Gotlandish hops

[RBinson]

Hello everyone. It's about hops, but not necessarily about growing them, so not sure it's the good place to post that.

I was in Gotland (Sweden) some time ago. The island is famous for its traditional brew: gotlandsdrikke (or gotlandsdricka in swedish). While in a supermarket there I saw some hops and bought them out of curiosity. They are vaccum-packed whole dry hops with nothing mentioned on the packaging. The label at the store simply wrote "Humle" (hop in swedish).

Does anyone have any idea of what hop variety they are? I assume they are sold to be use in gotlandsdrikke.

 

[dmtaylor]

Cool, I might have liked those, I just brewed a Gotlandsdricke 2 weeks ago. I used Hallertau. From what little research I did, it appeared that noble hops were considered a good substitute for whatever hops they actually grow on Gotland. Sorry I do not know what type they actually are.

 

[mashpaddled]

From what I've read the hops are not a specific variety; the sellers there buy whatever they can get reasonably cheap and package it simply as hops. My same admittedly limited reading suggests hops are used mostly as an herbal remedy rather than for brewing so the particularly variety or AA% would not be of great importance to the seller. I would guess the hops are coming from Germany just out of proximity and cost rather than local fields.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

It could be one of three domestic swedish hop varieties: Korsta, Hulda Norrgård and Svalöf Mauritz. Korsta btw is a interresting type of hops in that it may have been grown here since long before the viking age, and used in mead/braggot making.

 

[RBinson]

I see, it could be any type of cheap hop or a Swedish variety.

It could be one of three domestic swedish hop varieties: Korsta, Hulda Norrgård and Svalöf Mauritz. Korsta btw is a interresting type of hops in that it may have been grown here since long before the viking age, and used in mead/braggot making.

That interesting to know since I also found wild hops around Stockholm but I couldn't get information in English about the Swedish hop varieties.

 

[Kaz15]

Interesting! I never knew Swedish varietals existed. Thanks for posting.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

They are vaccum-packed whole dry hops with nothing mentioned on the packaging. The label at the store simply wrote "Humle" (hop in swedish).

Does anyone have any idea of what hop variety they are? I assume they are sold to be use in gotlandsdrikke.

I'd imagine they're the most unloved, cheapest they can find, almost certainly Eastern European - Junga or Celeia or something like that, quite possibly a few years old. There should be some kind of indication of country of origin on the packet, although it may just say "EU".

If you're a smallscale producer in a high-cost country like Sweden, then flying the flag is the one way to justify your higher prices, so I would imagine that if they were grown in Sweden then it would be very obvious on the packet.