Wild hops - new find.

[bellebouche]

I'm blessed with some old hop plantations here abouts that have long since been left fallow. This has (in previous years) given me monster hauls of hops... far more than I can reasonably use but nevertheless I do still go and pick some for my small scale use here.

The majority of what I get are much like saaz/strisselspalt type varieties... so limited use in my brewing life as I'm all about (this year at least!) NZ, OZ, USA varieties

But, some cross/hybrid/wild varieties do prove interesting. A generally poor year for the wild hops this year due to the long dry summer here but I have struck a rich vein on one plant.

This fellow, very close to a rivers edge and so well fed with nutrients and ample water had shot up a handful of bines with some monster flowers. at least double the size of anything else I was picking at the weekend.


hop-cone by adrianfoden, on Flickr

Now, I know that fresh-hop aromas are not a great indicator of the impact a hop but... fresh picked this was all about the pear, spice, blackcurrant leaf and a definite backbone of mint. It was so exciting when I was out picking that I kept all the bines from this plant to one side and picked and processed them separately. Can't think of any hop that I've used that has a smell quite like it.

After being dried and vac-packed I only have a couple of hundred grams so I've frozen them now for upcoming use in a hop forward pale-ale. After drying all those flavours were still there... it'd lost its vegetal edge and picked up a touch of citrus. Very dank oils coming off it - quite headache inducing and it really stained my fingers. Will have no guess at the alpha-acids until I brew with it and taste the beer but will be keen to see how it performs.

If it's any good at all - I'll report back.

[super_simian]

For Christ's sake, remember where this is and make the rhizome available to others....it sounds drool worthy!

[seymour]

Not that I can personally go there, but can you identify the coordinates on Google Maps for us, just out of curiosity? I'd love to check-out the "terroir."

[Blackaddler]

Go and grab some root, and pot it up for next year...

[pantsmachine]

far more than I can reasonably use but nevertheless I do still go and pick some for my small scale use here.

Heresy, i denounce you!

Good find, hope it grows well for you in the coming years.

[barneey]

Dry and vac pac my friend

[bellebouche]

Time for an update...

I dried them, vac packed and then just last weekend got round to brew with them. Here's what I did.

Oat Pale Ale (English IPA)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.050 (°P): 12.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol (ABV): 4.91 %
Colour (SRM): 9.7 (EBC): 19.1
Bitterness (IBU): 29.0 (Tinseth)

61.09% Pale Ale Malt
17.45% Pilsner
8.73% Caravienne - Malterie Soufflet, Paris.
7.27% Flaked Oats
4.36% Flaked Barley
1.09% Rye - Dark roasted coffee flavour

1 g/L Nugget (8.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.6 g/L Gourgé Big Co-hona single bine 2012 (7% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.6 g/L Gourgé Big Co-hona single bine 2012 (7% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
0.6 g/L Gourgé Big Co-hona single bine 2012 (7% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
0.6 g/L Gourgé Big Co-hona single bine 2012 (7% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma)


Single step Infusion at 62°C for 120 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with Fullers yeast.

Pics to follow!

[bellebouche]

Not that I can personally go there, but can you identify the coordinates on Google Maps for us, just out of curiosity? I'd love to check-out the "terroir."

Sure. That's the google streetcar view from about 4 M in front of where I got the plant.

Zoom out to the map to see the lie of the land. My house is just a few km up the river valley - the whole river is lined with wild hops.

[bellebouche]

Oatmeal Ale?! Why not!

I'll explain. I was trying to think of the qualities that oats bring to something like a stout. I wanted a dry beer that'll finish well - looking for good attenuation without a lot of body form a lot of crystal. So, thought I'd give a small amount of plain oatmeal a go in this "OPA". Amber colour comes from the roasted rye and again I hope for a good match for the flavour and aroma of those hops.


OPA - grist mashed in and a layer of oats on top by adrianfoden, on Flickr

As usual... some random contamination landed in my beer!

OPA - oats takes the weight of a rhino by adrianfoden, on Flickr

Serious point here though... I've changed my mash procedure to allow for a 2.5:1 ratio of water:grist when I mash in. No dicking about stirring it for an age either... I'm only using a paint stirrer paddle on a drill. One minute is enough to hydrate evenly the mash and then plonk the lid on the mashtun.

Whilst the mash is underway I weigh out my additions.


OPA - 15 10 5 whirlpool by adrianfoden, on Flickr

... four late charges of the big-cone minty spice hop.

I start to re-circ the wort after a 60 minute mash rest.

OPA - wort recirc by adrianfoden, on Flickr

in this case a good 20 mins on the pump before I started to sparge and collect the runoff.

Boil went well, good hot break, all additions timed to the second...

So it's at this point that the most interesting reportage takes place. The flavour/aroma additions that I added in all reflected much of my initial perception of the hops. Good spice (like a classic noble hop) some blackcurranty notes and again a touch of mint. There was more citrus in the mix than I remember but that's not a bad thing. I've kept 50g back for dry hopping should it be necessary but right now I think not.

This shot is the post-chill kettle runoff before I pitched the yeast.


OPA - wort clarity before fermentation by adrianfoden, on Flickr

I'll have no truck with no-chill!

OK, final brewday shot. Gratuitous kettle bottom loaded with hops.

OPA - kettle after runoff by adrianfoden, on Flickr

And that's it. I'd slightly underpitched (deliberately) a load of fullers yeast that I'd had on a stirplate for a couple of days. It had a short lag and went off like a rocket. Currently fermenting away merrily at 21c. Hope to get a slightly ester-rich flavour profile from the yeast... again all designed to compliment the hop.


fullers by adrianfoden, on Flickr

Have had to top-crop twice as it was getting out of hand. Another three days of primary when I'll chill for 24 hrs to drop the yeast and then rack for secondary at about 15 for a week before final bottling.

Taste tests and progress reports to follow.

[seymour]

A multi-grain "farmhouse" ale with French naturalized noble hops and classic Engish ale yeast? Spicy rye, silky smooth mouthfeel and lacy head retention from the oats... My mouth is watering from the thought. Well done!

[stevetk189]

Looks and sounds great, I've stumbled upon some hops down by our local stream. Might have to pinch them but they're not looking as lush as yours.

How did you calc the AA%

[scuppeteer]

How did you calc the AA%

Basically you don't. If they are green bine they are generally a lower alpha hop, Red bine higher.

The only way to get the Alpha, unless you are a botanist, is to send them to a lab where they charge you money for doing it. Unless of course you have friends in the trade!

[seymour]

How did you calc the AA%

Basically you don't. If they are green bine they are generally a lower alpha hop, Red bine higher. The only way to get the Alpha, unless you are a botanist, is to send them to a lab where they charge you money for doing it. Unless of course you have friends in the trade!

When it comes to using homegrown or wild/naturalized hops, it's true most people choose between either a wild guess, resigning themselves to only using them for late aroma additions, or paying a lot of money to a lab.

BUT, here are some resources. Please pardon the lengthy post. If you read on, there is a fairly accurate way to test hops acid percentage at home, it just requires some patience and a willingness to do a little chemistry. It's the same process wine-makers use to test acidity http://www.grapestompers.com/articles/m ... cidity.htm, so there are even inexpensive wine acid titration kits for sale which work here too.

One more caveat: note I didn't specifically say "test alpha acid percentage." This process measures all acids (Alpha, Beta, etc) but if you use a well-known store-bought hop with a specific Alpha Acid percentage, you can use that baseline to determine if your wild hop is higher or lower, and by what order of magnitude, which is pretty darn actionable information for a homebrewer. Not that I expect many people will take me up on it, I'm just putting it out there for the daring

Hops alpha determination
Dr. Leonard Perry, Extension Professor
University of Vermont

A common question I get, especially in late summer and early fall, is how to determine a hop variety or the alpha acid content. There are no good and easy options.

1. Unless an experienced professional hops grower, it is difficult to tell varieties by the size and shape of cones.

2. If an unknown variety and alpha level, it is often best to use the cones for aroma or flavor at the end of the boil.

3. If a known variety, check standard alpha levels in references, online, or at homebrew shops. If you grew these in the east, depending on year and climate and location, alpha levels “may” be slightly lower.

4. A rough method of estimating alpha levels is to brew a tea from known cones, then compare by taste to a similar tea from the unknown cones.

5. Chemical analysis is really the only sure way to tell alpha levels, and with a more extensive (and costly) profile to determine variety. Many “wild” varieties may date back decades and not be named, rather similar to Cluster. The following source is listed online as testing for alpha levels, but be prepared to pay upwards of $50 a sample. The method below is one found online for a home hops titration procedure if you are into chemistry. (I have not tried this procedure so can not vouch for nor endorse it.)

Hops testing for home brewers: (these and possibly others for commercial)

Siebel Institute, Chicago: http://www.siebelinstitute.com/catalogs ... rvices.pdf
Brew Laboratory, MO: http://www.brewlaboratory.com/?p=home
Hop Union, WA: http://hopunion.com/27_HopTesting.cfm?p5=open

I've seen several basic methods of acid titration, but here's a fairly spelled-out example. If you have a background in chemistry and some basic lab equipment, it will help. If you're a winemaker who already tests acidity, you have a head-start too.

How to measure hops acid percentage at home

From the rec.crafts.homebrewing newsgroup:

I use phenolphthalein as an indicator. Phenol Red (available at any pool supply store) will work as well, just that the phenolphthalein indicates at a bit lower pH. Household lye (NaOH or KOH) is used as your reagent and baby medicine droppers to measure your titrant.

Dilute your reagent with distilled water to 1% solution. (10g/L) and store it with the lid on tight. (This should last you a long time)

I boiled 1g of hops into 250ml of water for about 1 hour, strained the cones out and further reduced to 100ml. If you go too far, just add distilled water to get back to 100ml. That became my sample batch.

At this point you're ready to titrate.

Place 10ml of your sample into a clean container. I use Dixie cups since their color (plain white) makes seeing the break very easy. Add 5 or 6 drops of your indicator and swirl around to mix thoroughly. Slowly drip your reagent into the cup while swirling it around. When the acid has been neutralized, your indicator will turn pink in color. Continue SLOWLY dripping reagent in until the solution remains pink for 20 or 30 seconds. Record the amount of reagent used (in ml.) This corresponds to grams/liter of acid in your solution.

This is where I stop. I'm not sure what the hops industry uses for their %Acid standard, but I took some hops of a known acid content and performed the same process and use that as my standard. Like I said, I have a spreadsheet at home with a little more detail on it, but that's all you really need to do. If you're looking for more specifics on home titration stations or if you want to go beyond Dixie cups and baby medicine droppers, most biodiesel web sites have all sorts of cool plans, better descriptions of the process, etc.

It's basic, almost crude, but it is repeatable and realistically that's all need for my home-grown hops.

[bellebouche]

How did you calc the AA%

Basically you don't. If they are green bine they are generally a lower alpha hop, Red bine higher.

Yeah. Wild guess and just something I punched into my brew software when I added the big-cohona to my database. It's irrelevant really until I taste the beer.

Looking forward to that as the fermentation smells divine... It's a waiting game now.

[stevetk189]

It's a waiting game now.

Bon courage with that! It's the waiting part I always fail.