Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Hop Harvesting

I was a little down when I realized that my hop vines were male. That meant there would be no cones for me to put in my beer and I would have to dig up all the rhizomes and try again next year. Luckily, my friend Rod had planted 2 hop varieties in May and in September, there were plenty of cones to be harvested. He also decided to donate those hops to me. I couldn't be happier.
This variety is Brewer's Gold which yielded about 9 ounces of bittering goodness and the other hops netted only 1 ounce of Willamette.
I have a concern about this though:
Brewer's Gold is considered to be a bittering hop because it's supposed to have a neutral aroma (although there is a distinct nondescript smell to these hops), but all the literature I have read about home grown hops state that since you do not know the AA of the hops, it's best to use them as aroma hops at the end of the boil. I think I might just say 'the hell to you internet' and put 2 ounces of BG at 60 minutes, 1 ounce of BG at 30 minutes and 1 ounce of Willamette at the end of the boil.
I will report back and see how that works. It won't be for a while though since I will be making a harvest beer next.

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