Hop suppliers and quality

[Padalac]

Without naming any names, I've recently become convinced that there is a gulf in quality when comparing english hops bought from different home brew suppliers. Until recently, most of the english hops I had been buying from various suppliers had had a modest yet what could easily be described as kind of b***hole smell to them. Recently I opened up a pack from a new supplier- and these EKG and fuggles smelled really nice, and a lot more pungent. Anyone had similar experiences? Any idea why this might be? People vacuum packing cheesy old hops that have been lying around loose? Why does tis seem limited to english hops?

[bochgoch]

Never had the issue myself. What year were the hops from? Perhaps they were too old?

[McMullan]

Without naming any names, I've recently become convinced that there is a gulf in quality when comparing english hops bought from different home brew suppliers. Until recently, most of the english hops I had been buying from various suppliers had had a modest yet what could easily be described as kind of b***hole smell to them. Recently I opened up a pack from a new supplier- and these EKG and fuggles smelled really nice, and a lot more pungent. Anyone had similar experiences? Any idea why this might be? People vacuum packing cheesy old hops that have been lying around loose? Why does tis seem limited to english hops?

I mainly use English hops in my beers. I haven't experienced this myself. It's certainly not a characteristic of English hops, IME. It might have been something to do with bad weather during the growing season in some hop growing areas, if you're only sensing the problem with English hops. If it were down to bad practices at the merchants or suppliers, I'd expect their hops generally to be effected, not just English varieties. Alternatively, it could be that someone without knowledge and experience of hop growing (not that easy) has started growing hops commercially. I switched to maltmiller for my English hops a while ago and I'm very happy with the quality. My reason for switching was the ridiculous prices others are demanding.

[jaroporter]

i believe i've read that the american hop industry is more technologically advanced (read industrial, probably). certainly i have noticed over certain years that while the english hops were often yellow-brown and crumbly (and full of twigs) the american hops i've opened over the same time have been vibrant fresh whole-cones. so i'd guess it's down to harvesting practises (certainly they look and scent lovely when they're on the bines or being pulled in). that's not to say i haven't had very good fresh english hops, but it did seem very noticeable with whole cones across the board at one time. i'll happily be corrected on my assumptions though..

[Kev888]

There are certainly different packaging and storage methods used by suppliers and retailers. I've had sophisticated metallised vac bags stored cold, through to asda sandwich bags kept for years on a hot shop-front shelf. I've also had EKGs (from the same year) that were much drier and more papery than from another supplier. Sometimes theres not even an indication of the %AA for the originating harvest. So I would agree quality in various measures can be slightly variable, and they also vary between harvest/year quite noticeably too.

But whilst some have been fairly poor, I've never had any that smelt as you described - within a year or three of the harvest anyway. There are some varieties that smell a bit strange when concentrated but I wouldn't have said they were that bad. Strange.

[Padalac]

Yea, its a bit wierd. I think maybe they came from a bale that had been lying around for a while, and then got vacuum packed way after they had lost their freshness. The funny thing is I've had ones like that on quite a few occasions.

Think I'll stick to the new supplier from now on (worcester hop shop I think it was).

[Oakey22]

I must say moat of the hops we use seem to be lacking in that wow factor when opened. I smelt a fresher bag (5kg) the other week and the smell was devine.

[Mr. Dripping]

One other thing to bear in mind is that when breaking down a bale of hops, the ones at the outer edge will be of poorer quality to those in the middle of the bale.
By poorer, I mean there's more chance they will be drier and suffer oxidation.

[alexlark]

Worcester Hop Shop are cheap and fresh. No problems here. Malt Miller the same. Very good hops.

[simon12]

From what I have seen there all pretty much the same quality when you get them in 5Kg bales, I did think the cascade looked a brighter green though. I imagine the problem is when people pack them down.

[beerbeerbeer]

I find quality varies, even from order to order from the same supplier. Ive had cascades that smell of nothing in thr past (for example) and offerred no aroma to the finished brew. Pellets seem much more consistent. eBay seller ramengltddean sells v good pellets. They are a pain to use but a much better bet (in my experience).

[Dr. Dextrin]

I've had some suspicions about hop quality for a while. I brew a few beers regularly and I know what they should taste like. So when they suddenly taste different, I wonder what's changed.

One such beer is a single-hop Fuggles golden ale. I age the Fuggles so they lose some of their AA and I can then cram in more Fuggle flavour without it getting too bitter. But my recent batch tastes of Sytrian Goldings (yes, I know that's a Fuggles variety, but it's not what I expect to get when I buy Fuggles). It's not all Styrians - that'd be too obvious - but I'd say about 10 to 20% of it could be.

Another problem concerns a batch of EKG: a very definite taste of something not-EKG in two beers brewed from the same packet of hops. My guess is probably First Gold. That's a taste I don't particularly like, but it often seems to get substituted for Goldings even in quite respectable beers, presumably because it's often cheaper.

I've not yet encountered noticeable problems with any other hops, but Fuggles and EKG are a premium product, so if any adulteration was going to happen, these'd be the ones to watch.

I won't name suppliers as the evidence is circumstantial and a problem like this could happen anywhere in the supply chain. But it'd be interesting to know if anyone else has found hops not tasting as they expected.