Do aphids affect the taste of beer

[sashurlow]

My Centennials are infested with aphids this year. I did not notice it until harvest. I just dragged my hand through some drying hops (to mix them up for even drying) and my hand got coated in aphids.
I just did some reading on the internet and I am surprised that my plants did not show ANY signs of bug damage. I also have lots of lady bugs so maybe the infestation isn't that horrible.
I am hoping the aphids will leave my hop cones alone once they are dry but it makes me wonder if all the aphid bodies will affect the taste of the hops and beer brewed from them.
Thanks,

 

[sashurlow]

Of course I answered my own question. After a night of drying all the aphids came to the top of the pile by the thousands. Quite very gross. They are in the sun over a fan drying and I can't find then any more. It appears that they will leave the hops as they dry.
A very gross sight, however.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Pictures or it didn't happen [emoji2]

 

[ong]

Hops pretty much always have some aphids in them. The federal defect standard allows for no more than 2500 aphids per 10g of hops!

 

[day_trippr]

Of course I answered my own question. After a night of drying all the aphids came to the top of the pile by the thousands. Quite very gross. They are in the sun over a fan drying and I can't find then any more. It appears that they will leave the hops as they dry.
A very gross sight, however.

My small set of Fuggles got nailed by aphids one year, and like you I didn't even notice 'til they were loaded in the oast - which is constructed using 1x3's in 4'x2' stackable trays with screened bottoms.

Next morning all of the 1x3's were coated with green - which was very slowly moving!
Put on my readers and took a close look. Yikes! Bazillions of green aphids!

Vacuumed them all up, reset the oast, repeated the next day, and I'm pretty sure the vast majority were removed,.
But I'm also sure there were some that got lost and didn't make it out before they ended up vacuum bagged and frozen.

Ce la vie, I didn't worry about it after that, and my ESBs and milds didn't taste any different.

Lesson learned, though. From that year on I check random cones across all four of the strains I grow to keep an eye on bidness.
The li'l bastids have tried to make a stand each year but they succumb to soap/water mix...

Cheers!