not sure what kind of hops i have

A few weeks ago, someone who grows their own Cascade and Northern Brewer hops gave about 4 pounds of sun dried hop cones that were in his freezer from last fall. The only problem is that he wasn't exactly sure what he gave me. When he planted his hops the vines were too close together and the growth overlapped each other so he's not really sure what is what when he harvests them. Anyway, my question is does anyone have a recipe that calls for either variety? Does it really matter if I use these hops in a recipe without really knowing exactly what I'm using? Any suggestions are greatly welcomed. Thanks.

If you dont care about being able to replicate the recipe, you can do whatever you want.

You may be able to tell the difference by aroma.Or dryhopping?Pale ales work well with both of these hops.NB is higher aa than cascades not a lot.NB is also suppose to be more herbaly.High citrus/grapefruit for cascades

djsethall said:

If you dont care about being able to replicate the recipe, you can do whatever you want.

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+1 ya got the hops, might as well use them! I've brewed an APA with NB's to bitter, and cascades for flavor/aroma and it turned out well. I don't see how blending both for all additions could be bad. The only downside is if it turns out great, you'll have a hard time brewing it again.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

+1 ya got the hops, might as well use them! I've brewed an APA with NB's to bitter, and cascades for flavor/aroma and it turned out well. I don't see how blending both for all additions could be bad. The only downside is if it turns out great, you'll have a hard time brewing it again.

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+1
I would suggest mixing the hops together very well to create a homogenous mix of hops. Make some beer with the understanding that if it it the greatest beer in zee world, you wont be able to recreate it. Ever.

Another suggestion... Because you don't know the mix of AA% on these, you could use a known hop for bittering, to ensure you don't over/under shoot your IBU target, then flavor & aroma hop this blend.

Also, if you wanted to skew the blend more towards one hop or the other, you could always add in an addition of the hop (store bought) that you want to favor.

Either way, it sounds like a tasty pale ale is in the makings!

--LexusChris

Northern Brewer/Cascade make an excellent mix to hop both porters and stouts. %AA shouldn't be that far off between the two 5-8%, so you might be able to ballpark it as a bittering hop in a dark beer.

+1 on the aroma hop for a pale as well .5-1 oz at 15 and 5 mins and a little dry hopping and you're in business.