Wild Hops..help identify type

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discgolfin

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Hi everyone,

I live in the Chicago area(can not tell where LOL). I have cenntennial and hallertau growing in my yard..first year. My brothers neighbor has wild hops growing. I went to check them out and they are everywhere growing around bushes and weeds..hard to say the type..I will post some pics tommorrow..I am a new grower and the cone was a shorter fat..almost square look to them. My brother picked just a few vines and we probably have a pound already,:ban:,,just a tip of the iceberg so to speak. The vine is as thick as my pinky finger in some places so I would guess it to be old but not sure how old..

I will get pics of leaves and cones tommorrow so I could use some help to identify...

J
 
It's almost impossible to identify hops by looking at the leaves and cones other than perhaps eliminate some they are not. Those hops are probably feral rather that true wild hops. If you can do a little detective work and find out what was on the property in past years maybe you would be able to make a good guess as to when they were originally planted. Hops planted in the last 20 years or so could be almost anything. If they were planted 25 years ago or more there is a decent chance they are Clusters since that type was widely used for many decades before the newer types common today started to come into play. Have you crushed a few cones and smelled them?
 
Also, bine thickness is only an indication of growing conditions, not age (at least after the first couple years).
 
The house is a good 50 years old..but from the location of the hops..my guess is someone in the last 2 owners planted them and the current owner has let them go crazy. I know identifying them will be a bit of a challange but any thoughts from the pics(soon to come will be great). If I had to uess the cureent owners have been there I believe 2 to 3 years so the plant could be 5 or maybe 10 years old.


The next step would be to bring them to a local brewery.


Jay
 
I have a few images to see if any one has any ideas. I think they smell like Cascade or Cenntennial, but I am a bit new at this so who knows for sure. In any case we picked a few pounds of these and plan on some batches for sure....

IMG_5664.jpg

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Jay
 
Thanks,

My brother is moving so we dug up a few roots...these suckers are everywhere and huge....they are minimum 5 years old and I have had 2 people say either Cascade or Cenntennial..but wanted some more opinions on them. The current owners of the house just let there yard go crazy and we found hops growing all over the place...dug up 6 big roots and planted today. i would have waited until March but if he is moving needed to do it now.

any thoughts??Cascade or Cenntennial?..they smell great

Jay
 
I don't think that you'd be able to distinguish from aroma alone between cent. and cascade. But, if I had to choose between JUST those two varieties based on the pictures I'd say cascade. The age range that you gave would confirm this as well, as centennial wasn't too popular outside of commercial growers ten years ago. I have both varieties growing here, and the look of the plants and their leaf shape is distinctly different. Maybe it's the age, as one is five and one is a baby this year, but everything that I see in the pictures would lead me to cascade if I had to choose between only those two varieties.

But the bottom line is: If it's citrusy, floral smelling it'll make great IPA if it's either variety. Just strike a flame, boil and keep tossing them in :D
 
Wow we are close..I live in downers grove...Let me know if you are interested in some rhizomes of this plant....we only dug up half of what was there...I have my money on Cascade becasue I know they are minimum 5 years old but more than likely 10 years old. ALl in all we got close to 2 pounds..I can only imagine nect year with good soil, sun water and trellis what we will get from the roots we dug up....these things were growing under rock piles, wood piles, in bushes..everywhere....

Jay
 
Wow we are close..I live in downers grove...Let me know if you are interested in some rhizomes of this plant....we only dug up half of what was there...I have my money on Cascade becasue I know they are minimum 5 years old but more than likely 10 years old. ALl in all we got close to 2 pounds..I can only imagine nect year with good soil, sun water and trellis what we will get from the roots we dug up....these things were growing under rock piles, wood piles, in bushes..everywhere....

Jay

If you promise not to pick my hops, I'll PM my address so you can see what mine look like. I have Cascade in the alley and in the garden as well as (from L to R looking at my garage) Sterling, Centennial, and Crystal.
 
I live in Peoria area. .. they used to grow hops around here a long time ago-- alot of those older varieties I would think would be Buillion or Brewer's Gold. .. Although there are truly wild types out there too that don't fit a "breed." Check to see if there are male hops around, or if the cones have seeds. .. if so, they are likely just wild types. These things do grow as weeds in Illinois and may have never been intentionally cultivated.
 
Also, fair warning-- I did a single wild hop pale ale in the past with these hops-- turned out to be very low AA, and gave the beer a weird blackcurrant aroma and flavor, and was excessively unbalanced as far as sweetness was concerned. Use a known bittering hop if you are going to brew with these, and maybe reserve your wild ones for aroma/flavor.
 
Also, fair warning-- I did a single wild hop pale ale in the past with these hops-- turned out to be very low AA, and gave the beer a weird blackcurrant aroma and flavor, and was excessively unbalanced as far as sweetness was concerned. Use a known bittering hop if you are going to brew with these, and maybe reserve your wild ones for aroma/flavor.

Way ahead of you...I have a recipe drawn out and plan to use the hops at 15 10 0 and dry hop..Colombus bittering hop. They smell like Cascade or Cenntennial so have to brew to find out..

Jay
 
Brewed up 10 gallons of wild hop pale ale yesterday.
1 oz colombus to bitter.
18# 2 row
1# 20L crystal
1/2 # 60L crystal
1 # victory malt
1# flaked wheat(body)

6 ounces of wild hops added last 20 minutes.

smelling them and they smell a lot more citrusy than either cenntennial or cascade..almost summit like... but they are 5 to 10 years old so cascade is best fit..but I think they smell much better than cascade..maybe because they are fresh?

J
 
Bingo!! That's why , IMO, growing them is adventageous if you can do it.

Well my pound of summit from fresh hops had a big cirusy nose..but most Cascade that I get from brew shops just have a hint of citrus and more floral than anything...Im very excited about how these will turn out...I think once I taste it I will be sure it is Cascade but it sure seems to be.

Jay
 

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