Saaz

[Sierra brew club]

How to put this so it makes sense.
I have a Acre 1/2 hop yard.

Outside of that designated area I also have a small trellis for 1st year seedlings and experimental hops that I have never grown before. [008 and 074 <Vista> will be grown here this year with some of my crosses].
Think of it as rookie ball or minors before you get pulled up to the big show.

And then I have my mother plants.
[Located off site] These are the ladies that I seed as well as pull off of my root stock or that I clone from.
I am looking to Down size my mother plants. Currently at 111 varieties. I feel like there are some repetitious variety in this area
I have several Clusters
L8 Cluster
E2 <Early Cluster>
California Cluster
Oregon Cluster
What are the chances that some of these are basically the same varieties
Saaz is another that I am looking at that maybe basically the same thing.

As I continued to make more Crosses I have been eliminating mothers who services are no longer needed.
With my mothers I have 3 Saaz mothers Saaz, Saaz 72, Saaz Super.
Is Saaz 72 just the classic Saaz strain or is there any distinct difference between these 3.
plants?

I have seen differences in growth and heat tolerance between Columbus and Zues for instance and even feel that Columbus flowers earlier <for me anyways> and is easier to pick than Zues cones are larger on Columbus then zues <for this area> both flowers are very similar in flavor profile with zues slightly more grassy and Columbus more Dankful. Columbus is best suited for extremely long hot temperatures where zues didn't do well where I live in the Sierras.

I know when these hops are harvested that can change but this is my overall opinion about these 2 varieties growing side-by-side.

So I guess what I'm asking is is there a difference with Saaz 72 and the classic Saaz that I have or I should keep all 3 varieties around.
or is the Saaz 72 basically the regular classic Saaz and I can eliminate one of these mothers from this area.

 

[Apimyces]

US Saaz is presumed to be the same as Osvald's 72. Saaz Super, never heard of it. There are newer Czech varieties like "Saaz Brillant", but these are distinct, patented, and not locally available in the Americas.

L8 and E2 are different, though presumably not much. The other clusters I never heard of, sounds like a marketing gimmick to me.

Saaz and Cluster aren't remotely the same, though.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It's pretty common for major varieties to be a "family" of clones and bud sports - it's perhaps best known in winegrapes, where there are hundreds of recognised clones of Pinot Noir for instance, all of which have slightly different characteristics. And in yeast, such as the 1970 selection of the Weihenstephan 34 lineage, better known as 34/70, which is less sulphurous than its lesser-known 34/78 sibling.

Goldings is the family I know best, and there for instance Amos Early Bird is an earlier-ripening clone that was found in a field of the Bramling clone of Goldings (best known as the mother of Bramling Cross). Since you can sell them all as just "Goldings", it obviously helps the logistics to have a field of Earl Bird that you can harvest first, followed by a field of a later-ripening clone, rather than having two fields of the same clone that ripen at the same time. You also get slight differences in flavour and morphology, along the lines of what you see with the CTZ family.

Super Saaz seems to be a GLH thing which seems to have a rather higher alpha than normal Saaz. That suggests it's a cross between regular Saaz and somethng else, in the same way that Celeia was initially marketed as a "Super Styrian". Weirdly the metadata for its page at GLH says "Everything you'd expect from Saaz with an added Citrus Kick. This plant was carefully selected from the GLH trials program and has become a preferred replacement for regular Saazer in many commercial yards." but the visible text has nothing about it. So I don't know for sure, but my guess would be that it's a "Celeia" of the Saaz lineage, not an asexual clone but a cross.

So - it's up to you....