85 year old hop plant...

[jrgtr42]

Picked a few cones to make a test brew. Any suggestions on what to do with these fresh nuggets? Should I brew with them “as is“ or put them through some sort of drying process before brewing?

||If you plan to brew in the next day or so, leave them be - any more than that you'd probably want to dry them.

 

[passedpawn]

Here is a picture update

For f**ks sake, send me some. Let's do this.

 

[BreeBrew]

Picked a few cones to make a test brew. Any suggestions on what to do with these fresh nuggets? Should I brew with them “as is“ or put them through some sort of drying process before brewing?

You can use the hop straight from the plant but be aware that fresh hops can be stronger then dried hops.

Also that plant looks ready to be harvested, three indications you can use to see if the hops are ripe:
1. When you rub a cone between your fingers it should feel and crackle like paper
2. Hop cones contain lupulin, this is needed for the brewing process, in the beginning of the growth it will have a lighter color turning later on in golden
yellow, that is the wright color, the brown cones are to far gone, these you can discard
3. Ripe hops smell a little bit like beer, if they smell grassy it is not ripe enough yet

You can dry the cones in the oven @ 140F (60C) in not to thick layers, if the stems break easily they are dry enough, but better is to dry it in open air in a sunny spot during two to three days and turning them regularly on a dry rack which you can easily make from screen mesh:

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[Sammy86]

You can use the hop straight from the plant but be aware that fresh hops can be stronger then dried hops.

Also that plant looks ready to be harvested, three indications you can use to see if the hops are ripe:
1. When you rub a cone between your fingers it should feel and crackle like paper
2. Hop cones contain lupulin, this is needed for the brewing process, in the beginning of the growth it will have a lighter color turning later on in golden
yellow, that is the wright color, the brown cones are to far gone, these you can discard
3. Ripe hops smell a little bit like beer, if they smell grassy it is not ripe enough yet

You can dry the cones in the oven @ 140F (60C) in not to thick layers, if the stems break easily they are dry enough, but better is to dry it in open air in a sunny spot during two to three days and turning them regularly on a dry rack which you can easily make from screen mesh:
View attachment 695748
Hope this helps a bit.

Side note: we use the same mesh racks to dry out walnuts during harvest up here in NE and wherever walnuts are in the continental US

 

[bkelley0804]

I'd go with a single malt and do additions at 60,30,10,5 and flameout if you have enough.

What amount of hops for each addition? EXAMPLE: Should I start with 1oz and then do 1/2 oz for each additional?
Also, can I do a dry hop with fresh cones? I’d like to maximize the flavor potential of “the beast’s” cones.

so far I’ve got 7lb of Pilsen light LME, some dry Nottingham ale yeast, and as many hops as j_treegirl will let me pick haha will be brewing this on Tuesday/Wednesday

 

[BreeBrew]

Why don't you make a few hop teas first in plain water with various amounts of hop additions to get a better idea of the bitterness and the flavour of the hop.

Dryhopping with fresh cones is a nogo imo due to the risk of infection.

 

[Sammy86]

What amount of hops for each addition? EXAMPLE: Should I start with 1oz and then do 1/2 oz for each additional?
Also, can I do a dry hop with fresh cones? I’d like to maximize the flavor potential of “the beast’s” cones.

so far I’ve got 7lb of Pilsen light LME, some dry Nottingham ale yeast, and as many hops as j_treegirl will let me pick haha will be brewing this on Tuesday/Wednesday

I'd do an ounce since you have 0 clue about what variety it is. Who knows, might be the best beer you ever make!

 

[bkelley0804]

Why don't you make a few hop teas first in plain water with various amounts of hop additions to get a better idea of the bitterness and the flavour of the hop.

Dryhopping with fresh cones is a nogo imo due to the risk of infection.

Good idea! Will give this a try.

 

[Beerwildered]

Good idea! Will give this a try.

At this point, you could do a "pick your own" farm for these, and charge us money to come harvest.

 

[kmarkstevens]

Just jumping in as have found this thread. I love the kickstarter idea for some rhizomes.

 

[bkelley0804]

Made the brew last night, kept it super simple.

7lb light Pilsen LME
150g corn sugar
1/2oz hops after malt dissolved / back to boil
1/2oz hops with 20 min before flame out

 

[bkelley0804]

I'd do an ounce since you have 0 clue about what variety it is. Who knows, might be the best beer you ever make!

Took your advice with the single ounce. Good place to start.

Note: there wasn’t much aroma during the boil, guessing this will be a malty ale. OG is 1.048

Looking forward to doubling hops for the next brew and comparing the results.

 

[kmarkstevens]

Did you try the wort? You'll know if it's really malty and if you can actually taste the hops. I've done at least one wet hop beer that was undrinkably sweet. So, I'd sample and see what you think? If it's not hoppy enough, you can make a hop tea or a concentrated boil and add in to the fermenter to bring up the hoppyness.

My understanding is most folks recommend 5-7 ounces wet hop versus 1 ounce dried hop. My 2 cents of experience is that these days, I pick a big pail of hops, and then just load them in. I mean full handfuls at 15, 10, 5 and flame out. A pound or more. I'm no hop head, and past coupla brews were not too hoppy but definately fresh hopped.

I'll be doing a Northern Brewer this weekend that looks to have at least half of the hops to be pretty ripe (and then I'll go back in two weeks or so to pick of the rest).

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Why don't you make a few hop teas first in plain water with various amounts of hop additions to get a better idea of the bitterness and the flavour of the hop.

Dryhopping with fresh cones is a nogo imo due to the risk of infection.

Plenty of British commercial brewers dry hop with green hops. One advantage we have at the homebrew scale is that we can eg freeze them briefly just to kill some of the nasties, but if there's enough hops and alcohol and acidity in the brew, then not much should grow in it.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I'll be doing a Northern Brewer this weekend

at least half of the hops to be pretty ripe (and then I'll go back in two weeks or so to pick of the rest).

That sort of thing is pretty handy for putting the first harvest in the boil, and the rest as dry hop towards the end of fermentation.

 

[bkelley0804]

Went and got some more hops off of “the beast” yesterday. I’d like to dry hop with these but not risk an infection. Should I....

A. Make a hop tea and add that to secondary
B. Boil the hops and add that water plus hops to secondary
C. Just add the hops directly to secondary in a muslin bag / loose
D. Something else I’m not thinking of at the moment

Please advise! Thank you everyone for your support

 

[B-Hoppy]

Hop tea and boiling the hops will basically just add a little more bitterness but it will be diluted down or ameliorated by the additional water so it may be a moot point?

The act of moving the beer to a secondary, or bottling or kegging for that matter, always carries some risk of infection (and oxygen pick-up) as sanitation of all the components involved with the move can create some problems depending on your level of brewing experience.

The fact that the beer now has a certain level of alcohol in it will help lessen the chances of possible infection and help act as a solvent for the oils contained in the hops to be incorporated into the flavor/aroma character of the beer. I use whole hops exclusively and dry hop in the primary with about 1oz per 5 gal and also at the same rate in the keg and have been doing so since the 90's with great success and no issues (except for one that I recall).

One suggestion would be to do a sensory test on those hops starting with some of the nice green ones and try to judge that aroma against the brown ones. It looks like you have some downy mildew infected cones (hard to confirm from a distance) but in my experience, those that are infected tend to have a much less appealing aroma than those that don't have the issue. I don't know what the mechanism is that causes this deterioration in aroma but I've noticed it long ago and have been mostly successful at keeping these sorts of issues at bay through a good spray program throughout the season. Hope this helps.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

Went and got some more hops off of “the beast” yesterday. I’d like to dry hop with these but not risk an infection. Should I....

A. Make a hop tea and add that to secondary
B. Boil the hops and add that water plus hops to secondary
C. Just add the hops directly to secondary in a muslin bag / loose
D. Something else I’m not thinking of at the moment

Please advise! Thank you everyone for your support
View attachment 698791

how do those smell?
any hops I grew that ended up brown smelled like onions.
the green ones should still be good.

I make a hop tea by boiling water in a tea kettle, give it a min to not be boiling temp after it whistles, then add it to a french press with an OZ of leaf hops (most i can fit comfortably) then it steep for a good 30 mins.
Press the plunger and pour it into the keg.

what i'm doing is really no different then flame out hops added to the kettle while my wort chiller works.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

And whatever you do - don't hang about. Hops go off really quickly once they're off the bine - you need to be adding them to wort the same day that they're picked, ideally within a couple of hours. When brewers in Kent make green hop beers, they start the boil before they go to the hop garden to pick up the hops, to minimise the time from picking to wort.

 

[passedpawn]

I posted in this thread 9 yrs ago. I must say, the owners of this plant and those posting here on their behalf are not very ambitious people. I've made approx 1000 batches of beer since then. Git yer **** together and make some beer. My god.

 

[bkelley0804]

I posted in this thread 9 yrs ago. I must say, the owners of this plant and those posting here on their behalf are not very ambitious people. I've made approx 1000 batches of beer since then. Git yer **** together and make some beer. My god.

Apparently you missed the post about me finally making a batch lol

On the same note, yes... I agree... I’ve been slacking over the past few years. Back on it now, brewing one a week (currently have 4 carboys filled)

Regarding the brew using “the beast“

Added the wet hops to secondary today. Trimmed the cones and put them back in the freezer two days ago. They smell amazing and were quite sticky. Next year I’m wearing gloves

 

[Francis Eric]

You are correct, neither of us have been on here in a long time. Bkelley was supposed to be helping me work with this plant in exchange for the hops at harvest time to brew some beer, but life occurred for both of us...Last year, we did not harvest the plant at all, so I still have no idea what type it is or how it tastes. My father and I decided this year to make a makeshift trellis and see what happened, neither of us really know much about hops and although I have made wine, I have never tried my hand at beer. We set two 20' pipes with a pipe spanning the top and ran ropes up one side, over the top and down the other every foot or so. Well, we started by taking one bine to each rope and just loosely wrapping them once around, they seemed to be fragile at that stage. Within two days, the plant decided that it would send two or three up each rope just for the hell of it. By the end of the week, it was obvious that next year's trellis will need to be much, much bigger...By the end of week two, most of the bines had reached the twenty or so foot top, found no where else to go, and decided to start down the other side and then back out into the yard again. It is now a much larger, more tangled beast than ever, but seems to be quite happy about it! We still have the problem of the blackberries/raspberries and tearthumb occupying the base of The Beast, but the upper reaches of it are happy for now. We planned to cut the ropes and bines down at harvest time, thus making harvest easier and cutting back The Beast at the same time, but now that it has gone crazy that might not work at all. Not ready to even think about that things roots yet, so no freebie rhizomes yet...I don't even know the first thing about cutting them yet, and can't get to the base of the thing to get at them. Trying to get a cousin on dad's side to help harvest and make some beer, but he's busy too. My time is sucked up by my business and taking care of a husband who was hit by a drunk driver in May, and Dad is busy on the farm with other things, so I'll try to keep everyone updated more as The Beast progresses. Sorry for the delay, life just can't seem to slow down to smell the hops...

I posted in this thread 9 yrs ago. I must say, the owners of this plant and those posting here on their behalf are not very ambitious people. I've made approx 1000 batches of beer since then. Git yer **** together and make some beer. My god.

What A jack Ass thing to say.
Should be greatful they posted in the first place.

 

[Francis Eric]

I had a dream of a huge hop tree growing like a tree (dream like unrealistic )
I wonder what they look like after many years growing in a forest setting?

I suppose from what I have read they die to the ground ?
so unless there is a type of species that doesn't they would like become like tree's on same vine

Wish I knew more I love plants, and know a lot but decided unless I am going to grow them do not want to study them as much ( but still do)

I looked at botany web sites but couldn't figure out my question
beginner on a hop vine
So if you had vine grow up a tree harvesting the hops ,
and leaving the vine (liana) it would not regrow from old growth
making a massive decorative hop vine

Maybe my dream meant abundance or something

 

[OldDogBrewing]

I had a dream of a huge hop tree growing like a tree (dream like unrealistic )
I wonder what they look like after many years growing in a forest setting?

I suppose from what I have read they die to the ground ?
so unless there is a type of species that doesn't they would like become like tree's on same vine

Wish I knew more I love plants, and know a lot but decided unless I am going to grow them do not want to study them as much ( but still do)

I looked at botany web sites but couldn't figure out my question
beginner on a hop vine
So if you had vine grow up a tree harvesting the hops ,
and leaving the vine (liana) it would not regrow from old growth
making a massive decorative hop vine

Maybe my dream meant abundance or something

I think they stay in a hedge like form if they can't climb anything.

Lars Marius Garshol once described a hop vine covering a wall, I don't know were or if it was actually there or the brewer told him they used to have that hop plant

 

[InspectorJon]

What A jack Ass thing to say.
Should be greatful they posted in the first place.

I think the post was offered in jest. Sometimes it's hard to read inflection into written text.

 

[kmarkstevens]

I think the post was offered in jest. Sometimes it's hard to read inflection into written text.

ya think

emoji's are kinda stupid but they do help convey when someone is pulling your leg.

 

[bracconiere]

Should be greatful they posted in the first place.

LOL, i hope i'm remembered in the same way.....and i wonder what the hop plant i planted at my rental in ~2007 is looking like these days? in my case i'm still young, and could tell who ever lives there now, it was a chinook rhizome....

 

[JohnSand]

I vaguely remember some quote about planting a tree being a gift to the future.
Our gift makes beer!

 

[JUST_BREW_IT]

How did this batch turn out

 

[bracconiere]

How did this batch turn out

if you hover your cursor over the OP's name it says he hasn't been around for a year...