Chinese Hops

[Cheshire Cat]

My son is engaged to a Chinese woman who has lived in the UK for about 15 years. She knows that I am a Homebrewer and on her last trip home brought me some hops. Has anyone used Chinese hops? I discovered that China is the largest consumer beer market and lager the main beer. i would welcome any knowledge that you have on the hops and recipes. Thanks in advance.

 

[Jeroen79]

Never heard of chinese hops, do you have any hop species from there?, or do they just grow EU or US hops?

 

[DBhomebrew]

Historically, I believe there was both British and German influence depending on geography. Quite possibly they are Noble- or Golding/Fuggle-derived. Then again, maybe they're a more recent transplant of US or NZ strains.

So many possibilities!

 

[huckdavidson]

https://www.asianbeernetwork.com/buying-hop-varieties-grown-in-china/
You're lucky to have obtained some Chinese hops as they seem to generally only export in bulk ATM. Hopefully that changes in the future.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Thanks guys that’s what I thought, I’ll get my to be daughter in law to translate the pack instructions..

 

[Mad Mann]

I buy as little as I can from China.

 

[Protos]

The most famous Chinese hop is Tsingtao. The city of Tsingtao used to be a "German Hong Kong" till 1914, so many fancy tales are being told in the interwebz about the German brewing legacy in the city.
I never (knowingly) buy any China-derived food-related items, but for the Tsingtao "German brewing legacy hop" I made an exception, just out of the scientific interest. What if the hop still tastes like the Germans liked it in 1914?

A second-grade-quality aged Cascade with lingering harshness almost rivaling my backyard hops. No, Germans couldn't like such a nasty weed for sure, neither did I. I won't make any exceptions to my rule anymore.

That's all I can say about the Chinese hop I've tried.

 

[hotbeer]

Hopefully you know what the name of those hops are and hopefully there is some information about that harvest alpha's and cohumulone acids. If the writing is all in Asian looking characters, then see if google lens can translate it. Still, many times the numbers are what we can understand, so just seeing the numbers might let someone figure out if these are bittering hops or flavor hops or both.

Depending on how much quantity you got, and whether you can find out anything about the flavor and aroma profile of them, I'd probably just make some small batches of single hopped beers and try to judge what you are tasting before using in some large recipe with other hops.

If they prove to be just mostly bittering with no unique flavor/aroma, then use them at the start of boil for your brews that don't have to be particular about everything.

 

[Protos]

There's little choice on offer in China, at least at the homebrewers level. Searching for Chinese hops on Alibaba (just decided to throw a small package into the basket when I was buying some technical goods), the only variety I've seen was Tsingtao Flower, 青岛大花.
Cascade-like cattiness atop of Cluster-like harshness, yummm, what a flower.

Along with the hops, I bought then also three sachets of Chinese dry yeasts of the "Angel" brand. Lager, Saison and Ale. Still haven't dared to use any of them. From what I managed to understand from Asian and Russian brewing forums (I read some russian and used translator for the Asian) the Lager yeast is a notorious fusel-producer and hangover-maker. Wonderful.

It seems, Chinese homebrewing ingredients is a tougher thing to use than I would have imagined before.

 

[schmurf]

There's little choice on offer in China, at least at the homebrewers level. Searching for Chinese hops on Alibaba (just decided to throw a small package into the basket when I was buying some technical goods), the only variety I've seen was Tsingtao Flower, 青岛大花.
Cascade-like cattiness atop of Cluster-like harshness, yummm, what a flower.

Along with the hops, I bought then also three sachets of Chinese dry yeasts of the "Angel" brand. Lager, Saison and Ale. Still haven't dared to use any of them. From what I managed to understand from Asian and Russian brewing forums (I read some russian and used translator for the Asian) the Lager yeast is a notorious fusel-producer and hangover-maker. Wonderful.

It seems, Chinese homebrewing ingredients is a tougher thing to use than I would have imagined before.

Regarding Angel yeast, this guy seems positive about it and have been for a while. I'm not sure however if he is biased or not, selling their products.

 

[BrewZer]

I never (knowingly) buy any China-derived food-related items, but for the Tsingtao "German brewing legacy hop" I made an exception, just out of the scientific interest. What if the hop still tastes like the Germans liked it in 1914?

A second-grade-quality aged Cascade with lingering harshness almost rivaling my backyard hops. No, Germans couldn't like such a nasty weed for sure, neither did I. I won't make any exceptions to my rule anymore.

That's all I can say about the Chinese hop I've tried.

I hear ya. About the only food item I'll buy from China is tea.

I'm assuming the Chinese hops were processed and packaged. Does the UK have no restrictions on bringing foreign-grown plant material into the country?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I hear ya. About the only food item I'll buy from China is tea.

I'm assuming the Chinese hops were processed and packaged. Does the UK have no restrictions on bringing foreign-grown plant material into the country?

No restrictions on imports of food, but these hops were probably in a case or handbag. We’re a small country with a big population and crap weather so we import a lot of food.

 

[Protos]

Regarding Angel yeast, this guy seems positive about it and have been for a while.

Yep, many Chinese and ruskies on the web seem to be happy with it as well. I couldn't be more happy too if my priority was cheapness. The yeasts are dirt cheap, the cheapest yeasts I've ever seen on offer.
When I have some rare third-world malt to match I'll probably try those yeasts in action. I like trying brewing ingredients from exotic countries even though they're seldom available and rarely work up to my expectations (I'm looking at you, Qazaqstani malt and South African hops).

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Regarding Angel yeast, this guy seems positive about it and have been for a while. I'm not sure however if he is biased or not, selling their products.

Getting off topic on hops, but is Angel Yeast's dry brewers yeast made in China? I had guessed it was probably repackaged AEB yeasts, similar to Cellar Science. I know I have seen vendors in the US listing Angel Yeast.

Some searches does confirm that Angel Yeast is based in China. Their site says "Angel Yeast was founded in 1986, it originated from the China National Yeast Research Center. Angel Yeast Co., Ltd was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2000." I saw a listing on Amazon where the pack of Angel Yeast (it was a distillers yeast) said "Made in China."

I guess it makes sense that there could be a dry yeast manufacturer in China.

 

[Protos]

I'm

Getting off topic on hops, but is Angel Yeast's dry brewers yeast made in China?

I'm sure it is. Just imagine the scale of yeast consumption in China, it's impossible for such a huge industry to be based solely on imports. It's not a new industry too, so they should have produced yeast during their self-imposed isolation from the rest of the world after the communist takeover.
On their website, Angel boasts that China is the birthplace of the Lager yeasts. The pictures on the site look like they have their own manufacturing facilities.
On the sachets, it's "Made in China" with no ambiguity.

 

[litchiliu]

I'm a homebrewer from China, ask me anything

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I'm a homebrewer from China, ask me anything

Could you my original thread please.

 

[Jeroen79]

Could you my original thread please.

___________^Read

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Could you (reply to?) my original thread please.

Have you seen this article? It has some good info about Chinese hops:
https://www.asianbeernetwork.com/buying-hop-varieties-grown-in-china/