What to do with these hops from Belgium?

I just got back from a nice trip to beautiful Belgium. I was lucky enough to meet up with a hop farmer in a bar outside the hop museum in Poperinge, and copped some samples from him. I got about 7oz of 9% Target and 3.5oz of 4.5% Styrian Goldings from him (for 5 euro!). I've never brewed any Belgian styles, anyone recommend something I can brew with these?

Styrian goldings will work great in an esb or english mild type beer.

Target is an awesome bittering variety and Styrian Goldings are great flavor/aroma hops. Hell, you can brew pretty much any British style with that combo.

If you want a specifically Belgian brew to begin, search the Recipes section for a nice Dubbel. Of all the Belgian ales, it's a good place for a beginner to start!

Bob

What they said.

Target is used a lot in British beers for bittering. Styrian Goldings is a type of Fuggle, another British hop, that can be used in Belgian styles too.

You can look up your hops here:

ProBrewer.com: Hop Data

Yes a Dubbel definately. Would be a shame to use belgian hops in a non belgian beer!

Just made a ordinary bitter with target, fuggles and styrians. Love that tangy, spicy, lemony styrian aroma. As a matter of fact I threw in 2 ounces for aroma additions... Careful with those Targets, though. They are a bit harsh, so your beer might turn out more bitter that you'd suspect. I like to mix it with another, smoother bittering hop or do 2 bittering additions. By the way, Target has quite nice aroma as well. Nice for dry hopping bitters. But again, I'd probobly mix it with some Fuggles or EKG as it can be quite pungent. Have dry hopped with Cascade and Target together too, which was an interesting combo...

my question is, how did you bring them back? with all the scrutiny at customs, I'm sure someone (probably over here) had to give you a difficult time..

Congrats on the score however!

thanks for the advice, my sentiments exactly about using them to make a Belgian style (at least the bulk of them).. I'm definitely going to try a dubbel..

As for getting them back in, I just put them in the backpack and crossed my fingers... they were in sealed opaque bags too, I figured at least I'd have to open them up but it looked like customs was understaffed that day, lucky me!

Lucky you! You were certainly in the right place!

Brouwerij Van Eecke makes the "Poperings Hommel Ale" which is a lovely hoppy belgian ale right from that area made with local hops ("hommel" means hops). It's something like a Dubbel with lots of fresh hop flavor. Maybe try something like that.

carbon111 said:

Lucky you! You were certainly in the right place!

Brouwerij Van Eecke makes the "Poperings Hommel Ale" which is a lovely hoppy belgian ale right from that area made with local hops ("hommel" means hops). It's something like a Dubbel with lots of fresh hop flavor. Maybe try something like that.

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Uhmm... Tried the poperings hommelbier once when I got invited to the Belgian embassy in Oslo for a tasting event. Really loved it, but never tasted it as you can't get it in Norway (****ty old pietist custom regulations... ). But it's much lighter than a dubbel though, both in colour and taste. More like a Belgian pale, don't you think?

Yeah, certainly not as heavy or sweet as a dubbel...very hard to describe. "Belgian pale" works - the hops are subtle but very up-front, more so than other Belgian brews I think...

yeah def a belgian pale, and i agree that the hops are very much there but not necessarily bitter or haevily dry hopped... maybe they are just very heavy with late hop additions... actually the gentleman farmer who sold me the hops, in addition to owning that largest hop farm in belgium indicated that he supplied all the hops for hommelbier... when i offered to buy him a beer, guess what he asked for...

Let us know what you end up brewing!