Hops comparison table

**sweetcell** · 01-22-2012, 09:47 AM

Hi folks,

I put together a spreadsheet to help me choose which hops I should start growing. The idea was to create a central repository for my hops research. I was tired of jumping around from website to website and not being able to compare their info. I hope you find this useful.

- View spreadsheet online: Go to Google Docs
- Download Excel XLS: Download Excel
- Download PDF: Letter size (8.5x11) or Legal size (8.5x14) (The latest PDFs can always be downloaded here: http://www.digitalgibson.com/beer/data/hops/HBT-sweetcell/)

The research is based on several online sources, noted at the bottom of the table. I don't consider this to be a final version, there are a few varieties I should add. Please contact me (PM, or sweetcell@gmail.com) if you have any suggestions, edits, comments, critiques, praise, etc.

A few miscellaneous notes:

Why isn't every hop known to humankind included in this list?
I concentrated my efforts on hops that can be bought, and grown, in North America. I ignored European varieties, and proprietary (registered) plants that are not currently available to the public. Please let me know if I've missed any that fit the above criteria, I'll be happy to add them. And I probably included a proprietary hop or two... my bad.

Wait, there are two values/answers in one cell! And they don't agree with each other!
This simply indicated that there isn't a consensus in the literature. Essentially, two authors disagree. Since I'm not an expert I thought it best to include both points of view. I've tried to separate information from different sources by putting them on different lines (soft breaks).

Why are your AA% ranges bigger than what that I've seen elsewhere?
My numbers represent the widest range I came across. For example, if one source said 7-10%, and another said 9-12%, I would put down 7-12% (lowest and highest of both). Chances are good that any hops you grow will fall within that range.

What's the deal with the "Yes" and "No" in the Resistance section?
"Yes" means that the variety has resistance, "no" means that it is susceptible to that disease. Yes = good, no = potentially bad.

Why do some entries have question marks after them?
A question mark indicated that the information is implied, but not explicit. For example, a variety might have "good disease resistance" - this implies that it is likely resistant to powdery mildew, but there is no guarantee that it is. Consider a questions mark as a "probably".

Why are some cells blank?
Because I couldn't find any information on that topic, for that variety.

Shouldn't you be working?
Shouldn't you be picking out which hops to grow, instead of asking me awkward questions?

This spreadsheet shouldn't be your only source of information during the hops selection process. Even more valuable are the insights of others who have grown hops, especially those who have done so in your region. Just because some agricultural egghead has said that it can't be done, doesn't mean that you can't show him he's wrong. However, sometimes those eggheads have good advice - like in the Field Guide for Integrated Pest Management in Hops.

Happy growing, and may it lead to happy brewing!
Andrei
sweetcell@gmail.com

- View spreadsheet online: Go to Google Docs
- Download Excel XLS: Download Excel
- Download PDF: Letter size (8.5x11) or Legal size (8.5x14) (The latest PDFs can always be downloaded here: http://www.digitalgibson.com/beer/data/hops/HBT-sweetcell/)

REVISION NOTES:
20120122: Original version.
20120123: Added some details to hops and stopped using the term "varietal".
20120124: Added Santiam. Removed aroma notes from Misc Notes and put into its own column. Added "Climate" column. Added a lot of information from Freshop's USDA description page.
20120207: Big update: removed Palisade and Athanum (both are proprietary), added Vojvodina. Added "Substitution" and "Traditional beer styles" (I don't personally find these very useful, but they were requested). Filled in various bits of information on disease resistance and storability as I came across it.
20120302: added Cluster (per 4x4jeep74's request) and Summit (previously proprietary, now available to the public - thanks MarkT). Added HSI% to storage column. Added various aroma and beer style notes. Removed PDFs as attachments to the forum due to size limitation, PDFs now stored by DarkBrood (thanks buddy!)

**jaycount** · 01-22-2012, 03:34 PM

That is sweet. Thanks for sharing

**sweetcell** · 01-22-2012, 05:49 PM

i've just updated the spreadsheet with some new info. i'll add revision notes to the first post, so you can track if/when changes have been made.

if y'all could do me a favor and "prost" this thread, i'd appreciate it. i think this could be very useful to folks trying to select what to grow, so i'd like people to take notice before the thread sinks away into oblivion.

thanks!

**sweetcell** · 01-24-2012, 01:58 AM

big update published: i added new columns, plugged in some USDA info, added a variety, etc. see first post for new version of the spreadsheet, all links have been updated.

this is likely the last major update i'll make on my own, at this point i'm pretty happy with it. i certainly welcome your comments/suggestions on how it might be improved.

hope you find this useful. happy growing!

flips · 01-24-2012, 04:12 PM

This is awesome! I was in the middle of doing something very similar to this as I was trying to figure out which hops varieties I want to grow this year. My very first batch is in a secondary now, so I have very little brewing experience so I was struggling where to start with picking a few hops varieties.

To try to figure out what I wanted to grow I was going through recipes (and kits) and of course of all the styles I want to brew all have wildly different hop additions. I then started to look at substitutions that people recommend out there to see if I could consolidate a bit.

Do you think you could add a substitution column? There may be some arguments as to the quality of substation, but as a starting point it would be good to get close. I was using the following sources:
http://www.brew365.com/hop_substitution_chart.php
http://www.hopunion.com/17_HopVarietyHandbook.cfm?p3=open

Also, a few more from googling:
http://byo.com/resources/hops
http://www.kotmf.com/articles/hopslist.php

Again I don’t have any knowledge to know what is a good substitution and what isn’t. Also, since I am making requests… another nice addition might be to add the examples from Palmer’s book for each of the varieties that he lists. Although that could get out of hand quickly to try to get too much information in there.

Thanks,
flips

GVH_Dan · 01-27-2012, 05:33 PM

This is an impressive compilation. It just makes me wonder are you an engineer, accountant or just a naturally anal retentive individual? Please, take that as the compliment it was intended to be.

Nickeldeposit · 01-27-2012, 06:04 PM

Dan:

I work with tons of engineers and they are not....well ok yeah they are. But really that is some nice info, good job.

**sweetcell** · 01-28-2012, 05:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GVH_Dan

This is an impressive compilation. It just makes me wonder are you an engineer, accountant or just a naturally anal retentive individual? Please, take that as the compliment it was intended to be.

worse: i'm an IT consultant

hops are something i intend to buy only once so i thought it worth the time to invest in picking out the best ones for my needs, location, etc - only way to make this decision was to have all the info in one place. i got tired of flipping between several websites with this info and i kept forgetting why i thought one variety was better than an another. and this forum has provided me with so much valuable information, i guess this is my attempt to give a little back.

now y'all go have yourselves a great weekend

Flatspin · 02-04-2012, 12:44 AM

Great spreadsheet, thanks for taking the time to put all of this together in one place. This is useful in so many different ways!

evwoller · 02-07-2012, 12:03 AM

OMG awesome, this is basically exactly what I have been looking for! THANKS