Male Hops?

[fromhereon]

Hey guys,

Does anyone have or know where I can get either seeds or male hop rhizomes? I really want to play around with some cross breeding. I know it's not the right time of year but I'll be able to keep them alive until next year. If anyone has any of these I'd definitely be willing to pay for them I'm just dying to get my hands on some.

 

[GVH_Dan]

You can often find seeds in catalogs and on ebay in the spring but I wouldn't necessarily trust the claim of whatever variety they are. IF you find wild hops, you often find males with them or close by.

If you are doing this, make sure you are far from anyone else growing hops. The pollen can easily travel a mile on the wind.

 

[fromhereon]

Thanks Dan. I'd love to find some wild hops but haven't had any luck. I'll check ebay. I'd love to know the variety but I guess the wild hops would be a crap shoot anyway.

 

[samorg42]

We have a profusion of wild hops growing in the mountains where I live. I thought that you couldn't use hop cones that have been pollinated. A brewmaster at a major regional brewery said that you could. Input? Also-when to harvest?

 

[alane1]

someone might want to chime in, but I think there may be some German varieties that are seeded like Tettnanger?

 

[fromhereon]

If I remember correctly the seeds are supposed to contribute to a higher tannin level. I don't really think its supposed to be a big deal but they don't sell them that way because it throws off the weight and for some reason I'm thinking lowers the AA content

 

[B-Hoppy]

For the most part, it's kinda like when someone buys a bag of weed. They want to make sure what they're paying for can all be smoked rather than the bag having a proportion of seeds adding to the weight.

I've read all kind of stuff about hops adding tannins, ash, killing head retention etc.. but have never experienced it when using seeded hops to brew with. I use whole hops and every now and then will get a pound of one variety or another with a bunch of seeds in it with no noticeable negative effect on the beer.

I think it's over in the UK, but certain varieties are seeded on purpose. When you think of it, once that seed forms there's actually more surface area for the lupulin to accumulate. Just seems to be something else to worry about when brewing so I don't bother with it.

 

[GVH_Dan]

Agreed...seeds will "lower" alpha because they add weight without adding alpha. Same as if there is too much stem or leaf material in your hops.

On the rest, as I understand it, European growers used to pollinate their hops because they believed it gave them the desired flavor they were looking for. Maybe it was it, maybe it wasn't, we are running experiments out at our farm to figure that out. What we do know is that pollinated hops have seeds and the chemistry goes crazy thus making it difficult to reliably brew with. At least that's how its been explained to me but I would love to hear other versions.

 

[brewerelated]

Do your hops have seeds? Do you have male plants? If so I was wondering if you would be willing to sell a rhizome or perhaps seeds?

we are running experiments out at our farm

 

[GVH_Dan]

We don't have seeds, at least not in several years. We're actually trying other methods to obtain the "noble" flavors. There was a rogue male rhizome in one of our smaller fields but he was found and culled.

 

[alane1]

I've been looking myself I think the seeds on amazon are bunk, humulus japonicas-an ornamental variety. Of which, seeds are plentiful.

 

[brewerelated]

I've avoided eBay and other places because I don't trust them either. I regularly comb the forums looking for people with seeds because here on HBT people would at least know what plant they are collecting the seed from. Thus, we would at least know which variety the mother is.

I still haven't found anybody yet that would be willing to send me a male rhizome, a cutting from a male plant, or seeds from a known mother. So if anybody out there has any of these then I am still looking and please send me a PM or please post it in this thread so others kind find it. If anybody is willing to give me any I will definitely try to create more of it so I can share back with everybody in the thread.