Wild hops?

[jonewer]

Has anyone tried making beer with wild hops?

I found an absolute monster growing in a hedge down the road and have taken some cuttings. Looks like it has little baby flowers on it so hopefully its a female.

 

[Halite]

Some of the guys I know have done this. The issue is that you have no real idea of the AA values or the hop variety. Best thing to do would be some small sample batches just to check what the hop is like, if you like it then you can scale up to a full batch.

 

[jonewer]

Thanks, by the way, how to tell if a boy or a girl hop?

 

[ano]

The bit that looks like the hop is the female part. This "cone" is the bit you're after.

There are a couple of options for trialling wild hops. You can make up a hop "tea" of the thing (i.e. the hop steeped in boiling water for 15 mins) and compare it with a similar tea of a known AA variety you've got. This will give you a marker as to how much more or less bitter the wild hop is and give you a guesstimate of what to add in the bittering.

Alternatively you could just use it as an aroma hop in which case the AA doesn't matter. It still might be worthwhile making a hop tea to work out exactly what kind of flavour you're adding to your beer.

 

[Sean_Mc]

That's a good tip ano :thumb:

Saw a few wild ones whilst picking elderflower the other day, going to try the tea method once there in full flower