whole cone hops

[FireantBrewing]

A friend of mine is growing cascade hops in up state NY, he is sending me about a pound to brew with. This is the second year of his crop and he does not have specs for alpha/beta yet... He has dried them and vacuum packed them.

What is the best way for me to incorporate these into my beer, I've been brewing pretty good beer for several years with pelet hops. I'm thinking late addition or dry hop with them, just not sure how much of them to use?

Thanks!!

 

[jschein]

In a hop randall

 

[k1ngl1ves]

They are good for however you want to use them.

Not knowing the aa is a small issue. Make a couple small batches with varied amounts of the hop and see what you get bitter wise. It's inevitably still going to be beer!




Fresh free hops are the best hops!

 

[BobBailey]

Use an average AA% for the variety of hop if you use them for additions prior to about 15 minutes. With a relatively low AA% you'll be OK. If you are concerned about IBUs, just use them for flavor and aroma additions.

 

[slym2none]

Use a known hop for bittering, make sure to boil for 60 minutes, then use these hops all as late-additions. I would use them in a hop-stand after the boil, getting all my IBUs from the initial bittering hops.

 

[SrLupulinHopsimous]

I have been growing hops for nine years now in PA, & I found that the 2nd to 3rd year is when you start to get a respectable harvest.

I started out with a simple test batch of pale 2row to reach 5.0% abv, and one hop addition at 90 min (90 minute boil), estimated alpha 5.0%, & estimated utilization 30%, to give a 20 IBU charge. This will give you a baseline control for the years to come. Over time you can slowly notice and chart an alpha increase over time as the root system grows and gets stronger. After 9 years I estimate my cascades at 6.0%.