I never harvest all my homegrown, and leave a bunch on the bine for winter decor.
I am always surprised at how long brown hops on the bine retain lupulin.
for example:
Any thoughts on brewing with these old dried hops?
I know why? might be the obvious response, and I guess I am looking for any experience that might tell me what characteristics the hop flowers might have still. FWIW, they still have sticky excellent aroma.
Any knowledge out there?
I say use them in a gallon size batch and see what you get.
Surannée hops for lambic brewing?
How do they smell if you do the hop rub between your hands?
They still have very nice aroma, which is why I don’t think they would work for lambics. I was thinking that there must be oodles of data somewhere on harvest dates/and what happens to acids and oils over time…I just can’t seem to find anything concrete on bine dried hops used in brewing. I was hoping you had a few old papers up your sleeve Jeff!
I pretty much have it planned for this year. I am just interested in what qualities come out that may be difference that regular harvested hops.
I should say that we have very low humidity here in western Colorado, and perhaps this contributes to the longevity of bine dried hops in my yard. They seem particularly hydrophobic here but I can imagine that other damp and rainy areas may not see the same preservation.
I think your low humidity might be working in your favor. If I pick ones that look like that, and give it a rub, it is not good, cheesy and like vegetables going bad. If they smell good, try a small test batch. Only way you will know.
Really interesting, thanks.
FWIW, I am not talking about using the hops right now…I was thinking more around Thanksgiving time before winter set in.
I think I might try it this year, and have kind of an experimental approach in mind in order to eliminate some variables. Thinking of two batches using Dennys RIPA recipe with Mt Hood and CTZ… one with normal harvest time and drying techniques, and then a later second batch using the same plants but with bine dried hops sometime in November.
I guess I am just intrigued by what the age might bring to the party…I mean we have regular hopping, mash hopping, first wort hopping, dry hopping, fresh and wet hopping…why not bine dried hopping ;D …or :
Cheers.
Try it and report back. Could be worth it.
Amazing how the correct search terms can improve your Google-foo… :
Here is a thesis from Oregon State in 2013.
He compares early, typical and late harvested Cascade and Willamette.
Interesting results …although his “late” only goes to mid September…so not exactly what I am looking for.
However, beer tasters liked the typical hops more that the late hops.
Some things like AA go up with late hops, but the onion/garlic and 4MMP go up IIRC.
