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marc_

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Who grows hops for IPA's? What have you found to be the best homegrown IPA hops?

Centennial isn't as vigorous as the other C hops, but has been a good producer. It's the earliest for me (I'm picking it now). I've never sprayed in 10ish years of growing and never had disease issues, but hear it's susceptible to downy mildew. My home grown centennial seems to provide a medium intensity citrusy flavour and aroma.

Cascade is super vigorous and a great producer. It ripens after Centennial, but before Chinook. I've had mites on it, but it generally seems really hardy. It provides some medium intensity grapefruity/grassy flavour and aroma.

Chinook ripens last for me of the three IPA varieties I grow. It's super vigorous, hardy, and a great producer. It gives a strong aroma and flavor and might be the variety I would recommend the most if you like that citrussy pine flavour/aroma.

I've added homegrown Neo1 to my IPA's as well, but it seems to work better as a supporting hop to emphasis a lemon component. It ripens really early so I tend to use it to dry hop light summer beers.

What home grown varieties do you have experience with?
Which public domain hops would you recommend for IPA lovers? Columbus? Cashmere? Comet?
Which hops have not produced for you?
 
Who grows hops for IPA's? What have you found to be the best homegrown IPA hops?

Centennial isn't as vigorous as the other C hops, but has been a good producer. It's the earliest for me (I'm picking it now). I've never sprayed in 10ish years of growing and never had disease issues, but hear it's susceptible to downy mildew. My home grown centennial seems to provide a medium intensity citrusy flavour and aroma.

Cascade is super vigorous and a great producer. It ripens after Centennial, but before Chinook. I've had mites on it, but it generally seems really hardy. It provides some medium intensity grapefruity/grassy flavour and aroma.

Chinook ripens last for me of the three IPA varieties I grow. It's super vigorous, hardy, and a great producer. It gives a strong aroma and flavor and might be the variety I would recommend the most if you like that citrussy pine flavour/aroma.

I've added homegrown Neo1 to my IPA's as well, but it seems to work better as a supporting hop to emphasis a lemon component. It ripens really early so I tend to use it to dry hop light summer beers.

What home grown varieties do you have experience with?
Which public domain hops would you recommend for IPA lovers? Columbus? Cashmere? Comet?
Which hops have not produced for you?
Haha I had this same thought last year. I have 5 yo Newport, Galena, and Centennial. I planted them because of their high AA and no other reason. Since then I have figured out what hops really do to my beer, and what ones I like.

Fast forward to this past year, I planted two each of Cascade, Cashmere, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, and Comet. The chinook and cascade are the best growers so far with all but centennial right behind them.

I like to grow hops, but haven’t figured out how to use them without getting a green taste from them. I will be harvesting them later than usual and see if that helps.
 
That green flavor... I'm still trying to figure it out as well.

At this point I use roughly 80% home grown, but still buy some citra (or other fruity hops) for dry hopping to really kick it up a notch. I'd love to move to close to 100% home grown without sacrificing flavor.
 
About to tap my homegrown pale ale. Cascade and Chinook from my yard and Cascade, Chinook and Willamette from the neighbors yard. We do 15 gallon batches and split it 3 ways. I use them wet. 2 years ago the beer was awesome. 1 oz magnum @ 60 min. 7lbs wet continuously added in the last 10 min. Did they same last year and the beer was very bland. This year added a few oz of pellet hops at flame out.
 
@Sbe2 How do you like comet? I was thinking I'd try to track down some rhizomes.

Have you brewed with it yet? How does it grow compare to cascade with regards to production/aroma/etc.?
 
@Sbe2 How do you like comet? I was thinking I'd try to track down some rhizomes.

Have you brewed with it yet? How does it grow compare to cascade with regards to production/aroma/etc.?
Idk, to be honest I have never brewed with Comet.

All of my hops from the new hop yard are still green. The lupulin is still developing.

I got all my rhizomes from Great Lake Hop
 
fwiw, I've been growing Cascade, Chinook, Centennial and a bit of Fuggles for ~7 years, and have brewed a crap ton of pales and ipas with them. Can't recommend other strains as those four are it for me.

I usually bittered with Chinook then split all of the late oil/FO/WP additions between Cascade and Centennial, shooting for around 100 IBUs (on paper) then dry hopped with those two. A handful of years from the start of all that I discovered how good Chinook is as a whirlpool and dry hop addition, so I have been using that in the mix as well.

All of them have been prolific growers - I typically pull between 1-1/2 and 2 pounds (dried weight) off each plant save for the Fuggles, which are closer to 1/2 pound per plant - probably because they're potted while the rest have been in the ground since "birth".

Biggest ***** is spider mites. When the weather turns hot a few days later they magically appear. I don't even wait any more and start a soap spraying regimen as soon as the first hot days arrive...

Cheers!
 
@day_trippr I hear you about the spider mites. They pretty much ruined my old plants, but luckily my new aren’t affected yet.

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This is my first year growing hops (unfortunately ordered Citra from NB and they were labelled Cascade so I'll assume the labeller is right). The only way I see to judge if I want to keep them is to do a SMASH with the fresh hops. It looks like I'll start cutting in a few weeks and hopefully have enough to do a 5gal batch. One question, what ratio do you adjust your additions from pellet to fresh cone hops? I imagine the same flavor requires 3 or 4x more hops?
 
Yeah that’s about right 4x more is what I go by.

Citra are proprietary hops, and are only for sale to licensed farmers. So you are probably growing cascades, but idk why NB would be marketing Citra plants
 
Yeah, in my experience fresh hops suit certain styles of beer better than others. I now keep the grain bill light and go heavy on the late hop additions and dry hop. Too heavy and you can run into a grassy component with fresh hops so I haven't had much luck with fresh hopped big IPA's. This year my fresh hops are destined for a 5%abv kettle sour.
 
And yeah I think we'll have another few decades to wait before citra rhizomes are available to home brewers.
 
My fresh hop pale ale. Week or so in the keg. Tasting good. I have not tried to dry them .. you can buy them dry in the USA at a reasonable price... I love making a fresh wet hop ale every year
 
Yeah that’s about right 4x more is what I go by.

Citra are proprietary hops, and are only for sale to licensed farmers. So you are probably growing cascades, but idk why NB would be marketing Citra plants

Yeah I think it was a temporary issue on their site, I got the confirmation of the order and everything and this was before I realized that you can't get rhizomes of every strain. Either way the plants are pretty robust.

Due to the grassy notes created with fresh hops does everyone as a rule dry-hop with them for less time i.e. if I dry hop with pellets 3 days before bottling I'd try to bottle within 48 hours with fresh hops or is the grassiness something you just have to expect and work around with recipes?
 
Yeah I think it was a temporary issue on their site, I got the confirmation of the order and everything and this was before I realized that you can't get rhizomes of every strain. Either way the plants are pretty robust.

Due to the grassy notes created with fresh hops does everyone as a rule dry-hop with them for less time i.e. if I dry hop with pellets 3 days before bottling I'd try to bottle within 48 hours with fresh hops or is the grassiness something you just have to expect and work around with recipes?
I have still yet to figure out how to not get the grassy notes. I just love to grow the darned things and am not concerned if I brew with them or not.
 
I have some cascade, chinook and Columbus hops in my backyard and I do get a bit of grassiness from them. It normally takes me 36 to 48hr to dry them. I wonder if a slower drying time might allow some of the grassiness to go away. I believe the commercial producers add heat to speed up the drying which would seem like that would lock in the green flavor.

One year I let the hops go a bit longer so they were sort of yellow when I picked them but they got a onion like flavor and aroma. My Columbus do have an onion like aroma to the hops even when still green but I think that is sort of normal.

I did a wet hopped beer (5gal) last year with a about a pound and a half of hops added at flameout, not sure I really got much from all of the hops. I did get a slight watermelon flavor though which I think might of came from the Columbus but I am not sure.
 
I use a cheap 7 tray dehydrator set at 95f and dry for about a day. I have been picking b4 they turned yellow, but this year I let them go until brown started showing on the hops. Maybe that will make a difference idk.
 
Is anyone growing non-traditional IPA hops that are worth growing?

Anybody growing Zenith? Sorachi Ace? Or the New Zealand non-proprietary ones like Wakatu or Southern Cross?
 
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