2012 hops selection

Spintab · 12-18-2011, 08:34 PM

I have three plants in the ground right now; chinook, Columbus, and fuggle. All three did well last year(their first). Not a huge harvest but enough to brew a batch with. After I harvested I moved them from large pots to a raised bed which I have room for one more plant in. Any thoughts on a good fourth plant? I was thinking centennial maybe. I may also yank the fuggle plant and replace it. I'm in AL so it's a little hot here in the summer for it. The others loved the heat and sun. Oh and no cascade. I have this weird thing against cascade like a teenager would against their favorite punk band selling out.

Northjerzyg · 12-18-2011, 08:50 PM

I felt the same way at first but then realized theyr popular for a reason. That's just me.

rexbanner · 12-18-2011, 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Northjerzyg

I felt the same way at first but then realized theyr popular for a reason. That's just me.

Indeed. Popular to brew with and grow. Cascade is vigorous. I also love the taste.

You could go EKG, but you already have fuggle. EKG does pretty well, although mine didn't produce the first year and I hear that is common. I've heard that Zeus and Nugget do very well. If you want a challenge, try Saaz.

Spintab · 12-18-2011, 09:48 PM

Yeah I should probably just get over the cascade thing. Everyone that grows them around here has great success with them.

Saaz would be interesting. Not sure how it would do this far south but how cool would a home hopped pils be? Any experience growing it?

rexbanner · 12-19-2011, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spintab

Yeah I should probably just get over the cascade thing. Everyone that grows them around here has great success with them.

Saaz would be interesting. Not sure how it would do this far south but how cool would a home hopped pils be? Any experience growing it?

No experience growing it, but from what I understand it is a low-vigor disease-susceptible hop that might have some trouble in a hot area. There's also U.S. Saaz which is a hybrid hop better suited to this area, but I'm not sure where to get it.

Either way, it's only five bucks. I'll be growing some next spring because it's such a little investment, and like you said, home-grown pils would be nice.

Spintab · 12-19-2011, 01:46 AM

The other thing with Saaz is that you can count on it being somewhere in the vicinity of 5%AA. Even the commercial Saaz you get is pretty consistent from season to season.

Have you pre-ordered already? I see northwest hops has their pre-orders going but no Saaz. They have hallertau though. That's always an option.

rexbanner · 12-19-2011, 02:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spintab

The other thing with Saaz is that you can count on it being somewhere in the vicinity of 5%AA. Even the commercial Saaz you get is pretty consistent from season to season.

Have you pre-ordered already? I see northwest hops has their pre-orders going but no Saaz. They have hallertau though. That's always an option.

Was going to go with freshops.com, but I'll check em out. Freshops should have Saaz.

I already grow EKG so I'm not sure whether or not to try hallertau, have you noticed anything particularly unique about it? I have used it in a few Belgians but I don't see any reason not to use EKG for bittering and saaz for aroma, if I even need it. I always age Belgian strongs a few months, any aroma is going to be mostly gone.

Spintab · 12-19-2011, 07:18 PM

I've really only used hallertau in a pumpkin ale, schwarzbier, and my bohemian pils (not sure if that defeats the bohemian part or not). I usually associate it with noble hops and EKG with english style brews. I'm still working on my hops expertise though so I may be off in my thinking. Two years in and I have malts down and IPA related hops down.

Jon73 · 12-20-2011, 12:02 AM

Until citra becomes available to buy as a rhizome, there isn't another hop I'd rather grow than cascade. I understand not wanting be on the bandwagon with everybody else, but if it's damn good beer, who cares what's in it? Especially if you grew it yourself.

My "garden": 2 cascades, 1 chinook, 1 mt. hood (soon to be replaced with another chinook)

Spintab · 12-20-2011, 01:06 AM

Yes, citra would be awesome to grow. Love it.