hopdropper
Well-Known Member
Question to the masses. I've got a three year old chinook plant, and a two year old cascade. They produced a veritable crapload of hops this year...but along with the crop came TONS of aphids. It looked like a tidal-wave of microscopic green bug-bodies as I dried the cones in the garage. They were crawling all over the place, dehydrating and dying in mounds on the floor beneath my drying rack. Anyway, my question is...would a heavy-duty aphid infestation somehow reduce the overall bitterness of the hop-crop? Would those little sap-suckers actually consume some of the lupulin? I ask because I've brewed two beers exclusively with hops from the garden...an IPA with a solid 6 ounces of homegrown, and an Arrogant Bastard clone with 5 ounces. Neither one are even remotely close to as bitter as I thought they'd be. There's certainly a slight hop bite...but not much at all considering the amount of hop cones used.
Just wondered what you all thought...and for those of you that grow your own, have you experienced the same?
Just wondered what you all thought...and for those of you that grow your own, have you experienced the same?
