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Author Topic: Home grown Cascade  (Read 2772 times)

Offline Kaiser

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Home grown Cascade
« on: July 21, 2010, 03:22:59 pm »
For the first time I used home grown cascade hops about a week ago. One 10g addition at 30 min left to boil and one 20g addition at 10 min. The aroma, that I got from a hydrometer sample, was much more aromatic than I have ever had with Cascade. I got a nice tropical fruit, not grapefruit, character.

This might be the result of hop oils that generally get lost when commercial hops are kiln dried. The guy from
Gorst Valley hops talked about this at the NHC.

Kai

Offline bluesman

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Re: Home grown Cascade
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2010, 03:35:01 pm »
This is a shot of my 2nd year Cascade Hops.  I will have to put them to the test. 

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Re: Home grown Cascade
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2010, 04:07:43 pm »
Last month I made 3 gallons of IPA with 4.1 ounces of homegrown Cascades (from 2009), all hopbursted at 16 minutes left to boil.  This was my first hopbursted beer and it turned out fantastic -- I couldn't have asked for any better.  The bitterness is just about exactly what I expected, maybe just barely on the lower end but that sure doesn't bother a malt-head like me.  I still get plenty of hop aroma and flavor, as well as a smooth but firm bitterness.  As you'd expect, I get a lot of grapefruit from mine.  Not anything I would really consider tropical.  Who knows -- perhaps if I had used these back in 2009 when they were still fresh, the result might be a lot different.  But even after a year of aging, I am still very pleased with the result.  Vacuum packing and refrigeration obviously works very well in preserving hop character, including alpha acids.

Regarding differences in flavors from standard expectations, besides aging, I bet it also makes a considerable difference where the hops are grown.  I'm in Wisconsin, a good 150 miles or so northeast of Gorst Valley, for whatever that is worth (probably nothing).  But what I can tell you is that based on my own hop plants, it seems that we in Wisconsin are lucky in that our hops are always very much duplicative to what is commercially available, i.e., my Cascades taste very much like they could have come from Cascadia, and my Hallertauers are as spicy and herbal or better as what you'd expect from old world Germany.  But the same rhizomes grown in other locations or continents might not end up anywhere close to the same expectations.  I haven't tried them yet, but for example, it has been said that the Argentinian Cascades are quite different from the Pacific Northwest.  Same definitely holds true for English vs. American Goldings, American vs. German Northern Brewer, etc.
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Offline vista

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Re: Home grown Cascade
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2010, 05:03:41 pm »
i would think that different climates, soil conditions, and freshness play a huge part in hop character...i bet that could make for an interesting experiment...generating different soil conditions for hops...although there's always the chance that the results will end up like the flavor difference between a decoction mash and a single infusion mash  ;)
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Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: Home grown Cascade
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2010, 06:48:05 pm »
To add to Kai's post, we dry out hops at much lower temps.  Mine are in the garage on a screne.  The commercial hop farms have to use 140F air to get throughput.  This flashes off some of the essential oils.

Here is James Altweis's presentation.  Some really good stuff here.  I might dry in the house or in the basement with the house AC unit this year.

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/4802/Hop_Quality-James_Altweis.pdf
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Offline beerocd

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Re: Home grown Cascade
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2010, 07:50:14 pm »
i would think that different climates, soil conditions, and freshness play a huge part in hop character..

For sure they would taste different. I've traded tomatoes and can taste a big difference from a garden a few hundred miles away. You should be the organizer for a hop swap maybe next month when they all come in...
(problem would be shipping in August heat :( )
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Offline babalu87

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Re: Home grown Cascade
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2010, 11:18:58 am »
As with any produce a homegrown example should give you fresher flavor and aroma.
I dried mine without anything other than a blanket and a fan or two.

With hops we have the bittering units to worry about but as Denny told me once just shoot for the middle of the "typical" range and you'll be fine. Thats what I've been doing with all my homegrown hops (Mt Hood, Cascade and Fuggle)

I froze some straight off the vine un-dried and they were fine months later...... vacu-sealed as all my hops are.

Also, I vacu-sealed hops that werent quite dry (3-1) and they have been fine almost a year later.

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Offline bfogt

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Re: Home grown Cascade
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2010, 08:33:31 am »
What age are those rhizome, Kai?  I've noticed that my hops have gotten more spicy/citrusy as they've gotten established.  Now into year five, mine have the profiles I expect.  The first year, they were all a bit tropical.

Offline kramerog

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Re: Home grown Cascade
« Reply #8 on: August 04, 2010, 09:45:01 am »
Here is James Altweis's presentation.  Some really good stuff here.  I might dry in the house or in the basement with the house AC unit this year.

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/4802/Hop_Quality-James_Altweis.pdf

Good presentation.  The presentation says hops in the first year of growing "are usable but may not reflect the true
characteristics until year 2."