Bulk Hop Choices

If you had to choose 4 different varieties that you could brew with for the year, what would they be?

(I am setting up a mini farm in Northern California that will consist of 2 60-foot long rows at about 18-20 feet tall apiece)
:rockin:

 

Where at in Nor*Cal?

 

Cascade
Centennial
Liberty
Chinook
(in no order)

 

Cascade
Willamette
Mt. Hood or Liberty (I'd pick Mt. Hood)
Galena or Nugget (I'd pick Galena)

That gives you 1 classic American variety (Cascade), 1 US decendent of a UK variety (Willamette as a decendent of Fuggles), 1 US decendent of a German noble hop (Mt. Hood or Liberty both Halertau decendents), and 1 strong clean bittering hop (Galena or Nugget). This gives the abilty to brew a huge variety of types of beer. If you're interested in 1 particular style (like APAs or IPAs) then you could load up on US citrusy varieties as beesy suggests above.

 

Cascade
Willamette
Amarillo
Summit

 

Cascade,magnum,goldings,hallertauer

 

Cascade, Perle, Magnum, N. Brewer

 

Centennial, Magnum, Amarillo, (Cascade or Simcoe)

 

I wouldn't waste space growing both Cascade and Centennial because they are pretty interchangeable.

Willamette, Fuggle, Centennial and Amarillo

Isn't Simcoe proprietary?

 

Cascade, Wlliamete, East Kent Goldings, Centennial....

 

Hard to do unless East Kent has moved to northern California.

For me:

Cascade
Centennial
Chinook
Magnum

 

Other thing to keep in mind when making your selection is disease resistance and adaptation to your environment. My recommendations above capitalize on the increased mildew & disease resistance of some of the US varieties over Fuggles & Hallertau varieties by choosing Willamette & Mt. Hood. Also, these are varieties that are well adapted to Northern California/Oregon climate.

Planting Cascade & Centennial do seem much too close to each other to plant both if you can only plant 4 varieties.

 

Saaz, Hallertauer, Styrian Goldings, Northern Brewer.

 

Perle
Goldings
Willamette
Cascade

The Goldings may not be as thrifty or productive as the others but either it of Perle can be used to bitter 90% of all beers. Willamette and Cascade from your neck of the woods are fantastic aroma hops for all American ales.

 

My bad, I did some googling and I found that they both are, indeed, proprietary....

Shame, I wonder when the patents run out.

 

Cascade
Hallertaur
Challenger/EKG/Progress etc
Styrian Goldings

 

Are you getting these tested for AA%? If not, I'd go with the following for aroma/flavor

Cascade or Centennial
Willamette
Saaz
Goldings

And get a pound or two of clean bittering from Hops Direct.

 

+1, but my 4 would be:

Cascade/Centenial
Sterling
Willamette
Mt. Hood

 

That's a good point, MMB.
I didn't think about the fact that, without testing, I wouldn't know what the AA% was and thus the true IBU content of my recipes. If I am not going to test, it would be smart to skip the bittering hops.

 

1. Cascade
2. Chinook
3. Willamette
4. Magnum


Oh, and do you plan on having a work-for-hops program??? JK, but I'd love to come help with the harvest if you need an extra set of hands.

 

Clean high bittering:
Magnum

American Bittering/Aroma:
Centennial

Noble:
Hallertau

English Ales:
Fuggles