From Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2020
The variety was bred in Sorachi-gun, Hokkaido, Japan, by Sapporo Breweries, released in 1984 and grown for several years on the brewery’s hop farm in China. She was added to the USDA collection in Corvallis, Oregon, in 1994. She had not been grown commercially for several years when, in 2002, Darren Gamache of Virgil Gamache Farms spotted her in the germplasm repository at Prosser, Washington, and requested roots to begin growing her the next year. Demand for the hop increased after Brooklyn Brewery released a saison it simply called Sorachi Ace in 2009. Several other farms now grow Sorachi Ace.
Heritage: Her grandmother is a cross between Brewer’s Gold (you knew that was coming) and Saaz. Her mother is a seedling that resulted from open pollination. Her father is a Japanese male, Beikei No. 2. I should draw you a family tree, but I’m not going to. Perhaps this makes it easier to envision:
Brewer’s Gold x Saaz
Selected seedling from that cross x OP
Selected seedling cross x Beikei No. 2
Sorachi Ace
The Basics: 11-12.5% alpha acids, 6.5-7% beta acids. Total essential oil is generally reported at 1-3 mL/100g. However, for a study that included 34 hops from the 2019 harvest Yakima Chief found Sorachi Ace had the highest level of total oil, 4.2 mL/100g.
Aroma qualities: Can be divisive. Some drinkers describe dill, and do not smile when they say that. Others like various shades of lemon, including wood polish, pithy fruit and lemongrass.
Recent research: Although others have measured relatively low amounts of geraniol, when researchers at Sapporo measured free geraniol in multiple varieties in 2017 they placed Sorachi Ace in the free geraniol rich category.
In a separate study, a group at Sapporo found that “a unique volatile compound, geranic acid, was present at a significant level only in the test beer brewed with the Sorachi Ace hop. Furthermore, sensory evaluation techniques revealed that geranic acid has unique characteristics. This compound is not odor-active but functions as an enhancer for hop-derived terpenoids, not only monoterpene alcohols but also terpene hydrocarbons, at subthreshold levels.”
Historic tidbit: Japanese farmers grew hops on almost 4,000 acres in 1971, but today harvest only about 250. Reduction began in 1975 because brewers were required to pay farmers a price equal to the income of subsidized rice farmers, and thus were paying two to three times more for local hops than the world market price.