Unknown mega hop harvest

My parents have a 15 year old unknown variety hop plant. Here are some pictures of my bounty. Wet I'm figuring 5-6 pounds so that should be a good bit dry. If anyone has any idea what these are let me know I'm thinking they are either Cascade or Willamette.

That's a nice harvest. I can't identify it for you though.

Prepare for offers on the chevy truck!

No idea what they might be, but I'm jealous anyway

I'm not sure that it's possible to tell what they are just by looking at them, but those cones are HUGE!

can you describe the way they smell?
cascade are supposed to be floral, spicy, citrusy.
Willamette, Mild and pleasant, slightly spicy, closest to fuggles.

k1v1116 said:

can you describe the way they smell?
cascade are supposed to be floral, spicy, citrusy.
Willamette, Mild and pleasant, slightly spicy, closest to fuggles.

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You know when I first picked them they smelled citrusy/floral/spicy but as they dry they are more mild like Willamette. I'm actually thinking they are probably Willamette, I remember as a kid thinking it was cool that the plant was named after something in our region (I live in the Willamette Valley) course that being said I also live really close to the Cascade Mt. so who knows.

Laughing_Gnome said:

Prepare for offers on the chevy truck!

No idea what they might be, but I'm jealous anyway

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Actually I've been thinking of selling that old beast, bought it when I was 14 and worked on it and pent all of my hard earned money on it in High School. I've got a lot of time and money in that truck but I don't think I've worked on it in 7 or 8 years. I really don't want to part with it but I kind of feel like someone should finish it and I don't think that will be me.

Just picked 6lbs of wild hops myself yesterday and they look the same as yours. Mine are Cluster hops, as most hop farms in New York and elsewhere grew cluster hops almost exclusively until the late 1970's when other varieties became more popular. Cascade was developed in 1972.

Though, they could be something different if the plant is only 15yrs old.

farmbrewernw said:

My parents have a 15 year old unknown variety hop plant. Here are some pictures of my bounty. Wet I'm figuring 5-6 pounds so that should be a good bit dry. If anyone has any idea what these are let me know I'm thinking they are either Cascade or Willamette.

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That looks like a screen from a patio door. Based on my harvest this year, you should have about 1.5 lbs or so when dry. Very nice haul! :rockin:

Could you post a picture of a leaf? Maybe they could be identified from that.

Very nice haul, jealousy growing....

Joe Camel said:

Could you post a picture of a leaf? Maybe they could be identified from that.

Very nice haul, jealousy growing....

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I wish I would have snagged one that probably would have helped, oh well I'm sure they will work good for flavor and aroma hops so it's no biggie if I don't ID them, I think I'm going to do a SMASH with them just to get an idea or their characteristics.

SMaSH sounds like a good idea. They look too huge to be cascades. Other than that I've no idea. Good find!

Great cones, and nice truck! If i didn't already have 2 classics to restore...

Take lots of pictures of the cones and plants, and search online for how to identify. I think I saw some sites before that showed how.

I guess I didn't guess the wet hop weight right because dry I ended up with 3lbs of hops!! Hopefully they have a good flavor cause I'm going to be using them a lot.

3 lbs? Nice haul!

Hopefully at some point you can identify them.

I brewed an IPA today with 10 oz of leaf Cascade from this years harvest. What a wonderfull smell! :rockin:

Definitely do a SMaSH that would allow the characteristics of the hops to show through.

Or send some my way and I'll give you an educated guess.

It kind of looks like my Magnum...but I agree with Joe Camel, post a picture of the leaf and we may well identify it!

brew a mystery harvest ale.

What is a SMASH? Also... I put some hops that were a little brown in with the rest when I was Vacuum sealing... is that bad?

Single Malt and Single Hop= SMaSH Took me about 4 months to figure that out!

those cones look like Galena. what time of the season did you pick them. Galena is a mid to late season picker. good luck and nice haul.

You need to know how far back you can place them. 30's? 70's? etc.
I have some hops from the Coburg area that were planted in the 30's. Almost all the hops in the area from that time period will be Cluster hops.
They're a good all-around aroma hop, from what I've garnered from others. I haven't used any in a brew, yet, but mine smell earthy, spicy, with a slight hint of floral.

You could always ask this question on the hopsdirect.com forum. After all, if growers can't ID them by cone, you might be stuck until you get some leaves or brew with them. Good luck and let us know what you find out!

From what I gather hops are very difficult to identify. They look similar to a herloom variety that I have growing. I would reccomend tasting them as well. You should be able to determine a good idea of whether they are a bittering hop or an aroma hop by how bitter they taste. I would taste a variety that you know the alpha acid content on then taste yours. If it's more bitter than you know it has more alpha acids than that variety. Do the same for smell and that'll give you a general idea of what it comes close to. I would then use it accordingly. I would find a good recipe and just adjust quantities based on your best guess of alpha acid content.

Otherwise I can offer up this info -- The Hop Growers of America sent me this when I was in search of what variety I had...

"Identifying a variety of hops is difficult, particularly with heirloom varieties that are no longer produced commercially (or may have never been commercially produced). Researchers could do a PCR analysis to try to match the DNA to a known variety, but that is a pretty costly process. It also requires that the variety has already been characterized regarding the DNA fingerprint. As you already know the hops in question are probably an old or wild variety that someone moved to that location, it is highly unlikely that the DNA fingerprint would match any current commercial variety that has been characterized. Unfortunately, modern breeding programs have created a whole range of relatively new commercial varieties that are now demanded by brewers (virtually everything we grow has been released in the past 30 years). You indicated that you are testing some in your own pilot brew, so you may wish to just brew and enjoy! You may have the next "Local Heirloom Hop Ale" to share with your friends!

If you want a brewing value profile (although this won't pinpoint variety), the Washington State Dept. of Agriculture's Hop Laboratory in Yakima, WA offers this service for a nominal fee. You are welcome to contact the Hop Lab's manager, Royal Schoen, at [email protected] to discuss the brewing value testing that they offer."

Hope this helps!!

Cheers!

Joe