What do I do with these hops? Help!

[BooduhMan]

My wife and I were gifted a whole garbage bag of hops from my uncle, which were dried and have since been ziploc'd and put in the freezer. They don't know anything about brewing and have no idea what kind of hops they are, but claimed that they did buy them from some store so they aren't wild hops.

We feel a bit of an obligation to use them in a recipe because they keep asking us if we've used them yet, but have no idea what to do without knowing what kind of hops they are.

We typically brew ambers, IPAs, porters, and stouts, so we'd like to stick to one of those styles. We are still pretty amateur brewers and stick to either extract-only or partial mash depending on the recipe, and aren't really comfortable with going beyond pre-built recipes.

Looking for some advice. I just don't want to end up with 5 gallons of some garbage beer but knowing NOTHING about these hops makes me nervous to do anything at all.

What do you all recommend?

 

[McKnuckle]

You may not know what kind of hops they are, but how do they smell? Are they fresh? Are they tropical, musty, earthy, spicy, odorless?

You could always brew beer with a safe known hop for bittering, then add these whole hops as a late addition, where they won't contribute significantly to bitterness. However I would only use them if they smell nice. Alternately, you could drop a few handfuls in the boil, take some photos, then remove them with a strainer and proceed with known hops as if nothing happened. Show your uncle the photos as proof, and you're all set.

 

[azmark]

Make 3 hop teas. One with 1oz of bittering pellets, one with 1oz of aroma pellets, and one with 4oz of your uncles hops. Taste, smell and compare the 3. You should get a good idea what you are dealing with. If good aroma, and similar in strength to the known aroma hop, use in a similar situation. If you're not happy with the uncle hop for aroma, get a good idea of it's bittering potential by comparison with the bittering known sample. You should then be able to use it in proportion as a bittering hop. ie if the uncle tea sample tasted 1/2 as bitter as the known sample, use twice as much as the bittering addition in your beer. (I'm assuming uncle hops are leaf and should be used in a 4 - 1 ratio. So if a recipe called for 1oz of known bittering hop, and uncles was half as strong at 4-1, then use 8oz in the recipe)

 

[BooduhMan]

Appreciate the input guys. I like the idea of a hop tea. I'll give it a shot, thanks!

 

[ba-brewer]

Make 3 hop teas. One with 1oz of bittering pellets, one with 1oz of aroma pellets, and one with 4oz of your uncles hops. Taste, smell and compare the 3.

Why use 4oz of uncle's hops and not the same 1oz like the other hops?

 

[thehaze]

Why use 4oz of uncle's hops and not the same 1oz like the other hops?

Most probably because you need to use more fresh hops when brewing than regular pellets, as you will not get the same oil, etc. extraction...

But I could be wrong here.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

Most probably because you need to use more fresh hops when brewing than regular pellets, as you will not get the same oil, etc. extraction...

But I could be wrong here.

I was told by commercial hop farmers, the head brewmaster at Lucky Bucket Brewing (local to Omaha, NE..definitely not my favorite brewery, but his job title says something) and have read in several other places on this forum that you only need ~1.1oz whole cone hops to equal 1oz pellets (assuming AA% are the same). I haven't given it a try just yet, but I have heard that consistently from credible sources.

I do like the idea of making a hop tea to get a feel for them, but I would recommend heating a coffee mug of water and dropping a single pellet in to get the aroma. This way you're not using an entire ounce on something you will only want a sip of but it allows you to get great aromatics. Thats just my $.02

 

[Jwin]

Maybe just do a stovetop back ch. Either with extract, or a paint bag and a couple pounds of two row. Boil/simmer for 30.
Throw in a few hops at 15,10,5.
Dump it in a growler or gallon carboy

Even better, just put it in a flip top(smaller batch) Once fermentation is complete, throw in a tad bit of sugar, close, carb and chill.
You'll get a beer out of it, and a good idea of it's flavor.
I've done this a few times to compare hops and bittering profiles.
You can get 2/3-3/4 of the beer out if you use a good floccing yeast and chill for a few days to compact the cake. I just used extract and put 750ml or so in a 1 liter flip top. A dash of us05, #2 bung iirc, and airlock followed by a drop of simethicone once fermentation begins works well.

 

[jalc6927]

Do you have a local home brew shop? Maybe they can help you ID them

 

[JohnSand]

I would try to get an idea of the bitterness with hop tea, the style by aroma.
Make a one or two gallon smash after that, just extract and this hop. You might get good beer, I have.