Olicana hops for mango and passion fruit in English IPA

A tropical hop from English soil

Olicana is one of a small group of modern English hops selected for fruit rather than the traditional earthy and floral character. Like the older English varieties, it is grown in the English hop counties.

The aroma is usually described as mango, passion fruit and grapefruit, sometimes with lemon. Alpha acid is moderate, so it can do some bittering, but most brewers buy it for the late additions. Check the alpha on your own lot sheet before you calculate anything.

English IPA, then and now

The traditional English IPA is a pale, well bittered beer, typically 5 to 7.5% ABV and 40 to 60 IBU, hopped with English varieties such as Goldings and Fuggle. It tastes of biscuit malt, earthy and floral hops and a firm, dry bitterness.

An English IPA with Olicana keeps that structure but swaps the late hop character from earth to fruit. The malt bill and the bitterness stay English. The aroma moves towards mango. It is a reasonable way to brew a beer that suits both an English IPA fan and someone raised on hazy IPAs.

A 20 litre English IPA with Olicana

Here is a recipe at about OG 1.060, 6% ABV and 45 IBU:

• Maris Otter pale malt 5.2 kg (93%).
• Light crystal malt around 50 EBC 0.28 kg (5%).
• Wheat malt 0.11 kg (2%).
• Target or another English high alpha hop, 60 minutes, for about 32 IBU.
• Olicana 30 g at 10 minutes for about 10 IBU.
• Olicana 50 g in a 20 minute whirlpool at 80 °C.
• Olicana 80 g dry hop for three days.

Mash at 65 to 66 °C for a dry, drinkable finish. Ferment at 18 to 19 °C with a clean English yeast. Very fruity English strains can clash with the mango.

Getting mango and not grass

Mango and passion fruit come from volatile oil compounds that are easily lost. Keep Olicana away from the long boil. A whirlpool at 75 to 80 °C extracts flavour while holding back some of the harsher compounds released at a full boil.

For the dry hop, 3 to 5 g per litre for three or four days is a good range. Longer contact and higher doses can drag in grassy, vegetal flavours. If your beer tastes like cut grass, cut contact time before you cut the dose.

The floor detail: heat in the fermenter

At home in India, ambient heat is often the real enemy. A fermenter sitting at 30 °C in a Chennai flat will ferment hot, throw fruity and solventy esters and push hop aroma towards stewed fruit. Hot dry hopping also extracts more vegetal compounds.

If you have no temperature control, a water bath with frozen bottles swapped twice a day can hold a 20 litre fermenter near 20 °C. It is low tech and it works. For a beer built around delicate fruit, temperature control matters more than the hop variety.

Where Olicana works best

Olicana suits beers with a clean, pale base:

• English IPAs and strong pale ales, as above.
• Golden ales, where a small late dose adds fruit without dominating.
• Session pale ales at 3.8 to 4.5% ABV, where its softness keeps the beer easy.

It is less useful in dark beers, where the fruit gets buried. For a passion fruit-led beer, compare it with Moutere, a New Zealand hop. For a bigger tropical punch, Strata goes further.

Mango beer, India and expectations

Mango is a flavour almost every Indian drinker knows well, from Alphonso to Totapuri. That is useful and risky. A beer described as tasting of mango will be judged against real fruit. Hops give a mango impression, not fresh pulp. Describe the beer honestly, as tropical and mango-like. That keeps expectations where the beer can meet them.

If you want a real mango beer, add fruit puree in secondary and use Olicana to support it. That is a different recipe with its own fermentation and sanitation challenges.

Why recipe copying only goes so far

Two brewers can follow the recipe above exactly and get noticeably different beers. Hop lot, oxygen pickup, yeast health and fermentation temperature all shift the result. Learning to read those variables, rather than following the numbers, is what makes the second batch better than the first.

Common questions

What does Olicana taste like?

Mango, passion fruit and grapefruit are the usual descriptors, sometimes with lemon. It is an English hop with a tropical character.

Can Olicana be used in an English IPA?

Yes. Use an English base malt and bittering hop, then put Olicana in the late additions and dry hop for a fruity English IPA.

What is a good substitute for Olicana?

Another English fruit hop such as Harlequin or Jester gets close. For a stronger tropical note, an American or New Zealand variety can stand in.