The Bar Towel

My friend has recently purchased and moved into a new house, and found a bountiful harvest of hops in his backyard.

Wondering if anyone can tell if these are ornamental or actual brewing hops?

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If youre close to Ottawa, I'll gladly brew a beer with it and find out.

This looks like something like EK Golding and chances are that this is a hop to brew with.

Pick a cone, crush it between your fingers, have a smell.

Or better yet, air-dry a few (10-15) cones for 2 days, then infuse them into a Boddum. You'll get a relaxing homeopathic tea, and a good idea of its aromatic potential. Astringency in an infusion can also be percieved as a sign of its ability to bitter.

iguenard wrote:If youre close to Ottawa, I'll gladly brew a beer with it and find out.

This looks like something like EK Golding and chances are that this is a hop to brew with.

Pick a cone, crush it between your fingers, have a smell.

Or better yet, air-dry a few (10-15) cones for 2 days, then infuse them into a Boddum. You'll get a relaxing homeopathic tea, and a good idea of its aromatic potential. Astringency in an infusion can also be percieved as a sign of its ability to bitter.

Thanks! I'm heading to visit him this weekend and he has quite a significant harvest by the looks of things. He said I'm welcome to them, so I'm going to pick a bunch.

By making a tea, I should be looking for aroma/bitterness that represents something I might find in a beer?

elproducto wrote:
Thanks! I'm heading to visit him this weekend and he has quite a significant harvest by the looks of things. He said I'm welcome to them, so I'm going to pick a bunch.

By making a tea, I should be looking for aroma/bitterness that represents something I might find in a beer?

Be greedy, pick em all. They will all grow back next year anyways, and he should have no use for them (unless he likes hop infusions, which is great for insomnia, menstrual cramps, anxiety and whatnot).

With the infusion, you get "some" of the basic aroma, and "some" of the astringency. Not bitterness, unless you boil the hop to break down the lupulin.

Try it! It is interesting. But its like tasting a diluted spice, it will always need to be married to malt flavours. You'll know what youre putting in the beer, you'll just wont really know how it will end up tasting unless you've brewed it before.