Harvest Ale grassiness

[smashed4]

I am considering using my harvest this year in a big hoppy pale ale.

I have never done an harvest ale though. I remember that last year, my fresh hops were a little grassy smelling, and the smell went away as it dried..

I am concerned that if I use the wet hops, it will impart a grassy, chlorophylle like, taste and smell..

What do you guys think? Would you put wet hops that smell grassy in a beer?

Regards,

Cedric

 

[TimBrewz]

To answer your question, if the hops smell grassy to start with, they may not be ripe....you may want to let them stay on the bine a bit longer this year. They need to be springy and dry feeling (on the outside) and be a bit brown on the tips. The aroma should be of great smelling lupalin and not grass. You may already know this, I learned the hard way last year and picked some of mine too early. They were grassy.

I am no expert. Like you, I have done one fresh hop ale. I just added them to the boil in the last minutes. My beer was good, but a bit grassy. I used only hops the were truly ripe for this beer. I am glad I did not use the "early" pickings...those would have made a really grassy, chlorophyl tasting beer.

My take is that the grassiness is a common characteristic of a fresh(wet) hop beer. I assume it is caused by the water released from the wet hops. Some of the commercial harvest or wet hop ales have some grassiness, others don't. Sierra Nevada's Harvest Ales have a little grassiness, while the Bridgeport Wet Hop (which only uses wet hops in a hop back) did not seem grassy at all to me. (Maybe, the short contact time and lack of boil when using the hop back does not extract as much of the moisture from the wet hops?)

So, for my harvest ale this fall I am using a hop back for the wet hop addition and dry hops for all the bittering additions. I hope this gives the beer a great hop aroma and flavor without a lot of grassy notes.

Happy hopping, Tim

 

[smashed4]

I think you are right about letting the hops on the bine longer.. I might have harvested a bit too soon last year since I felt the hops were somewhat grassy before drying.. It's quite a challenge to decide when to harvest though, as some cones will be turning brown while some others are still clearly not ready...

Thanks for the heads up on the american Harvest Ale.. here in montreal, I get none of these (sigh), so I had no idea how they tasted like.. I suspected some of them should be a little grassy..

Honestly, I am not totally convinced on the merit of the whole harvest ale thing, and i am now more leaning towards drying and "curing" the cones for 2-3 weeks, then using them in a big hoppy ale.. This way, I believe I will limit the aroma lost of aging, will still using properly dried, and cured, hops..

I have grown other herbs in the past and did noticed that drying is essential for long term storage, but there is also a curing phase that occurs after drying, and it is my understanding that this removes the chlorophylle taste.

Can I still call it an harvest ale if the hops have been dried for 3 weeks? ..

 

[Orangevango]

you harvested it right?

 

[pilotdane]

I'm a first year hops grower and am also thinking of brewing with fresh hops now that I have some cones of my own...

My cones have looked big and ripe for several weeks but had the grassy smell. After a couple weeks the grassy smell went away (cones still on the bine) and I got some hops aroma if I peeled back leaves and smelled very carefully. A week later they were a lighter shade of green and were really starting to get a papery feel and the aroma was even better. I let them go yet another week until many cones started to have the tips of the leaves turn brown. The aroma is incredible and my fingers were covered in yellow hops goodness (I finally harvested). The extra time leaving them on the bine really seems to have helped and there is not a hint of grassiness.

 

[david_42]

The grassy smell will dissipate in the boil, but using fresh hops post-boil doesn't work so well. You should delay picking hops until they have started to dry out. One technique for checking, flick a hop with your finger, it should snap off where the stem connects to the cone.

 

[smashed4]

Thanks for the input guys... I usually do 60 minutes and 0 minute addition only..

I'll make sure I boil the wet hops for at least 5 minutes then.. And I will try and be as patient as possible before harvesting, so the hops are less grassy to start with..

That should be a lot of fun, I will do a belgian pale ale I think, since my hops are all noble type hops, it should come out great.. I'll post the results in a few months..

Santé!