Eastern European hops

Hops have been growing wild in Eastern Europe (Russia) for thousands of years. They've been farmed for around 600 years. Any guess as to the type of hop that grew/grows wild? What commercially available hop would be closest to it?

No one?

Serebrianka? Failing that a noble variety such as Czech Saaz, which is both Eastern European and very traditional.

I would assume mostly low AA% and noble-ish in character, but I haven't got too much to base that on (other than that high AA% is mostly a result of modern selective breeding, thus most traditional hops tend to be low-ish AA%).

bobmcstuff said:

Serebrianka? Failing that a noble variety such as Czech Saaz, which is both Eastern European and very traditional.

I would assume mostly low AA% and noble-ish in character, but I haven't got too much to base that on (other than that high AA% is mostly a result of modern selective breeding, thus most traditional hops tend to be low-ish AA%).

Click to expand...

I have a pound of those. I was wondering what they were. Thanks for the information. Guess I'll try them out.

Halbrust said:

Hops have been growing wild in Eastern Europe (Russia) for thousands of years. They've been farmed for around 600 years. Any guess as to the type of hop that grew/grows wild? What commercially available hop would be closest to it?

Click to expand...

Hops don't work like that. Hop plants are clones from known-good plants. You can find wild hops all over the world, but the hops that are grown now are hybrids developed from existing plants and or wild plants.

Look here:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/53581500/catalogs/humcore.html

To answer you question, read about the following:
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid= PI+558718
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid= PI+302781
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid= PI+617281
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid= PI+558687
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid= PI+558736
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid= PI+635262
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid= PI+558695
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid= PI+558706
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid= PI+558783
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acc_search.pl?accid= PI+558607

This is a selection of common hops that have a pedigree of either being entirely wild (but used commerically) or open pollinated with another variety or landrace or eastern European. If you start with the names and the pedigree, you can find out which hops fit your interests. There are many. The list this was taken from only represents about 10% of the hop species held by the government. They have thousands more.

I'd suggest checking the Polish hops, as they've been working hard on improving their hop stock. I quite like Marynka, which is grassy, fairly neutral, somewhat aromatic if used late. Got some Lublin waiting to go too, which is meant to be Saaz grown in Poland.