Homegrown Whole Leaf Hops

[Hurphy]

My parents have been retired since 2020 and I gave them a rhizome of cascade to grow in their garden around this time, well now the plant is over 10 feet tall and they harvest anywhere from 5-8 ten gallon buckets of hops each season. My mother has been making them into seasonal wreaths at times…anyways. They are sending me and my brew club several vacuum sealed bags of these dried hops and we were hoping to use them to make a Harvest Brown Ale this fall/winter. We do not know the alpha acids so I’m assuming most of you would recommend just using them in the last 10 or whirlpool additions.

My actual question is…how much? Should I weigh them out or just go by cups or what?

 

[day_trippr]

I would weigh them and use them at all points of the brew.

Keep in mind Cascade AA% content is typically in the 5-7% range. With that narrow a typical AA% range it'd be difficult for most folks to tell the difference. When I grew Cascade, Centennial and Chinook, I just came up with an average AA% number in the middle of their respective typical ranges and used the hops accordingly - from early additions to dry hopping...

Cheers!

 

[scrap iron]

I made an American Brown ale with homegrown Nugget and Cascade hops years ago. Bittered with both and dry hopped the Nugget. I used the middle of the AA range [average] and it was delicious and came out right where I wanted with bitterness. And yes, weigh them.
Go for it will be great.

 

[Dgallo]

My parents have been retired since 2020 and I gave them a rhizome of cascade to grow in their garden around this time, well now the plant is over 10 feet tall and they harvest anywhere from 5-8 ten gallon buckets of hops each season. My mother has been making them into seasonal wreaths at times…anyways. They are sending me and my brew club several vacuum sealed bags of these dried hops and we were hoping to use them to make a Harvest Brown Ale this fall/winter. We do not know the alpha acids so I’m assuming most of you would recommend just using them in the last 10 or whirlpool additions.

My actual question is…how much? Should I weigh them out or just go by cups or what?

I would not use them for your bittering. Without knowing alpha your throwing a shot in the dark. My local hop farm has shared their testing results for the past 3 years their Columbus has been 14%, 19%, and 7%. And those hops have been established since the early 2000. Though you’d expect the Cascade to be below 10% but you never know.

I’d use them as you planned, last 10 or whirlpool. As far to how to use them, if they were dried properly to 18-24% moisture content, you can use them at the same rate you’d use pellets. If they seem wetter you’ll need to up the amount, I wouldn’t expect them to be drier than that.

 

[Dgallo]

I think I saved their spec sheets, if I find them I’ll add them to my previous post

 

[user 246304]

My parents have been retired since 2020 and I gave them a rhizome of cascade to grow in their garden around this time, well now the plant is over 10 feet tall and they harvest anywhere from 5-8 ten gallon buckets of hops each season. My mother has been making them into seasonal wreaths at times…anyways. They are sending me and my brew club several vacuum sealed bags of these dried hops and we were hoping to use them to make a Harvest Brown Ale this fall/winter. We do not know the alpha acids so I’m assuming most of you would recommend just using them in the last 10 or whirlpool additions.

My actual question is…how much? Should I weigh them out or just go by cups or what?

I just want to applaud your bounty. Those are gorgeous.