any tips to add flavor and aroma when growing?

i finished my second year growing centennial hops and just brewed a 3 gallon test batch to test this years crop. here is the recipe i used:

5.00 lbs Golden Promise

1.00 oz Centennial 12
2.00 oz Centennial 10
1.00 oz Centennial 5
1.00 oz Centennial 2
1.00 oz Centennial 1

i was expecting a super hoppy pale ale and ended up with more like a light pilsner. the bitterness is there, but almost no hop flavor and aroma.

looking forward to year 3, are there any tips from successful growers for growing a more flavorful and aromatic hop? is it all about the soil and fertilizers used?

You probably harvested them too early. Most of the oils and aromas develop in the last couple of weeks.

When did you harvest?

i harvested most of them in the last couple weeks of october. last year i harvested most of them too soon, so i made sure this year to wait til they were ripe.

Did you visually inspect the cones?

October should have been fine.

yeah, they smelled good and tasted bitter like hops. is it possible i didn't dry them enough?

you can wet hop, but I think drying the hops makes them a bit more potent. I thought with loose hops (cones, leaves) you had to kind of double up in the process.

lgilmore said:

you can wet hop, but I think drying the hops makes them a bit more potent.[...]

Click to expand...

Well, %AA by weight will obviously go up as you remove moisture from the weight side, but I wouldn't call that making the hops more potent. It's certainly not going to change the chemistry. About the only things you can do to alpha acids is to degrade them through heat and/or oxidation. Can't make them stronger...

Cheers!