Wild hops question

[Scorrie]

Whilst walking over the bridge in the village where we have a house out in Bulgaria just last week, I noticed some wild hops growing around the bridge railings. I pulled off a couple of cones and had a good sniff - smelt lovely!

My question is this - I know I can just chuck a few in as late hops to see what happens, but is there any simple way to determine the Alpha acid content of these hops beforehand?

 

[Drunkula]

is there any simple way to determine the Alpha acid content of these hops beforehand?

No.

 

[user 18729]

Nope. None that I’m aware of. To get the exact number you’d need a laboratory sadly.

You could make a hop tea or even a starter and compare the same hops with an identical starter fermented with the same g/l ratios to give you a rough idea. Maybe something English and quite low in bitterness like Goldings.

If the Goldings you use were 4% aa and the wild hopped tea or starter is more bitter then you can probably assume the AA is more than 4%... but how much more would be a bit of a stab in the dark.

 

[Scorrie]

Thanks for the input, folks.

It looks like the scientific method of bunging some in and see what happens looks like the way forward to me :)