Canadian Redvine

Thought I would pose this question to the public,
Has anyone used redvine variety hops in their brews, all I have found so far on it is at freshhops here: http://www.freshops.com/hop-growing/rhizome-information/#rhizome_variety_list
and on a link from Andrea it seems to be a very prolific grower but is untested or unconfirmed for beer use. Thought I might try it if there are no actual factual determined problems with it.

Low AA ~5%, grapefruity aroma is all I get. Give it a shot and let us know, it's supposed to be a very hearty grower.

Did some more searching and found some speculation that the high cohumulone (47%) content is why people stopped using them in beer.

This is off the freshhops site:
USDA ACCESSION No.: 21679
SELECTION: no information
GENUS: Humulus
SPECIES: lupulus
CULTIVAR: Canadian RedVine
PEDIGREE: no information
PRIMARY SITE USDA/OSU Hop Research Farm, Corvallis, OR
ORIGIN: Bob Bero, Canfield, Ohio
DATE RECEIVED: Spring 1993
METHOD RECEIVED: rhizomes
AVAILBILITY: no restrictions
REFERENCES: USDA Annual Report for Hop Research 1993 and later years
MATURITY: late
LEAF COLOR: medium dark green to lighter green depending on location
SEX: female
DISEASES: Downy mildew: moderately resistant
Powdery mildew: no information
Verticillium wilt: no information
Viruses: no information
VIGOR: very good
YIELD: excellent, over 2000 lbs/ acre, heavy clustering and cone set
SIDE ARM LENGTH: 30 - 50 inches, sometimes even longer
ALPHA ACIDS: 5%
BETA ACIDS: 5 - 6 %
COHUMULONE: 47 %
STORAGE STABILITY: very good, retained over 80% of its original alpha acids
after 6 months storage at room temperature
OIL: 11.20 ml/ 100 g. Humulene 2%; caryophyllene 2%; farnesene 4 - 7%;
myrcene 70%. H/C ratio = 0.90
MAJOR TRAITS: exceptionally vigorous, very low alpha, high cohumulone, little humulene
OTHER INFORMATION: In older Cluster yards in the Grants Pass (OR) area and also in some Yakima yards, Canadian RedVine was mixed in with Clusters. Canadian RedVine probably originated in Canda (hence the name) and due to its extreme vigor and rhizome production it spread rapidly. Farm workers were given orders to collect roots from an existing Cluster field in preparation for new Cluster plantings and when they found a huge crown (probably RedVine) that yielded several hundred roots (rhizomes) they could easily fill their bucket from one crown which, sadly, was not Cluster.

The fruitness flavor is not grapefruit to my palate but fruity like strawberries or cherry maybe. The aroma is nowhere near Cascade. Loved it best in a blind taste test of hops over Cascade and Northern Brewer and Liberty-- all hops i thought i loved the most. Love is fickle

Made tasty red and have some hops to send on to you COLObrewer

Andrea said:

The fruitness flavor is not grapefruit to my palate but fruity like strawberries or cherry maybe. The aroma is nowhere near Cascade. Loved it best in a blind taste test of hops over Cascade and Northern Brewer and Liberty-- all hops i thought i loved the most. Love is fickle

Made tasty red and have some hops to send on to you COLObrewer

Click to expand...

Thanx, by the way, I'm hoping to use the malting contraption I'm building as a hop dryer as well as a mash tun, so, it's eventually going to be multipurpose. We'll probably have it running 24hrs a day churning out some sort of brew ingredient . . . . . . . If it works, HA!:rockin:

Hmmm, maybe I should try to get my hands on a rhizome. I live in Atwater, OH about 45mins from Canfield; and Andrea it looks like you are in Montrose? So my guess is that they would grow pretty well here.

Got some of these redvine rhizomes from the hopfarm neighbor last week, they are starting to grow:


This one seems to be particularly happy:


I guess the vines will get red later on.

Keep on hopping my friends

a fellow up in madison county new york gave me the roots to plant. after asking around about their history, i ended up speaking to al haunold who had been breeding hops at the USDA farm at Oregon State if he knew anything about them. he mentioned they were widely grown in PNW at one time but were rogued out and replanted with a less vigorous variety. from all i've been told and have read, they are pretty comparable to clusters and are the last to ripen here in ohio. unfortunately, the aphids usually end up taking over after late august. just make sure you keep an eye on them as they can be
VERY vigorous if you let them.

Here are some pics during harvest of some Canadian Redvines I planted in June last year, they are very prolific and have already started off shoots 3' away from the mother crown.





I've heard there is not much demand for redvines, it's a shame. I've used them in a wee heavy so far, next I'll try them in a heavily hopped red. Still some on the plant I may try a fresh hopped smash or light ale.

You can use them for the alpha because there's gonna be a lot of it there. I'm just bummed that the aroma isn't to my liking. They are a really fun variety to have around especially if you want to 'hide' something. Hop On!

Nice crop! I have some Humphrey Seedling hops that are about ready to pick too. Along with Canadian Redvine and Cluster, they made up most of the hop crop in CNY for much of the 19-20th century.

I always found these varieties to be extremely grapefruity tasting and a bit 'rough' overall. I've had the best luck using them for late additions and aroma only.

COLObrewer said:

Here are some pics during harvest of some Canadian Redvines I planted in June last year, they are very prolific and have already started off shoots 3' away from the mother crown.....

Click to expand...

Sweet mother! You guys have the climate for hops up there in Colorado I guess - that plant looks great.

If you're ever wondering how a Canadian Redvine would do in suburban Atlanta, I can provide a mailing address! (and some postage $)

CRV grows like an animal but it has a very high cohumlone level (47%), which makes a very harsh beer after-taste; you either like it or hate it. The story behind it is : French Quebec origin; mixed into lower yielding cluster fields out west to boost yields / acre (pretty sneaky huh) since large brewers pay by the pound. When the brewers figured out what was going down they started some very rigorous tracking policies.

Rumors are that all the hops being tested from around here have "Very High" Alpha and Beta acid content (Hopunions comment I heard was "Off the chart"), maybe I'll send some of these CRV along with the neighbors test samples next year just to see what they have.

The only time I ever had any of mine tested was way back in '92 and the alpha came in at 5.5 and beta was 6.4 which seems to be in line. Cohumulone was 47.9% though! I'm certain that your growing conditions have a big impact on the final 'numbers' that your hops produce and now that folks are growing them in non-typical hop growing regions, many surprises are bound to come to light. Grow On!

Yea, that's kinda why I want to test it, I used the redvine in a wee heavy and the beer is gonna be great. Granted it's low hopped and a heavy beer but still, don't detect anything bad yet.

I have grown Canadian redvine for 5 years and use it as a finishing hops in the context of Belgian beer. I have never tested its acids, so I only use it as a finishing hops. It has a mild herbal flavor. I have recently started replating with Glacier hops, which is a good substitute for Styrian Goulding.