Local hops

[NPi]

Hello

Can any one suggest any guides that may help to identify what type of hops grow locally to me. There are two fairly large sized bushes I am wanting to harvest from come summer. With some extra time on my hands now (thanks lock down!), I am wanting to plan brews around these hops.

Any help is greatly appreciated
Cheers
Nick

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Could you post pictures so members could recognise them and advise?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Hops are quite variable in appearance which means they are notoriously hard to identify in the field.

Also wild ones will generally be the result of a random pollination between unknown male and female plants - and since all the "famous" hop varieties are female plants that are all cloned from a single original plant (a bit like the way apple varieties are all grafted from one original tree), anything from seed will not be a "famous variety", and it's impossible for the father to be a "famous variety". All you can say is that "that one has more Goldings parentage" etc. But as a guide for instance Fuggles has green bines with red leaf stalks, whereas most of the Goldings tend to have red pinstripes on green bines (when mature, young bines all look just green).

But a lot of the wild hops are descended from varieties like Colgate and Tolhurst that were productive back in the 19th century but even then weren't thought of as particularly great for brewing compared to the likes of Goldings. It depends a bit on where you are in the country - hop gardens in somewhere like Sussex used to be full of second-rank varieties which were abandoned once pasteurisation reduced the need for 150 IBU to keep beer free from nasties. Whereas if you're in East Kent then things are more hopeful.

So I wouldn't get too hung up on "identifying" them - but typically in an area you can distinguish a couple of different types (by bine colour etc) of lowish alpha and indifferent flavour. But if you're lucky you'll get a good one with a lot of eg Goldings parentage. In the meantime, just enjoy them for what they are rather than comparing them to known varieties.

 

[NPi]

Thanks for the response.

I am carefully adhering to lock down currently, but will grab some next time I pass. I work for a large pub company and they are funnily enough in a few of our carparks. Unsure if it was ever a thing to plant hops at pubs(!?).

I am in the North West, specifically Cheshire. Any more prominent varieties up this way?

Cheers
Nick

 

[An Ankoù]

When I was but a lad, I used to jump over the wall that separated Northam Rd from the gasometers in Southampton and pick shedloads of hops, which went into my extract-based beer. Now that I know the smells of different hops better, I'm sure they were fuggles of some sort and probably escapees from a local brewery. I reckon most wild hops, today have come about thus. Especially as hops are not indigenous to the UK.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Do a google to see if any brewerys were demolished in the distant past might throw a clue up

 

[Rodcx500z]

I know there was a brewery near the big tesco and rugby ground think it was Greenalls

 

[Rodcx500z]

Sorry greenalls was the old rugby ground wilderspool, the one near tesco was tetly walker and there are a few others

 

[NPi]

Sorry greenalls was the old rugby ground wilderspool, the one near tesco was tetly walker and there are a few others

Walkers would make a lot of sense, the pub was previously branded as theirs (in its former life). See below photo of the original swinging sign post.

Does this make the hops likely to be any certain type?

Cheers
Nick

 

[Rodcx500z]

They would probaly be a mix of what they used in various brews and wild hops, there is only one way to find out pick em and use em

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I work for a large pub company and they are funnily enough in a few of our carparks. Unsure if it was ever a thing to plant hops at pubs(!?).

I am in the North West, specifically Cheshire. Any more prominent varieties up this way?

Both those factors make things a lot more promising. Although there was a little bit of hop growing all over the country (qv Dunham Massey growing some Fuggles for their green hop brew, I'm sure they'd let you take a look for comparison if you're ever out that way) it was concentrated in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Worcestershire and a bit in the Thames Valley and Essex. The only significant acreage north of there was the North Clays of Nottinghamshire. Cheshire is a bit too wet for a crop that is so prone to fungal disease, at least without modern fungicides or modern resistant varieties. So that makes them far less likely to be escapees of 19th century varieties.

And yes, it is a bit of a thing to plant hops as decoration at pubs - and in the hop growing counties it's really common to festoon the ceiling of the bar with bines.

So I'd guess there's a very good chance that they are proper beery varieties - and one would assume Goldings or Fuggles just because they are the traditional ones, unless they decided to get cute and use one of the modern varieties that are more disease resistant. So the thing about red pinstripes or red leaf stalks is probably relevant - ultimately though you're probably best off just brewing with them and seeing what they taste like.

 

[NPi]

Well the hops are finally flowering (I think that's the correct term), looks like there will be a big harvest. Any one have any good green hop recipes, or any advice?

Cheers all
Nick

 

[jMac]

Well the hops are finally flowering (I think that's the correct term), looks like there will be a big harvest. Any one have any good green hop recipes, or any advice?

Cheers all
Nick
View attachment 31166View attachment 31165

That’s some healthy looking hop plants! Much better looking than my own scratty home grown hops in my garden

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Well the hops are finally flowering (I think that's the correct term), looks like there will be a big harvest. Any one have any good green hop recipes, or any advice?

Cheers all
Nick
View attachment 31166View attachment 31165

It's not very clear from the photos - now that they're more mature, can you see red pin-stripes on the older bits of bine, or red leaf-stalks?

General rule with green hops is to start with dry hopping/whirlpool and work backwards - only use them for bittering if you've got loads, as a) you don't know for certain what the alpha acid content is (although you can guess, particularly by making hop teas and comparing them with teas of bought hops of known alpha) and b) the big thing about green hops is that they retain all the volatile flavour compounds that are normally driven off by drying, so boiling them is not the best use of their green-hop-ness.

 

[Cwrw666]

Best thing you can do is pick them and dry them, then use them as flameout hops. I'd use about 56g (ie 2 ounces) which is what I use with my homegrown cascades. Make a pale ale, just pale malt and EKG or fuggles bittering hop, then add your wild ones at flameout. You'll then know what flavours you're getting from them and roughly what they're likely to be.
I wouldn't use them green as you don't get the same flavour. Talking from experience.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I wouldn't use them green as you don't get the same flavour.

Well that's kind of the point... That's why there are whole festivals devoted to commercial green hop beers.

The one big caveat is that they go off really quickly - in Kent they reckon that 12 hours after picking, they're only good for compost. So time is of the essence - they will typically start their kettle and then go to the hop garden to pick up the hops.

Outside hopgrowing areas they will tell you they can survive 24 or 48 hours, but that's probably why their green hop beers aren't as good....

So dry them if you can't harvest them the same day as the brew.

 

[jMac]

One thing to say - they don’t look like Goldings. The flowering shoots of my Goldings (see photo), at least, are long with quite neat rows of paired cones. It’s unclear in the photo but the flowering shoots on your wild hops look much shorter, more clumpy and bunch-like. Not that I know what that means

I think I can make out some red on the leaf stalks of the second photo, so there’s a possibility they could be Fuggles-ish.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

One thing to say - they don’t look like Goldings. The flowering shoots of my Goldings (see photo), at least, are long with quite neat rows of paired cones. It’s unclear in the photo but the flowering shoots on your wild hops look much shorter, more clumpy and bunch-like. Not that I know what that means

View attachment 31185

I think I can make out some red on the leaf stalks of the second photo, so there’s a possibility they could be Fuggles-ish.

How much do you get off you plant(s) are we talking grams or Kg's? They look lovely and healthy.

 

[jMac]

Dry or wet? It’s hard to tell you. But it’s grams. I only have the one plant and this is only its third year. First year nothing, last year probably under 50g wet (so at the most 10g dry!), but had lots of problems with snapping bines as I trained it, which didn’t help it’s productivity. This year I’ve easily got at least 5x as many cones formed, probably more, so am hoping to be approaching 100g dried. Still not a lot, but I’m in this for the pleasure of using my own hops in the odd brew, not to replace all the hops I use.

ETA: just to give you an idea of how little hop cones weigh - all the cones on the shoot in my earlier picture probably weigh only 1-2g wet in total.

 

[NPi]

Thanks for all the info guys, I'd have never known timing was so important. I'm hoping to let them grow a few weeks then book a day off and devote it to brewing a green hop smash.

I think I will get the mash going then run out and do the pick. Any I pick but don't use I'll dry. The area is massive, we are talking 10 car park spaces wide, so lots to be had.

How long left on the bine do they stay fresh for? I was hoping to get back the week after for a big pick and then dry.

I will try to grab some more photos whilst passing.

Unfortunately I won't have much to compare them to in a hop tea, most hops I buy are pellets.

Cheers all