Wild Hops! Now what do I do with them.

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Levers101

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I was taking a walk this evening on the edge a small plot of timber my family owns and I do a double take. Upon looking a second time I realize that right in front of me stands a large overgrown mess of wild hops!

wildHops.JPG


I picked 10 oz hops.

Several questions:

1) Are these wild hops safe to brew with (don't know why not)?

2) What in the world do I do with them? I assume I dry them, but am not sure if I can with a food dehydrator, I'd think I'd drive off good volatile chemicals?

3) Any way to guess at the AA%?
 
First of all, you lucky bass-poop. :rockin:

Yes, wild hops are certainly safe to use to brew unless they were right next to a highway (the exhaust collects on everything!) or downwind of a chemical plant.

You can certainly dry them in a food dehydrator just like anything else.

There's no real way of knowing the AA%, but wild hops are usually quite low in lupulin. I would use them for flavor and aroma hops.
 
You've got enough there where you could play around with a wet-hopped ale.

Alternatively, you could mail them to me so that *I* could make a wet-hopped ale!

That's awesome, man. I think they recommend using them for flavoring, since you can't really tell the AA% easily. Personally, I'd make a clean-tasting pale ale, using these hops for flavoring and aroma to give a "local" flavor.
 
I assume wet hopping would skip the drying step? Hmm... maybe at a second harvest then... there are certainly more there, I just picked the biggest, most mature looking, and easiest to get to cones. I've already put them on my food dryer that I have for making jerky.

Nope, not next to a highway... though they probably get good fertilizer being right next to a sort of compost heap for the dead plant matter that comes off my parent's garden each year.


How is this for a recipe:

8 oz 60 L US Crystal malt - steep 150 F for 20 min

6.5 lb Munton's light DME

1.5 oz Cluster Hops 6.9% AA (11 HBU) @ 60 min
0.5 oz Iowa Township Wild Hops unknown% AA @ 60 min (because I want to use these hops at each addition)

1 oz Iowa Township Wild Hops @ 15 min (flavor hops)

1 oz Iowa Township Wild Hops @ 1 min (aroma hops)
 
I've never wet-hopped, but what I know from reading some posts is that you end up using a lot more (weight-wise) than you would if they were dry. Remember, the hops lost like 80% - 85% of their weight when they are dried. Do a search on this site for wet-hopping, or I think Dude was doing something with some of the hops he grew; I'm sure he'd be willing to give you a hand.

Personally, I just think it's pretty cool. A friend of mine has some hops growing on her property (she has like thirty acres in the middle of a state forest), I'm going to harvest some from her when they are ready. That reminds me, I need to email her and find out whether they are ready or not.
 
Hmm. . .you live in IA. . .I live in north/central Illinois... and I have some timber. . .I'm going to have to go back there tomorrow and go on a quest. It never occurred to me that hops grew in the wild around here.

I wish it weren't dark right now!!:drunk:
 
Maybe, years ago, a brewer dumped his trub and spent grains there... And today it is a hop garden! Maybe you can plant some of your own? I'm not sure how the male/female thing works with hops. I would assume the female plants are better for brewing based from experience with a cousin of the hop plant...
 
Biermann said:
Hmm. . .you live in IA. . .I live in north/central Illinois... and I have some timber. . .I'm going to have to go back there tomorrow and go on a quest. It never occurred to me that hops grew in the wild around here.

I wish it weren't dark right now!!:drunk:

I had the same thoughts. For some reason I never really associated the whole idea of wild hops with the fact that I've read places that they are native to North America and Europe. Probably if I hadn't been looking at EdWort's photo tour through the Hallertauer region this morning I'd never even had put 2 and 2 together. Good luck on your quest and watch out for poison ivy! ;)

chillHayze said:
Maybe, years ago, a brewer dumped his trub and spent grains there... And today it is a hop garden! Maybe you can plant some of your own? I'm not sure how the male/female thing works with hops. I would assume the female plants are better for brewing based from experience with a cousin of the hop plant...

I mulled the idea of planting my own this spring, but I'd already really missed the planting window when I started brewing in earnest.

Hops and their cannabis cousin are probably much the same when it comes to male/female interaction. From what I've read tonight the female plant produces more lupulin which contains the good alpha acids when it hasn't been fertilized by a male plant, which is what I gather also is the case with their mind-altering cousin and its active ingredient (though I'm pretty much just guessing here). I have no idea if there are male plants around these wild hops or not, but I'm going to guess so, just because of the fact that these had to get where they are somehow, and that is most likely by wild propogation.

That brings up an interesting cultivation question/possible conundrum. How do you keep your planted female plants from being fertilized by wild male plants, and how exactly are hops fertilized anyways?
 
Oh yeah!?

You think you're so cool with your wild hops!

It so happens my house is rife with wild yeast!

That's right! Eat your hearts out! I think I'm going to brew with these wild yeast just to spite you!:drunk:
 
Levers101 said:
Several questions:

1) Are these wild hops safe to brew with (don't know why not)?

2) What in the world do I do with them? I assume I dry them, but am not sure if I can with a food dehydrator, I'd think I'd drive off good volatile chemicals?

3) Any way to guess at the AA%?

While the hops should be relatively safe to brew with provided they have not been sprayed, I would not recommend using them since they are wild. There are too many variables, and uknowns to contend with without sending them out to a lab for costly analysis.

Hops are used primarily for bittering and aroma. With that said , one would never use a hop primarliy designed for bittering, as an aroma hop, and vice versa.

If you decide to use them, I would recommend them for dry hopping (if anything at all) at this time. You could create a control batch and use these wild hops in a portion of your next brew. You wouldn't waste any beer, and it could be considered an experiment. Most hops have a pretty distinct profile, and if you did some homework, you might be able to nail the hop variety down.

As far as the AAU's go, Again without sending it to a lab for analysis there is no way to determine the percentage of Alpha Acids present. This would be another reason to dry hop with it, since the AAU's don't matter when you are dry hopping.

Best of luck in your endeavor, I hope the beer you make turns out to be someting you like. :)
 
While the hops should be relatively safe to brew with provided they have not been sprayed, I would not recommend using them since they are wild. There are too many variables, and uknowns to contend with without sending them out to a lab for costly analysis.

F' it Live on the wild side and go for it. Worse comes to worse they taste like me arse and then you'll know better next time. As for the AA's ask around at your LHBS and maybe they can give you the name of a place you can get teh AA's check out at. Hell they may even be able to give you some kind of idea on the type of hops they are.
 
Can you ferment corn? Dont know!! A corn beer would taste funny. I would think you need to boil it to get rid of the off flavors.
 
Now that you know they'll grow locally, make certain you get some know varieties in the ground this spring. Dig the holes before the frost and backfill with compose & dirt when the rhizomes arrive.

Wild hops are good for flavor & aroma hopping. Weigh, dry & weigh the first batch, so you can get a handle on the ratio. Mine ran 4:1. Resist putting wet hops in your finished ale, too much chlorophyll leaches out making the ale grassy.

Male plants are worthless for anything except breeding and you don't want the female plants wasting energy making seeds.
 
david_42 said:
Male plants are worthless for anything except breeding and you don't want the female plants wasting energy making seeds.

Uh, how can you tell the difference between male hops and female hops?
 
I've been thinking about a reduced size batch... possibly with ingredients I can wrangle at liquor store that doubles as my small LHBS. Any ideas for a low cost fermentation vessel? 2-3 gallons?
 
Pumbaa said:
F' it Live on the wild side and go for it. Worse comes to worse they taste like me arse and then you'll know better next time. As for the AA's ask around at your LHBS and maybe they can give you the name of a place you can get teh AA's check out at. Hell they may even be able to give you some kind of idea on the type of hops they are.


Hmm. . .I bet I could figure out the AA content by crushing this stuff up and solublizing it in an acetone bath, and then running it through a high pressure liquid chromatography machine. (my previous life as a chemist is coming out). You'd get several spikes on the graph. . . .as long as you knew where to expect the AA's to show up. . .I think you could figure it out. All you'd need is several cones.

I'd need to do some research on this. I do have access to HPLC as well as NMR.
 
Biermann said:
Hmm. . .I bet I could figure out the AA content by crushing this stuff up and solublizing it in an acetone bath, and then running it through a high pressure liquid chromatography machine. (my previous life as a chemist is coming out). You'd get several spikes on the graph. . . .as long as you knew where to expect the AA's to show up. . .I think you could figure it out. All you'd need is several cones.

I'd need to do some research on this. I do have access to HPLC as well as NMR.

Yeah, I go to school in the discipline of/work in a environmental engineering & science laboratory, so I have access to several different HPLC's. However, I'm guessing that you need the right kind of column for alpha acids as opposed to the columns for chlorinated solvents that are installed on the equipment that is in the lab I work in. Plus your mobile phase for analysis has to be compatible with your column, ect ect. Finally, you have to justify to the lab director that you want to do HPLC analysis on some wild hops for personal use as opposed to research which brings in funding... Although, my advisor used to brew beer with her husband before they had kids... and she does say that some of the best research sometimes comes from those things that you try on an off chance and that students are often too hesitant to try those far out possibilities. Lol...Hops for cleaning up the environment... umm...yeah!

drost said:
Levers, what part of Iowa are you in? I just had my father in law bring me some today from southern Iowa and I don't know if they're ready to harvest yet.

I live in Iowa City and near there is where I got the wild hops. I agree, they may have been borderline, BUT... I was reading (after I had harvested these) that you're supposed to harvest right when a very few hops have started to turn brown on the tips of the cones, and that is where these were at so I'm going to say that I was right around the correct timing but maybe just a smidge early. They were papery to a good extent and definately had yellow lupulin glands in them.

From what I picked, which was 10 oz, I got a yield of 1.8 oz dried. Seems like a huge difference, which perhaps points to their immaturity... I don't know.
 
Levers101 said:
Yeah, I go to school in the discipline of/work in a environmental engineering & science laboratory, so I have access to several different HPLC's. However, I'm guessing that you need the right kind of column for alpha acids as opposed to the columns for chlorinated solvents that are installed on the equipment that is in the lab I work in. Plus your mobile phase for analysis has to be compatible with your column, ect ect. Finally, you have to justify to the lab director that you want to do HPLC analysis on some wild hops for personal use as opposed to research which brings in funding... Although, my advisor used to brew beer with her husband before they had kids... and she does say that some of the best research sometimes comes from those things that you try on an off chance and that students are often too hesitant to try those far out possibilities. Lol...Hops for cleaning up the environment... umm...yeah!

Its been a LONNNNNG time since I've done any kind of liquid phase chromatography. However, I have access to such machines in a research lab at my old college, and my former director (whom I'm good friends with) seems interested in the brewing thing. . .she's even offered to start a chemistry department sponsored minimester on the chemistry of brewing, and has asked me to be a guest lecturer. I may have found my calling. . . .:D
 
Talking about luck! Congrats on the find. Wet hop brewing works, but it gives the brew a "green" flavor, like the taste of the brew from the tiny little Siletz Brewing Co. in Siletz, OR.
Some people like it, others don't. I like some of it just fine.
 
Perfectly safe to brew with wild hops and drying on your dehydrator is fine (done both). Weight them wet and when they weigh 1/5 of what they did when you started then they are dry.

If you're going to bitter with them use 7.5% Alpha acid as a starting point. You're on a wild adventure so why not go all the way (done this too)


Take a look at silverhops.com

Propagating and growing an entire new hop variety from one original wild hop in Wisconsin...helps to have a professor of horticulture around. They are selling this year to homebrewers, how cool
 
Yeah, then again, all I have is some trees and grass. Can you ferment corn?

There is a local microbrewer that found an old recipe in a journal that was written by a guy that worked in a brewery in the fifties. The microbrewer gave it a try and it turn ed out to be quite popular. It is called Marathon after the city it had been historically brewed in. It drinks similar to Miller High Life IMO. It is good beer.

I was also told by someone else that Miller has a corn component, but I don't have a real citaion for that info.

Marathon - Bull Falls Brewery

Avoiding Corn in Canada – Corn in alcoholic beverages
 
It drinks similar to Miller High Life IMO. It is good beer.

what :ban:

I was also told by someone else that Miller has a corn component, but I don't have a real citaion for that info.

Yep. All the macros are big, nasty adjunct-filled brews. Corn is used because it's cheaper and has less flavor.

Back on topic, how did your wild hop ale come out, OP?
 
:D

English is a funny language.

...It is called Marathon after the city it had been historically brewed in. It drinks similar to Miller High Life IMO. It is good beer.....

The Marathon is pretty good stuff. The brewery is distributing locally and into adjoining states at present.

I don't hate regular MHL, BTW. (That is the difference between objective and subjective criticism.)

:mug:
 
:D

English is a funny language.



The Marathon is pretty good stuff. The brewery is distributing locally and into adjoining states at present.

I don't hate regular MHL, BTW. (That is the difference between objective and subjective criticism.)

:mug:

MHL is in my opinion the best of the BMC trifecta. I wouldn't buy it on purpose, but it's at least a clean enough lager that it doesn't taste BAD. In fact, it doesn't taste like anything at all. :fro:

Take the BMC bashing as it was intended: authentic, but generally lighthearted. ;)
 
please find attached from roger philips wild food

i have used it sevreal times im no beer specialist but it makes a fair pale ale

1/2 litre hops (1 pint galss filles not stuffed down
225 g or 8oz malt (get mine from health food shop)
same again sugar
yeast tried bread (don't work well)
4.5 litres of water

boil hops for 15 mins (only use part of warter about litre)
strain in to bucket
mix in sugar and malt
add yeast when cooled
leave in bucket 5 days
syphon off buscket into screwtop bottles
it clears in seven days and leaves sediment
pour carefully (dont disturb sediment) enjoy (16p a pint!)
don't know about gravity but it about 3.5 to 4.5
if goes flat add 1/2 teaspoon sugar and leave for 5 days

i get cheap bottle water at the start and then you have sterile bottles to syphon back into

lo tech recipe.jpg
 
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