Cluster Hops

[Steadfast707]

I am getting ready to harvest my hops and am looking for a good ale or ESB recipe. I got the plant from my Dad who said it was from the old commercial hop fields when he was a kid and thought it was named Cluster. I know Cluster is mainly know as a bittering hop but I may try it as a small one gallon 15 minute extract brew just to see what it tastes like but if anyone has a good all grain recipe I would be very grateful.

 

[JohnSand]

Cool story. I got some hops from a fellow brewer in Upstate NY, we thought they were Cluster. I made a simple single hop ale to test them. Mine may have been extract. If I were to do a grain batch I might just use pale and Munich malts. Keep us posted.

 

[tracer bullet]

Fun! Are you thinking like a pale ale type base recipe plus some of these at maybe 60, 15 and flame-out? Should be interesting.

From what I've read, Cluster was pretty much the dominant hop decades ago and so there's a good chance that's what it is by the description of where it came from.

 

[Steadfast707]

I made a hop tea to get a sense of aroma, taste and bitterness. The aroma was kind of floral but not pronounced and it was exceedingly bitter. I will plan on a one gallon recipe and will just do a 15 minute brew and if not happy with the taste will just use them for bittering. FYI there are still two of the original hop drying kilns still standing in our county though they are no longer used and two of the local breweries are raising hops.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

They should be good in an ESB/English Pale type beer.
Cluster is commonly found in old Brittish brewing logs, and being an older American vatiety has more old world-y flavour characteristics compared to the newer American kinds.

 

[rtstrider]

I'd think a cream ale would be perfect! As a matter of fact I'd highly recommend using the Speckled Heifer recipe from Northern Brewer with WLP080.