Homegrown Hops do they differ in taste?

[phatboytall]

Simple question, how have people found their homegrown hops taste?

Similar to the shop bought ones of the same variety? Or are they radically different depending on sunlight, water, terroir?

[Subsonic]

I find mine very similar but better, then again I am biassed! There is hardly any time lag from picking to drying and freezing, so I find them extremely fragrant. I'm more than happy and haven't bought any hops for 3 years now. Sub

[boingy]

They are a product of their environment so growing the same hop in a different region/country/climate gives different results. How different? No idea! Mine smell and taste great but I'm not good enough to usefully compare them with the bought equivalents.

[Wezzel]

Do you use them purely as aroma hops as you don't know the alpha acid percentage?

[Fil]

Do you use them purely as aroma hops as you don't know the alpha acid percentage?

Good question... as a first year grower waiting to pick a meager harvest its not a crucial question this year, but how do we go about estimating/deriving an alpha % for our home grown hops.....

[phatboytall]

I have done 2 different brews using 100% garden grown Cascade.

In a month or so i will post back and report on how they taste! I'm pretty familiar with 100% cascade beers so I hope to be able to judge them reasonably fairly.

[Hogarth]

My homegrown Fuggles always seem greener and more aromatic than commercial ones. I boasted about them here.

[Rookie]

Do you use them purely as aroma hops as you don't know the alpha acid percentage?

Good question... as a first year grower waiting to pick a meager harvest its not a crucial question this year, but how do we go about estimating/deriving an alpha % for our home grown hops.....

For bittering I take the AA% range for store bought hops of the same variety and pick a number in the middle and plan my recipes to account for there being maybe more or less AA%. I rarely use them for all the bittering charge. For flavor and aroma I don't worry all that much about it.

[scuppeteer]

Using a commercial AA% is a reasonable base but bear in mind they can differ by several % year to year. Terroir also impacts as American Cascade are always higher AA% than English. If you are willing to wait a month or two after harvest you can generally glean information from the Hop merchants as most of the years analysis are usually done by then, so it will give you a better idea. But as Rookie says if you're just adding them late then there is no problem.

[hophit]

When will mine be ready to pick? I have a cascade plant (year 1, in which i wasn't expecting to get many hops but seem to have shit loads). The cones are looking pretty big but I picked one yesterday to see how aromatic they were and they smelled very little, so I am guessing the oils come later...?

[phatboytall]

Well having brewed with 100% homegrown hops i have to conclude that they do taste different.

I bought a cascade plant from a reputed online shop, but i ahve to say the end outcome of the hops in the beer in not pleasant. Borderline drinkable. It has a funny floral twang to it.

Terroir is king it seems.

[Fil]

Well having brewed with 100% homegrown hops i have to conclude that they do taste different.

I bought a cascade plant from a reputed online shop, but i ahve to say the end outcome of the hops in the beer in not pleasant. Borderline drinkable. It has a funny floral twang to it.

Terroir is king it seems.

perhaps a little longer maturing will help round off the twang?? dont write off the plant tho it may be a side effect of being the 1st year, im no expert just an optomist