1st season Centennials- onion/garlic odor
 

I planted 2 rhizomes of Centennials and 2 of Cascade this last spring, obtained from freshops.com.

The Centennials took off like rockets, mainly (I think) because of the greater sun exposure vs. the Cascades.

I've gotten probably a pound off the Centennials, way more than I would have expected.

But, they have this odor that I haven't detected from commerically purchased Centennials. Onion/garlic is the closest descriptor I can come up with, but that's only 75% correct.

My Cascades smell great. Only 2-3 ounces but very grapefruit-y.

My questions:

1) is this normal for homegrown Centennials?

2) should I risk using them in a batch?

i was wondering the exact same thing! some of my centennials smell awesome like they should, but some smell like onion/garlic. do they get onion and garlic odor when they are overripe? i'm thinking of brewing a 1 gallon test batch with my homegrown hops.

I was listening to a podcast where that is a typcial off aroma/taste when a hop is picked late. I have found it very often in commercial summit in beers like Drifter. I picked it out before I listened to the podcast on hops from the brad smith podcast (beersmith) and was like huh... I guess I was right :)

I got my hands on some mystery hops which smelled of onion/garlic. Brewed a 1 liter test batch and it was pretty horrid. I would not recommend using them. YMMV

There can sometimes be a lot of variability with the quality of first year plantings. Don't give up until you've gone through a few harvests. And like was mentioned a couple times before, harvest timing can and will have a big impact on what you end up with ~ a couple days too early or late and you can end up with something you don't like. It takes a few years to get a feel for it so don't throw the baby out with the bath water just yet. Rub and smell real good as you're coming up on when you think harvest should be and try to take good notes is about all I can come up with without a lab for testing. Win some, lose some, it's all good!

Meh. I picked them too late? ****.

I picked a few ounces much earlier and found they only smelled of grass.

I decided to let them age on the vine quite a bit more, and not pick them until there was slight browning of the tips.

I saw on a YouTube video that picking them with a bit of browning on the tips was ideal. I'm new at this, obviously.

Now I learn that there's a narrow window for the harvest. Oh well. I'm not giving up.

I probably won't risk using them in a batch, but if anyone else has any useful input, I'm all ears.