From Stan H’s blog, an interesting article about how different the character from hops like Cascade and Chinook can be when grown further and further east from the West Coast. I get the terroir thing, but didn’t realize it could change so much.
I’s remarkable, isn’t it?
Yeah it is. I figured there’d be differences, but not to change that drastically. Pretty cool.
Local pros who are not big on Chinook found that they really like Chinook grown locally in MI.
Now off to read some Stan article.
I can believe it. Fuggles are the same way. In England and the US they taste earthy. Grown in eastern Europe as Styrian Goldings and they are a completely different hop.
The variance across the country opens a lot of doors to “new” hops and popular hop flavors in hops that have fallen out of favor. It will be interesting to see how this not only expands demand for locally grown hops but changes the market for patented varieties that are all the rage right now.
I just received a small Chinook and Cascade plant from a local hop grower here in Iowa. I excited to have just a couple hop plants to play around with. Hopefully they produce some hop flavors that I don’t mind working with.
I grow cascade here in Massachusetts and mine taste strongly of orange whereas when I buy cascade I get strong grapefruit.
Pretty cool, Pete. I assume orangey in a good way?
Yes, in a good way, not in the pukey orange kind of way.
My Montana grown Cascades are as grapefruity as those grown in the PNW, even though our climates are pretty different. I think the commonality of low humidity summers might have something to do with it.
That’s interesting. The summers here in New England are generally quite humid, so maybe that is it. I was thinking it might have to do do with soil composition.
Yeah, pretty interesting. Like most of us know who buy hops in bulk, there can be pretty noticeable differences in hops year to year, vendor to vendor. But I wouldn’t have expected that Cascade and Chinook would ever come off as tropical because of where they were grown. Cool stuff.
My homegrown cascades, and those of a friend, seem to be more lemon/generic citrus than grapefruit. The fresh aroma is definitely lemony. Very humid here, usually mid upper 90’s in the summer.
I’ll agree with the whole terroir conversation. A month or so ago while attending the Great Lakes Hop and Barley Conference a brewery located close to the event held a tasting: Great Lakes Hop & Barley Conference to feature single hop craft beer tastings - MSU Extension. The unfortunate part of the exercise was the fact that the beers weren’t really cleanly brewed and the majority of those who tasted them were having a hard time finding any appreciable differences.
I know for one, the Chinook I grow here in NEOhio are much more minty than anything coming out of PNW and those I’ve tried from Michigan did have a cool pineapple character and were much more different than either mine or the PNW sourced ones I’ve used. Hopefully the growers in the non-traditional regions can figure it out and have long term success!
My homegrown Cascades in Wisconsin have less citrus punch, but a huge peppery spiciness. Very nice IMO but not really a basis for a super IPA except for bittering. Average alpha acid in my tasting experience is about 6.2% or so, which is about in line with what most would expect – I had no trouble getting maximum IBUs in my last DIPA using a bittering addition with this estimate.
Funny, was just dreaming the other day about AUS growers running C hops, specifically Centennial. I think cents has really faded in recent years.
Hop growers say Centennial is one of the most difficult breeds they grow and if they could get rid of it they would. But there is still too much demand for that. Butit may explain why you see it less and less.
Interesting. My Centennial bines seem as prolific as my Cascade bines. Both are vigorous for me. I had not heard of problems with Centennial before.
I think I’ve read somewhere that they’re terrible climbers, probably a bigger problem for farms than us. And I’m sure yours are doing good because of the water you give them 
From YCH Hop School. Denny has been many times, I was there once.
It has a lower yield and some years is adversely affected by the growing conditions. Several growers said that they don’t like Centennial - as growers. Stan Hieronymus stated that it is a favorite of Brewers due to it being just about the only Hop with Cis-Rose Oxide, a rose smelling floral compound.