First year harvest of Cascade hops - no aroma

[Stu99]

Hi all,
I've worked out my cascade hops are 21% dry matter - what I understand from some websites is that around 23% is optimal. I basically weighed a wet sample, dried them out and weighed the dry sample to calculate moisture content. They are also light, dry and papery with yellow pollen inside. Lastly, I'm not far from Bushy Park (Tas) where the hop harvest is well under way. So I figure mine must be good to harvest.

However they have almost zero aroma (when wet) apart from a very slight grassiness when I rub them between my fingers. The vine is in great health and shot up to 12 feet over the Summer from the rhizome. But, yeah, no smell! Is this normal? Should I wait a bit? I have a Hallertau as well which has barely produced, so I thought maybe first year harvests are just not that great as a rule.

If anyone can shed some light, that would be great.
I've attached a piccie.

Cheers
Stu

 

[jphowman]

The yellow pollen is actually the lupulin glands where all the aroma is. Try lifting the petals and getting your finger covered in the oil and smell that.

I just try to get the dry matter between 20-25% which generally coincides with the cones yellowing slightly and brown flecks appearing.

Your hops look very similar to mine.

 

[Stu99]

Thanks for the response. I checked again today, the pollen is kind of a pale colour - very light yellow/white. I figure I will give them another week and see what happens. It's been very wet and wintry lately, I wonder if that has delayed things a bit.
Cheers

 

[Curly79]

Hi stu. This is my first year growing hops. I reckon all my varieties had the same grassy smell until just recently when the victoria has developed a nice fruity smell. Think it's nearly ready to be picked now. Maybe give it a bit longer and hopefully it will develop a distinct smell?

 

[glenos]

HPA aim for 24% dry matter before they pick thier Cascade. They are planning to pick Cascade on Tuesday, thier cones were pretty well deveolped, kind of stiff papery and quite oily/resinous, older plants though. Mine are a long way behind, two weeks at a guess and no where near the condition. But I guess they are the pros.

FYI, 12 tonnes of dried Helga smells amazing,

 

[jphowman]

Yellow/white sounds like it needs some more time. My all looked the same colour as wattle blossoms.

I'm not sure I'd trust the colour scale completely since my chinooks don't seem to get this dark, but this has been fairly useful for me. http://beerlegends.com/cascade-us-hops

 

[Stu99]

Thanks everyone, that's put my mind at rest. First year jitters eh.
Wish I'd been there that day glenos but had to work

 

[Danscraftbeer]

How did they go?
I grew Cascade for the first time ever growing hops. Bought them as like little seedlings in pots from Diggers in Dromana Victoria. Fed them Compost Tea. I got 1.3kg wet and learnt that's pretty good for first season they smelled absolutely incredible. Nice golden sticky Lupulin.
I would have picked them prematurely if I didn't put in the research. Wait until they start looking sad, brown spots and papery dry feel, when the lupulin is Golden sticky and smells awesome. That was mid March here in Vic.
I just wish I had more space now I'm hooked on this fresh Hops character I want MORE! and more varieties. Gotta get some Galaxy for next year.

 

[Yob]

Good luck with that, galaxy is proprietary and cannot be obtained legally.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Wow! Me a noob have much to learn. I wanted to get some rhizomes etc. It seems I cant even buy them in Pellets this year. Whats with that? Copyrights of Hops? Shotages?
Intriguing.

 

[Stu99]

I ended up with about 1kg. I have 3 american ales fermenting now - 2 hopped solely with fresh galaxy on brew day then "wet hopped" with cascade for a week so far, and one ale that had 4 additions of fresh cascade on brew day and is also "wet hopped" for a week. I want to get one of these into the grafton show so yeah, I'm keen to see how they turned out but haven't tried them yet. I had to fit in a brew around work etc so I might not have had them at optimum for one of the brews, but for the others it was very nice to rip them off the plant, run them through the blender and throw into the kettle. I'll update when I have actually had a taste, but the samples I've had when taking gravity readings have been good, not as overpowering as I would have thought given the amounts involved. One beer alone had 700gms of fresh cascade used throughout the process, from first wort hopping to wet hopping after fermentation has settled down. Wish I had started growing when I first moved to Tas. The local Hobart Brewers Club got fresh Galaxy, Enigma and HP-035 for its members from HPA - we're having a fresh hop comp.

 

[jc64]

HPA up near Bright are growing Galaxy. Wet hops are used either 5 to 1 or 6 to 1 ratio depending on who you listen too.