Found these growing wild

[ChrisfromAbby]

My salmon fishing results have been abysmal, but on the bright side... I found these growing by the railroad tracks on my way to the river. I live in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, a historic hop growing region.

I'm guessing they are Cascade. Lovely grapefruit aroma!

 

[day_trippr]

Good chance of it, I imagine. That strain was an OSU development for the USDA (ie: non-proprietary) that's now (counts fingers) 42 years in production.

Did you grab enough for a late addition at least?

Cheers!

 

[smashed4]

It is very difficult to identify hops from the look, but Cascades are usually long and skinny cones..

These don't look like cascades... Anyways, if they smell good use 'em!

 

[day_trippr]

Funny - I've been growing Cascades for three years without much trouble could find a cone that matches each of those pictured...

Cheers!

 

[nagmay]

Those don't look like stereotypical cascade cones to me either - which almost always have a pronounced square cross-section. However, cones on the same plant can look very different making it hard to identify without a larger sample.

They very well might be a naturalized commercial variety. However, consider the fact that wild hops (neomexicana) also grow in BC. You might have something entirely unique there!

 

[833R]

I spent 2 days last week picking wild hops in Burnaby. Same deal down by the tracks. Also didn't do so good salmon fishing hahah
Don't know what kind I have but they smell nice. I think there a little to spicy or woody to be casscade.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

I thought most of the truly wild hops were smallish cones But I don't know why I thought that.

I was thinking about the grapefruit aroma, and then thought it might be bordering on "piney", so my other thought was maybe Chinook - but the lupin glands are a pale sunshine yellow, and I think Chinook has fairly dark yellow. I'm going to try a sniff comparison test tomorrow. Regardless, they're going into a American Wheat ale! I'll use a known variety for bittering to keep the AAU reasonably under control and use these for aroma and maybe a little dry hopping.

 

[ChrisfromAbby]

Did you grab enough for a late addition at least?

Cheers!

Oh yeah! Probably better part of a pound once dried....

 

[nagmay]

"I thought most of the truly wild hops were smallish cones But I don't know why I thought that."
That seems logical, but I don't think that is actually true.

Here is a pick of some cones on a first year (from seed) wild neomexicanus plant that I obtained from the USDA germplasm repository. I wasn't expecting any cones this year ... let alone ones this size.

Anyway, congrats on your score. Keep us updated.