Rosey-posey." 

Usage: This hop has moderate bittering ability. The nice aspect of it is that it is a very smooth bitterness somewhat like magnum so use accordingly if using to bitter.  As a flavor/aroma addition it is great to add a floral and somewhat grassy aspect to the beer, there are also hints of dark fruit. It does well with a deeper malt backbone so if using for a pale go with some maris otter and some crystal malts. It would also work in conjunction with some of the citrus hops, the amber I made combined palisade and cascade hops and it turned out very nice. In my opinion this hop is best suited for British style ales. The old ale that I used this in won a gold medal at the Peterson Airforce base homebrew comp and also just moved onto the 2nd round of the NHC. 

Suggested Styles: Bitters, Old Ale, English IPA