Fresh, Locally Grown Hops

Ok, question for those of you who either brew your own beer at home or those of you who have a microbrewery...

If you have the opportunity to purchase fresh, locally grown hops from your area, would you choose to buy some (maybe not replace what you're getting but suppliment) to brew your beer with?

This isn't directed toward those of you who grow your own hops, but to those who purchase their hops products...would you consider buying hops from your local/regional area as long as they were of good quality?

Absolutely.

I recruit my gardener friends to grow them. For the hops I invite them to all my events. ( summer BBQ, new years, and 12 additional random events)
And to answer your question, yes

I only buy local hops

Of course. No better way to ensure your hops are fresh than to pick'em yourself. Places here in NY do that with apples, pumpkins, etc. I think it would work great with hops.

During harvest season I drive the 5 minutes to the processing barns and stock up

No reason not to as long as they are quality and they can tell you the variety and the AA%.

JJL said:

No reason not to as long as they are quality and they can tell you the variety and the AA%.

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Well, I'm planning on being the one selling them. So people like to know the AA% also, as well as the variety (which I thought was obviously important).

Thanks for the replies guys!

How can Joe Farmer know the AA%? Is it the same for every plant of a given variety in given growing conditions? Could he just have a sample of a couple plants lab-tested and then assume all the rest of that variety on his land is the same?

Yeah, but it also varies from year to year depending on growing conditions. If you really wanted to know, you'd need to send out the current year's sample and get results back before selling that crop. Not sure what the turnaround time is on those lab results...

MazdaMatt said:

How can Joe Farmer know the AA%? Is it the same for every plant of a given variety in given growing conditions? Could he just have a sample of a couple plants lab-tested and then assume all the rest of that variety on his land is the same?

Click to expand...

It depends on the source. If he's just some guy who grows hops on the side, then the drawback of buying from him is not knowing exactly what you are getting. You won't be able to reliably use the hops for bittering. However, if he is a hops grower selling his crop commercially, then he has to know what the AA% is of the crop to be able to sell it. And he has to know this info for every crop every year.

I wonder if anyone would buy them if they were specifically for aroma/dry hopping? I mean, that's what I'd like to use fresh hops for, and use something else for bittering, so the AA% wouldn't be nearly as important to me.

Yes I would -so long as the quality were good. I grow some of the hops I use, but because its so hot and humid here in central Florida, I'm very limited on the strains I can grow (the heat will stress most strains to the point that they just don't mature well -IF they live at all- and stress can cause 'em to have a 'grassy' aroma and flavor (really not a preferred quality in your beer). I grow Cascades and Mt. Hood to good effect, and will usually use my own hops (picked, dried and vacuum packed and stored in the freezer) for the late hop additions (to take advantage of the fresh whole hop cone qualities -yep, aroma and flavor.) but for bittering, I only use commercial because its way too expensive to send my own to the lab and get 'em tested. Perhaps if I had a large hop-yard I would do it every other year. All I have are 7 bines, however, so while I often have more than I need for those particular varieties, its not enough to justify the expense of testing.