alpha acid? Comparison with known aa hops, brewing a hop tea and seeing how much sugar it takes to balance the bitterness, compared with the ammount of sugar for known hops. All a bit hit or miss, or you can send a sample to a lab for analysis. Costs about a tenner. Or just do a trialbrew and judge it from the result.DRB wrote:SteveD wrote:DRB - You can look at it like that, but...it was great to grow the plants and watch the hops developing, plus harvesting and drying is all good wholesome fun...and I got to build another piece of kit. All very satisfying and somehow 'right'.
Also, you have to remember these are only first year plants. I think I got a very good result considering that. Next year the growth will be more vigourous and the yield bigger.....but with a lot less work.. The plants are in and established, the supporting wires in place, and the oast built Then you have to consider the fact that you can't beat fresh hops. All being well so far, the flavour and aroma will be considerably better than shop bought hops.
I can see where you are comming from,but for me a little to much extra work for a beer.
How do you work out what aa are.
I'm not bothered in the least because I'll be using shop hops for bitterness, and these for late flavour/aroma additions so the aa level doesn't matter.