green hop beer

[ferry george]

Has anyone out there made a green hop beer, instead of the usual dried style? Home grown hops have gone berserk this year and i'm hoping for a good crop and thought about experimenting with a type of beer, i've never brewed or tasted. Cheers.

[barneey]

For my greenhop this year, I was going to use something like a Magnum as a bittering agent, then late hop 10 to 15mins out with fresh green hops using 4 to 5 times the amount of a normal dry hop recipe.

I planning to use just a straight forward pales ale style recipe for the brew, just have to factor the additional time of picking the hops on brewday.

Hoping it works? but am always open to new suggestions.


BTW IMHO nothing beats a good green hop beer, Gadds did any excellent one last year.

[jmc]

Planning at least 1 again this year. Hoping my plants will peak over 2-3 weeks so I can do a few.

I agree that bittering with green hops is a bit of a waste. I'd just use a neutral hop for bittering.

Green hops do give a unique flavour with bags of aroma.
I normally give them a 5 min boil or so, as the green hops will include many life forms, some microscopic and others with legs

[barneey]

Green hops do give a unique flavour with bags of aroma.
I normally give them a 5 min boil or so, as the green hops will include many life forms, some microscopic and others with legs

I`m hoping with my crop of several plants there will be enough time between harvesting to at least get a couple of brews.

IMHO there isnt much point in drying and freezing them, much better to use them as a green hop.

Ferry George if you have a brewery / good pub near you try a cask conditioned green hop.

[jmc]

Green hops do give a unique flavour with bags of aroma.
I normally give them a 5 min boil or so, as the green hops will include many life forms, some microscopic and others with legs

I`m hoping with my crop of several plants there will be enough time between harvesting to at least get a couple of brews.

IMHO there isnt much point in drying and freezing them, much better to use them as a green hop.

Ferry George if you have a brewery / good pub near you try a cask conditioned green hop.

In some post on here last years some people froze them without drying them 1st.
How did that work out?

I only ask because I've gone from 3 plants last year to 7 plants this year, so drying them could be a challenge.

[barneey]

Just been looking back on last years posts & cant see any follow ups of brewing with frozen "wet green hops. I too would love to know if it works.

[seymour]

Just been looking back on last years posts & cant see any follow ups of brewing with frozen "wet green hops. I too would love to know if it works.

Not to sound like a party pooper, but it seems to me a green hop beer oughta be all about absolute freshness. Brewers brag about getting freshly-picked green hops into a boil kettle within hours.

If you freeze green hops and use them much later, I don't think that would count as a "Green Hop Beer." I can't think of any good reasons to freeze green hops, because as the higher water content freezes, the ice breaks the cell walls, etc. I'm not sure what effect that would have, exactly, but the delicate hoppy aromas will decay at least as fast as they would with properly dried hops in long-term storage. Not to mention they would take up 5-6 times as much space. I'd say if you intend on preserving them, you oughta just dry them before freezing them. But as always, I could be wrong.

[ferry george]

Green hops do give a unique flavour with bags of aroma.
I normally give them a 5 min boil or so, as the green hops will include many life forms, some microscopic and others with legs

I`m hoping with my crop of several plants there will be enough time between harvesting to at least get a couple of brews.

IMHO there isnt much point in drying and freezing them, much better to use them as a green hop.

Ferry George if you have a brewery / good pub near you try a cask conditioned green hop.

There's quite a few breweries in my area but I've not seen any doing a green hop beer, maybe cos West Riding of Yorkshire too far from commercial hops growers.
But I have got a couple of Wetherspoons that keep a good selection of beers so that's a good reason to call in more often!
Seams like bunging lots of green hops in for last 5 minutes is the way to go, cheers.

[Manx Guy]

Hi

I have Been brewing with my home grown hops for a few years now...
I did my first green hop lat year, below are some moments I made on another thread:

2012 was mainly hops from my hallertau and mt hood as the first gold that year went mouldy on the bine due to a week of heavy rain as the hops ripened. The others ripened in the middle of a dry fortnight, so were fine.

So far the first gold has a good crop so fingers crossed for a dry week to harvest.
Not sure whether to dry them this year or go green again...

The beer tuned out ok but was a little over carb'd as I bottled...

If I do another this year I will use the same grain bill.

Not tried a commercial green hopped beer due to lion on the rock....

[legion]

Will be making my first green hop beer this using wild hops growing in a roadside hedge a few miles from my house near a couple of oast houses.

[Manx Guy]

Will be making my first green hop beer this using wild hops growing in a roadside hedge a few miles from my house near a couple of oast houses.

Good luck with that, will you bitter with a neutral bittering hop?
As long as the wild hops dont smell of garlic onion they should be fine...

Or simply add about 400g of wet hops, bugs etc. to the boil?

Last year I added 200g (it was a poor harvest) in the last 5 mins...

It gave the beer a nice 'pop' but to be honest it wasnt as good as the year befores beer - but I put that down to 2012 being so wet and dull...

Cheers!

Guy

[kinnockthecat]

Andy and I make a green hop every year, we live in a former hop growing area, no idea about the aa% just do it all by guesswork, and then chuck in a load of green hops at the end of boil. Last years was a bit of a hop monster! We know some of the hops are descended from Farnham White Bines, as I've seen the hop tally from the account books of the farm where they were grown.

[legion]

Am doing a small demijon brew. i have nearly 4l of wort in the freezer section of my brew fridge from friday which has had a 50 min boil with magnum and centennial. Will add a load of green hops and boil for 5 mins and dilute to 4.5l

i brewed a wild hop beer a couple of years ago which lacked any flavour or aroma. picking hops from a different location. hopefully it will be better this time.

[far9410]

My northdown crop looks like being good this year, last year I picked em while the boil was on and threw em in late( 5 mins) was quite nice, gonna try bittering with magnum this time, will post when done

[seymour]

With regards to your green hop beers:

recipe-wise, do you guys typically stick to a basic golden ale grainbill? Or do you sometimes include some malty complexity too?