Home Grown Zeus Hops

[covers42]

This year the Japanese beetles attacked my Cascade and Sterling hop plants limiting their yield to under 2 oz each dried but I got over 9 oz of Zeus hops. First year plants but two were 3 year old rooted rhizomes.
They have a very strong bitter flavor when added in a tea. Is my best bet to try and blend lower levels for late in the boil addition or attempt to use them at 60 min out for bittering?
Would like to use them with the pound of Cascade pellets but these hops appear a lot stronger than the Cascade.
I dried all the hops on low in a dehydrator, vacuum sealed them and froze them for storage.

 

[thaymond]

This year the Japanese beetles attacked my Cascade and Sterling hop plants limiting their yield to under 2 oz each dried but I got over 9 oz of Zeus hops. First year plants but two were 3 year old rooted rhizomes.
They have a very strong bitter flavor when added in a tea. Is my best bet to try and blend lower levels for late in the boil addition or attempt to use them at 60 min out for bittering?
Would like to use them with the pound of Cascade pellets but these hops appear a lot stronger than the Cascade.
I dried all the hops on low in a dehydrator, vacuum sealed them and froze them for storage.

I'm a fan of fwh on my heavy high AA charge. It doesn't produce such an overwhelming intense bitter, more of a mellow smooth bitter. It depends on what you like, though. If you're using Cascade, fwh may help balance your battering charge with your flavor additions.

 

[day_trippr]

I'd say your Zeus are exhibiting prototypical characteristics.
Given that AA and the rest, I'd bet most folks use CTZ hops for straight-out bittering...

"14-17% Bittering

Earthy, spicy, pungent, with some citrus overtones. Not overwhelmingly citrus like Cascade. High on the bittering scale yet also valued for its oil content creates a hop that is an interesting dichotomy of sharp and herbal.

Used For: Bittering American style ales, stouts

Subs: AKA Columbus ,Tomahawk"

Cheers!

 

[thaymond]

Just brewed and kegged a homegrown ipa featuring Zeus. I used a lot of late additions, and went for the flavoring. The bittering was fwh, so there isn't the crazy bite up front or on the back end. The nose is sweet citrus and herbal. The flavor I'm getting is fruity citrus, plum and apricot (could be a malt character from the special B and aromatic) peach (could be us05 at mid 60s ferment) , pine, lots of grapefruit without the sour. Malt backbone is bready, toasty, with dark fruit notes from the special B and aromatic. I'm greatly enjoying it, though I wish I gave it a little more of a late addition charge at 60 (maybe 0.5 oz.), as I think it may have balanced the flavor out with some more bitter bite. I'm happy I still have a pound in the fridge.

 

[covers42]

I used home grown Zeus hops for bittering and blended it with cascade for mid and late boil hops. Dry hopped with Zeus, Cascade and Amarillo. Best IPA to date only issue is it came out cloudy. Used the East Coast Pale Ale yeast but flavor is great. Did get a lot of citrus with a good but not overpowering bitterness with .75 oz of Zeus at 60 minutes. Smell was Mango according to my wife.