Should I use homegrown hops?

I have 4 plants that i have harvested and mixed all the hops together. Two centennials, a cascade and saaz. I harvested about a month ago, dried and put in freezer immediately.

Im getting ready to brew an imperial IPA and am debating whether i should use them or not. I dont want these to stale or go to waste but i also am afraid of the quality of the hops.

70 percent of the hops were full sized while the others were small and or browned. The large ones gave a good aroma while the others were possibly pre mature. The plant also had spider mites in some areas on the leaves but they seamed to leave the hops alone.

Would you use these and risk messing up such an expensive- big beer?

i just got some wild hops. same idea though. had no idea what they were like or if they would be sufficient enough for a big batch. so i just bought a little dme, and did a 5L test batch. you can have a bit more of an idea of the AA content since you know the particular hops, but even those will differ a bit. so what i did was get a set amount of ibus using hops that i already had on hand, and used these hops as late additions only. i did a 10, 5, and whirlpool addition (dropped down to about 170F and add them, let set for 25 mins). i wanted to do three to get a wider range of their characteristics.

You could make a hop tea, taste it before adding.

joshesmusica said:

i just got some wild hops. same idea though. had no idea what they were like or if they would be sufficient enough for a big batch. so i just bought a little dme, and did a 5L test batch. you can have a bit more of an idea of the AA content since you know the particular hops, but even those will differ a bit. so what i did was get a set amount of ibus using hops that i already had on hand, and used these hops as late additions only. i did a 10, 5, and whirlpool addition (dropped down to about 170F and add them, let set for 25 mins). i wanted to do three to get a wider range of their characteristics.

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How did the test batch turn out? I take it it is fermenting now? Did the wort taste good?

Cyclman said:

You could make a hop tea, taste it before adding.

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This is a good idea. Thanks ill give this a try

we made a hop tea while they were still wet, freshly picked. honestly i don't know how much detail that's going to give you about the hop. ours was extremely bitter 2 mins into the steep. overly bitter at 5. yet we're pretty sure this is a landrace variety, so it's likely to be low in AA. though i think a hop tea will give you a hint of what you'll get from them, i'd say you just gotta try a small test batch to see. but of course i'm bias cause that's the opinion i gave. haha

the test batch just so happened to also be a starter for a yeast that had been stored for quite some time. actually it was a combination of washed us-05 and s-04. it's going crazy as we speak, and has been since late last night. it had quite a bit of lag time (about 24 hours) before i saw much activity. which is out of the norm for me.

anyways the wort tasted ok. i gotta be honest though, i did a no-no with these and froze them first. after consulting here realized my mistake and immediately started drying them out. so i'm not sure if these are gonna be wholly ruined. that's another reason why i wanted to do a test batch. next year i plan on picking the same wild hops (there are tons growing in the same spot every year), but i'll dry them immediately instead.

I would do a small test batch using them. I mean how can you grow hops and not at least test them out. As far as the mites go as long as you do a full boil all those critters will be all dead and sanitized!

I just posted my own micro brew using my own mix of hops recently.

Use a known hops for bittering, use your home-grown for the late additions.