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generikal · 08-18-2012, 11:59 PM

Recently I found a bunch of wild hops in my neighborhood. They are growing next to a river and main road. I'm sure it would be fine for me to gather them. What would be the best way to use these? How could I tell what these hops would be best used for? Any advice is helpful, Thanks!

Mongrel · 08-19-2012, 12:27 AM

Talk to the neighbors and see if anyone knows the variety.

strambo · 08-19-2012, 02:19 AM

Pick a malt, brew a SMASH...then if they taste kinda earthy, use them in porters, stouts, wheats etc. If they taste kinda spicy-citrusy use them in APA & IPAs! That's awesome, I'd love to find some mystery hops. Worse-case if you get a good feel from the SMASH of how they bitter to guess an AA level, just use them for bittering additions.

**JLem** · 08-19-2012, 02:31 AM

I'd use them as late hops only since there's no knowing what their AA level is - though most likely only in the 1-5% range if they are truly wild (or feral perhaps?). If you're not going to dry them, you'll want to pick them just before using them and will need 4-5x as much as you would with dried hops. Also, you'll want to make sure they're ready to harvest before doing so. I'm no expert here, so you might want to read up on that if you need further info about that. I think there's a hop growing forum somewhere here.

I'm jealous - I've been thinking it would be pretty cool to find some "wild" hops to brew with.

Btw, how do they smell?

phoenixs4r · 08-19-2012, 02:31 AM

Grab a rhizome and plant it! Or send one to me

MisterTipsy · 08-19-2012, 01:39 PM

First, you should have an all day drum circle session around the hops. Then harvest every single one of them at sundown!

**res291que** · 08-19-2012, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phoenixs4r

Grab a rhizome and plant it! Or send one to me

I agree would be fun to grab a couple rhizomes to send out to us. Cheers congrats on the lucky find. Good luck on the fresh hop ale, let us know how it turns out.

**mikeysab** · 08-19-2012, 02:48 PM

Darn, when I read the title, I thought it was gonna be a story of hops drinking whiskey, smoking funny cigarettes and having unprotected sex.

**mikeysab** · 08-19-2012, 02:51 PM

Was there a van close by? They might belong to this guy:

**jonmohno** · 08-19-2012, 02:56 PM

Winner,winner. I would do a wet hop batch,and dry some finding out how to properly do so.If you like them,I would dig up rizomes.Do they have aroma,or is it something you have to dry to get that? Usually with wild hops it seems you should assume its low AAU's. But you could find out if you had them tested if you think its worth it.Personally I would just brew a small batch to find out how potent and bitter they are.