Suggestions for a beer to determine and enhance a mystery wild hop

[IslandLizard]

It is incredibly bitter. I scraped some more from the boxes and added it. Good for a back up hop shot maybe.

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Nice picture!
Keep it out of sunlight, though... any light, any time!
Hop oils turn into skunk when exposed to light. Literally.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Hence brown beer bottles. Aha. Thank you

 

[IslandLizard]

Hence brown beer bottles. Aha. Thank you

Sometimes even in brown bottles, given enough time and/or intensity.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

I was going to suggest to add those extra hops as dry hops, after fermentation is done, toward the end of the conditioning phase, usually 3-5 days before packaging, to keep the aroma/flavor at their peak.

Mongrel beer 1 - Popped in 10g (0.4oz) of freshly picked and then dried mongrel hops yesterday, on day 17 of the brew. The ferment is calm but not quite cleared yet. I'll let these hops sit until day 21 then try to fit the whole demi into our fridge to cold crash if it doesn't look a bit clearer to bottle.

Mongrel beer 2 - Popped in 0.5oz of the frozen dry hops today, on day 18 (coz I realised this was the one I was meant to be dry hopping).

It does feel a bit wrong in winemakers terms to stuff raw material in after ferment. Also why don't beermakers regularly use campden when bottling or transferring to secondaries like winemakers do? Does it taste in beers?

 

[IslandLizard]

Looking really good there! ^

But I was hoping for you to "dry hop" with freshly picked wet hops straight off the field, without drying them first...

 

[Mumathomebrew]

I would have done, however I've picked them all already. he ones on the right had only been dried for four days and not frozen. The left ones had been dried and frozen and were a bit greener.

The rest in the field have gone over now, I'm not sure how nice they stay in a hop pillow. Thats what I was thinking of using the browning ones for.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Wayhay. Bottled the three first beers using these hops. What is so exciting is that all three were drinkable, even nice. It'll be interesting to see how they fare after conditioning. Thanks @Northern_Brewer for the name suggestion of Mongrel hops which led to the dog labels. Very fine mutty models they are too. Ours, and my best friends dog.

The India pale was still a little on the sweet side. If the yeast continues to work with the conditioning then it will be very nicely balanced if slightly drier. The hops and mouthfeel were soft, full and rounded, so gentle on the tongue. The sweetness could take more aggression from the hops. I'd make this again using more hops at the start. Because it was an extract, they only got a 30 minute boil. These probably aren't extreme bittering hops then. The aroma was pleasant but not aggressively hoppy.

Speckled hen clone was the better beer of the three, hubs and son thought. It was hoppy and rounded and quite full. More like a slightly darker bitter or dark amber ale than no 1. This will be nice if conditioning rounds it off as it was a bit prickly and not so smooth as no 1.

The lazy ale was remarkably pleasant. I haven't got the language of beer yet but it just tasted like good quaffable ordinary beer. Light and a bit hoppy.

Very collectively pleased, so thanking you all for such a lot of help. You've all been really patient. All these beers are perfectly drinkable unless we've been careless when bottling and they catch something. We'll see in two weeks or so.

 

[IslandLizard]

Those look so good! ^
Congrats with a successful and fruitful first brew experiment! Nice labels too.

Just keep them out of the light, store dark.
Are they still carbonating? I think I can see some residue/sediment on the bottom, but the beer is very clear.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Just keep them out of the light, store dark.
Are they still carbonating?

Thank you. Keeping them under the stairs in a wooden box. My lads keep walking past and rubbing their hands in glee like magpies over a stash. It's very funny.

I think no 2 might have been still been carbonating slightly. I'm not sure how a home brewer stops that if one is adding yet more sugar. It's bound to throw another sediment in the bottle, then when opened, the release of pressure will make the bubbles stir it up to murky again. I suppose commercially, they gas it externally so no sediment is formed. More reading up to do.

Out of 7-8 bottles from each gallon, 5 were running definitely clear and then between 1 and 3 were getting cloudier. I bottled them anyway and put a sticker on the top to mark them. They'll presumably settle down. I'd attached a bit of chiffon to the end of the suction tube with a rubber band to stop the hops getting in it. Classy set up here!
The last one in a bucket had no late hopping, so we just poured into jugs first.