What kind of hops?

[greenacarina]

Hi everyone!
I recently moved into a house that has some hops growing in the back yard.
Is there any way to tell what variety they are, or at the very least determine the AAU's?

Thanks
Chris

 

[tjpfeister]

Genetic testing only costs a few grand I hear. But photos and sensory analysis will go a little ways

 

[greenacarina]

Genetic testing only costs a few grand I hear. But photos and sensory analysis will go a little ways

Lol!! I will start with a photo.

Thx

 

[greenacarina]

 

[Auger]

Yup, those are hops.

Best way I hear is to make a hop "tea" and smell and taste it to get flavor notes. No way to tell for sure on AA or variety without extensive testing. In the end, who cares what they're called, its flavor and aroma that are going to matter.

 

[IslandLizard]

Brew a small batch with just them. Keep notes on how much you used, as well as tasting notes, for next time.

 

[greenacarina]

Brew a small batch with just them. Keep notes on how much you used, as well as tasting notes, for next time.

Good idea! Maybe just a 1 gallon extract batch....
I'll give it a try.

Thanks!
Chris

 

[IslandLizard]

Sounds like a plan!

Let me add, don't know what your harvest is, but if it exceeds what your small batch requires, you can (properly) dry the rest, bag, and freeze. A beer made with wet hops will be different than one from dried hops, but you can't store them wet for extended time.

If your hops are not prime cultivars, they may lack bitterness. You can actually taste that during the boil and adjust by adding more and boil longer. Most homegrown hops are not used for bittering anyway, just flavor and aroma, using a commercial hop with known %AA for the bulk of the bittering charge.

Brew a few test batches if your crop is large enough.

 

[greenacarina]

Sounds like a plan!

Let me add, don't know what your harvest is, but if it exceeds what your small batch requires, you can (properly) dry the rest, bag, and freeze. A beer made with wet hops will be different than one from dried hops, but you can't store them wet for extended time.

If your hops are not prime cultivars, they may lack bitterness. You can actually taste that during the boil and adjust by adding more and boil longer. Most homegrown hops are not used for bittering anyway, just flavor and aroma, using a commercial hop with known %AA for the bulk of the bittering charge.

Brew a few test batches if your crop is large enough.

Good to know! I have zero experience with home grown hops, so wasn't sure how to approach it.
I am amazed at how big some of these are!! They smell rather floral and citrus'y.
I should probably look into getting one of those vacuum sealer food saver things.

Thanks
Chris

 

[IslandLizard]

Or use this method in a pinch.

There's a lot of good information on this and other sites on when and how to harvest and process (dry, package, store) hops. I always put hops in the freezer. Some are from the 2012 harvest (commercial pellets) and are still about as potent and aromatic as the day I got them.

Good aroma is promising!

As mentioned before, you could make a hop tea, but I find it difficult to gauge that way what the hop can give you in beer. Brew a few small beers (~1.040) with just them and in 2 weeks you'll know a lot more about them.

When converting a recipe you'll need 5x the weight of wet hops than for dry ones. They've been dried to 20% of the original weight. Use of a hop spider helps when draining the wort, and you can squeeze the bag out, or use a strainer.

Added:
I would definitely brew one small batch using your fresh hops as bittering hops, but only IF you have an overload of them. Otherwise bitter (FWH or 60' addition) with a neutral bittering hop like Warrior, Magnum, or even Nugget. 20 - 0 minute hops are great for using your wet ones. Maybe dryhop some too. If it turns grassy then you know that.

 

[greenacarina]

So, I got a little carried away picking all these hops.
I got started and just couldn't stop til I ran out of hops. Filled a little 2 gallon bucket 1 1/2 times.
Popped out a couple window screens and spread all my hops out on them and left a fan running on them for 24 hours. The all dried out nicely and the house smelled sort of grapefruity!
After they all dried out it seemed like I was getting hints of a "grassy" smell and wondered if this was all a wasted effort!
After getting them all packed into vacuum sealed bags, the floral/citrus smell came out a lot more.
Scored a Food Saver at a local thrift store today, so I got to bagging these things up tonight....and what seemed like a LOT of hops at first....all fit into 7 small vacuum-sealed bags. I haven't weighed them out yet, but it's enough for a few batches...certainly not the "surplus" that it first seemed.

Chris