Newest Threads

Philip1993 · 04-22-2008, 07:27 PM

Just kidding...

Seriously though. Does the AA content of a hop change season to season or based on growing conditions such as fertilizer, water, etc? I'm curious if I spend the money to have my hops AA tested, will they be the same next year? next yield?

XxonValdez · 04-22-2008, 07:37 PM

It will change season to season for sure, you would need to test each harvest every year to be sure of the alpha content, but you could just get the plant tested once to gain at least a ballpark idea of the alpha content for following harvests. I have heard (when I say heard I mean read here

) a good rule of thumb is to assume a little more than half the alpha content in home grown hops vs commercial hops. Hope that helps

uwmgdman · 04-22-2008, 08:54 PM

If you want to get a ballpark idea, take a simple batch (maybe a SMaSH) the SH being a purchased hop with known AA and the corresponding (read identical variety) home grown hop with unknown AA.

Take the mash runnings and spilt into two separate batches. Bitter with the same weight of each hop, maybe add a bit at flameout to keep things interesting. Aerate, pitch strain/amount of yeast and ferment/age all the same and compare the two resulting beers. If your hopped beer is noticeably less/more bitter or pretty similar you can ballpark your hops AA based upon the known hop AA.

I think I may do this at some point if I ever want to use my hops for bittering but for now I just plan on using for flavor and aroma so it shouldn't have a significant impact.