Year 2 of growing my Columbus were awesome.
Year 3 they smelled of an electrical fire and when I used them they made the beer taste like an electrical fire.
Year 4 - I just packaged them. When I smooshed the Columbus they gave off an electrical fire odor but before then they smelled fine.
Has anyone ever heard of this? What am I doing wrong? My Cascades are just fine.
sounds phenolic. are you sure they were totally dry? or were these wet hops?
All the hops are or were dry. For this years crop, drying between screens over 3 days drove of 72% of the weight off. The hops feel dry.
Anyway, I’m hoping for a solution otherwise I’m not really inclined to pick the rest of my Columbus hops and will probably rip them up.
I grow my Columbus in a container FWIW.
are they the only hops you grow in a container? what kind of fertilizer do you use? I’ve really got no idea. just tossing things out there at this point.
I use a little 10:10:10 fertilizer applied at random times. I think it got some hermaphrodite flowers as did my Cascade but I don’t see any seeds in my hops. My Cascade are grown in a large raised bed. I also grow Goldings in a similar container but the Goldings don’t produce so I will probably replace it with Ultra.
Any hint of electrical fire with the goldings?
Hermaphrodites tend to happen when the plant is stressed or confused. Hops are sensitive to dark period length and when the dark period gets interrupted too much it can cause a few male flowers to show up on an otherwise female plant. I can’t imagine why this would cause nasty smell though. I would at least try flushing the soil really really well with very soft water and then switch up the fertilizer (Try some fish emulsion or similar, maybe mix in some michorizae (sp?)) and give it another year. Unless your desperate for the space.
I’d suspect the drying process. Maybe your fan got hot?
Wonder if the fan is getting too hot and burning some of the oils in the cones.
I dry between screens not in a dehydrator. I dried Cascades at the same time and I don’t notice any issues.
I wasn’t going to pick the Goldings due to their immaturity and lack of production as a comparison. Maybe I’ll repot the Columbus if the Goldings also smell of electrical fire.
I don’t use a dhydrator and I don’t have a fan blowing on the hops.
I’m wondering about mold.
What has your weather been like while they were drying? I am thinking that if it was too humid the cores of the cones might have begun to mold before drying out enough to stop it. the surface is clean so it smells good till you smoosh them then you get a puff of the nasty underneath. Can you try carefully cutting a whole cone in half with a sharp knife or scissors and see if the center smells bad while the outside surface smells good?
I picked a bunch of Columbus today. When I opened them up they appeared normal, but all had the electrical fire smell.
Maybe that’s how your nose perceives fresh Columbus?
So to followup on my Sept. 17 post, I picked five Columbus hops. The smallest, immature one which did have some of the yellow stuff did not smell like an electrical fire when I tore the hops in half. The other 4 all smelled of an electrical fire when torn in half. The yellow stuff looked normal. I didn’t see any sign of mold.
I don’t get that electrical fire smell from Columbus hop pellets that I purchase.
I might try to dry hop an IPA in the keg when the keg is mostly empty to see if the odor/flavor ages out.
The plant seems to be healthy and producing well so I will probably “repot” the Columbus in some compost next year.
I’ll probably check to see if the East Kent Goldings have that electrical fire smell this weekend.
Environmental residue or something perhaps? Any industrial type plants in the neighborhood belching out exhaust that might be settling on the plants? Live next to a busy highway/interstate? Metal recycler in the area?
Pure SWAG, just trying to think of possibilities.
Paul
I checked my Goldings. They do not smell of electrical fires. I just noticed while bagging some of my Cascades that there was a faint electrical fire smell that I hadn’t noticed in my earlier Cascade. I made an IPA with my earlier-picked Cascade and it tastes great but not as intense as desired.
So I think that the electrical fire does not come from pollution, but may be due to terroir, farming skill (or lack thereof) and C hops. Possibly late picking of hops intensifies the electrical fire taste but I wasn’t looking for the electrical fire earlier in my Cascades. I haven’t ruled out the possibility that I am perceiving C hops in a way that is somewhat unique; I’ll have to dry hop one gallon of beer and try it on other homebrewers.
Update: I recently bought some Warrior hops. They smell like an electrical fire to me too. I can see why Warrior is used for bittering and not aroma.
Does anybody get else get electrical fire from Warrior?
I only use Warrior for bittering, but I’ve never had that experience with them.
I am beginning to think your sense of smell is going… ;D
No seriously, I was I going to suggest as stated above, that a good proper flushing with just straight water (no chemicals/fertilizers) might be in order several waterings prior to picking. This will help to flush out any residual chemical aroma/flavor and “clean” things up a bit.