Omega Hops - Anyone Used Them??

[jimp2003]

I am thinking of buying a hop plant this year just to wind the wife up a bit more.... .

I was going to get a centennial rhizome when they become available in a few weeks but then I thought I should go for something that I can't get hold of as easily.

Aplus Hops are doing Omega hop plants but before I go for one I wondered if anyone had actually used this variety in their beers and could tell me what they give flavour/aromawise...

Marc Ollosson quotes them in a lot of the recipes in his book Real Ales For The Homebrewer.

[seymour]

I would certainly recommend growing these.

Omega is a relatively high-alpha (9-10%) English hop cultivar, used at various times by the following brewers (among others), seemingly interchangeably with Challenger:
Borve, Clark's, Crouch Vale, Courage Best Bitter & Directors, Orkney, Stonehenge/Bunge's, Teignworthy.

It was bred by Dr. Neve at Wye College from a Challenger female and unnamed English male. It has fairly good disease resistence, pleasant European aromas, and very good storage stability. However, its yield was a little disappointing in English field trials (better in the US, apparently) so it is no longer widely grown commercially.

Centennial is a nice hop, like Cascade on steroids, but a daughter of Challenger sounds pretty intriguing to me too. Best of luck!

[seymour]

Bump.

Has it occured to anyone how much Flyer sounds like your old Omega, except that Flyer has a bit higher alpha acid percentage? Coincidence?

Have any of you brewed with both Omega and Flyer, and if so, can you offer any comparisons?

CULTIVAR: Omega

SELECTION: Seedling selection made at Wye College, England

PEDIGREE: Wye Challenger x English male

ORIGIN: Wye College, England

MATURITY: medium

LEAF COLOR: dark green

DISEASES: Downy mildew: moderately resistant, Powdery mildew: no information, Verticillium wilt: resistant, Viruses: free of all 5 hop viruses when received

VIGOR: fair to good

YIELD: fair to good

SIDE ARM LENGTH: 12 to 24 inches, sometimes longer

ALPHA ACIDS: 9 - 10 %

BETA ACIDS: 3 - 4 %

COHUMULONE: 29%

STORAGE STABILITY: very good, retained 78% of its original alpha acids after 6 months room temperature storage

OIL: 1.72 ml/100g. Humulene 17%; caryophyllene 5 %; farnesene trace; myrcene 53%. H/C ratio = 3.38

MAJOR TRAITS: pleasant European aroma characteristics, resistant to verticillium wilt

OTHER INFORMATION: The yield performance of this hop even in England has been disappointing and it is not grown much despite its good verticillium record. This is one of the last hops developed and released by Dr. R.A. Neve, former head of the Hop Section at Wye College, England.