kettle hop.

[captain wassname]

My daughter has come across some hedgerow hops and picked a load for me and is at this moment drying them.She will be coming up to visit end of Oct so I will brew a beer early nov. for christmas
I have had a trawl through the hop section and realise that as I know nothing of the alpha content I will have to use these late.
I was thinking a pale malt and a bit of torrified to keep it simple.
Has anybody any suggestions about a bittering hop.
Id like some thing that bitters but leaves little flavour.
I have read a bit about qualities of differnet hops
http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.ph ... at&catId=2

and
http://charlesfaram.co.uk/hop-products/hop-varieties

I could make a stab at it but would appreciate advise from those of you who have used different varieties as I only get probably one go at it.

Jim

[oz11]

Magnum?

[jimp2003]

Magnum?

+1 to Magnum

[seymour]

Magnum?

+2

[seymour]

Pardon the lengthy posts, but I have a couple resources to share:

Hops alpha determination
Dr. Leonard Perry, Extension Professor
University of Vermont

A common question I get, especially in late summer and early fall, is how to determine a hop variety or the alpha acid content. There are no good and easy options.

1. Unless an experienced professional hops grower, it is difficult to tell varieties by the size and shape of cones.

2. If an unknown variety and alpha level, it is often best to use the cones for aroma or flavor at the end of the boil.

3. If a known variety, check standard alpha levels in references, online, or at homebrew shops. If you grew these in the east, depending on year and climate and location, alpha levels “may” be slightly lower.

4. A rough method of estimating alpha levels is to brew a tea from known cones, then compare by taste to a similar tea from the unknown cones.

5. Chemical analysis is really the only sure way to tell alpha levels, and with a more extensive (and costly) profile to determine variety. Many “wild” varieties may date back decades and not be named, rather similar to Cluster. The following source is listed online as testing for alpha levels, but be prepared to pay upwards of $50 a sample. The method below is one found online for a home hops titration procedure if you are into chemistry. (I have not tried this procedure so can not vouch for nor endorse it.)

Hops testing for home brewers: (these and possibly others for commercial)

Siebel Institute, Chicago: http://www.siebelinstitute.com/catalogs ... rvices.pdf
Brew Laboratory, MO: http://www.brewlaboratory.com/?p=home
Hop Union, WA: http://hopunion.com/27_HopTesting.cfm?p5=open

[seymour]

There is a fairly accurate way to test Hop Alpha Acid percentage at home, if you're up for a challenge. I've seen several versions, but here's a fairly spelled-out example. If you have a background in chemistry and some basic lab equipment, it will help. If you're a winemaker, or if your homebrew shop has a wine titration kit, that works too.

How to measure hops acid percentage at home

From the rec.crafts.homebrewing newsgroup:

I use phenolphthalein as an indicator. Phenol Red (available at any pool supply store) will work as well, just that the phenolphthalein indicates at a bit lower pH. Household lye (NaOH or KOH) is used as your reagent and baby medicine droppers to measure your titrant.

Dilute your reagent with distilled water to 1% solution. (10g/L) and store it with the lid on tight. (This should last you a long time)

I boiled 1g of hops into 250ml of water for about 1 hour, strained the cones out and further reduced to 100ml. If you go too far, just add distilled water to get back to 100ml. That became my sample batch.

At this point you're ready to titrate.

Place 10ml of your sample into a clean container. I use Dixie cups since their color (plain white) makes seeing the break very easy. Add 5 or 6 drops of your indicator and swirl around to mix thoroughly. Slowly drip your reagent into the cup while swirling it around. When the acid has been neutralized, your indicator will turn pink in color. Continue SLOWLY dripping reagent in until the solution remains pink for 20 or 30 seconds. Record the amount of reagent used (in ml.) This corresponds to grams/liter of acid in your solution.

This is where I stop. I'm not sure what the hops industry uses for their %Acid standard, but I took some hops of a known acid content and performed the same process and use that as my standard. Like I said, I have a spreadsheet at home with a little more detail on it, but that's all you really need to do. If you're looking for more specifics on home titration stations or if you want to go beyond Dixie cups and baby medicine droppers, most biodiesel web sites have all sorts of cool plans, better descriptions of the process, etc.

It's basic, almost crude, but it is repeatable and realistically that's all need for my home-grown hops.

[boingy]

Or Challenger.

Or there is a more fun way. Use the wild hops for bittering too.
You don't know the variety and you don't know the %AA but if you have loads of the hops then why not roll the dice and see what you come out with.

I've brewed with wild hops and on advice from here I used a really low %AA of about 2%. The beer turned out superbly. If the bitterness comes out too high you can just give it more time to mellow. It's not an approach that suits everyone, especially if you are the type of brewer that strives to keep tight control over every aspect of the brew, but once in a while I reckon it's worth trusting the beer gods!

Today I've used my home grown (and undried) Cascade for a brew. No other hops involved. Obviously in this case I know the variety but I still have to guess the %AA. Even if the calculations are not quite correct it will still make beer.

Whatever you do, keep records. Assuming your daughter can harvest the hops every year you will be able to make a more precise recipe next year.

[captain wassname]

Sorry about the delay responding I spent the whole day yesterday at the taste cumbria food festival including a beer festival.
Sadly seymour my knowledge of chemistry is nil and i dont altogether trust my taste buds.
boingy I do like the the idea of a single hop beer.
However for now Ill go with the magnum.
Maybe I can talk them into picking a load more from what she said there are loads of them round near she works probably because there was a hop farm there at one time .
Many thanks all

Jim

[captain wassname]

Just got my wild hops there are 50 gms,
Ive ordered some magnum which I will use in the kettle.
The wild hops will be used late.
Is some at 10min some at 5 min and some at flame out a decent plan?
What do 10 min,5 min and 0 min hops bring to the game?
Sorry for all the questions but I would like the best possible outcome

Jim

[Steve B]

How about doing a scaled down test run based on the assumption, of say, they have the same bittering qualities and aroma qualities of, for example, fuggles?

Just do a 1 gallon batch and then adjust quantities as required when scaling back up.