Fresh Hops- Hobart Region?

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rest_assured

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Hi everyone,
first off let me say i love the site.
ive always been curious about fresh (or dried??) hops in brewing (as opposed to pellets), and have enjoyed the few beers i have sampled that use them. im from NQ, but this time of year i normally find myself in Hobart to spend christmas with family. it has come to my attention that if i want some hops to experiment with, this would be the time and place.
obviously this poses a few questions-
-first and foremost: is this something an amateur brewer should be dabbling in? (i have been making all grain BIAB for a few years)
-secondly, where and how would i get some hops ? does anybody know a shop that could help me out? also, would fresh or dried be of most use to me?
-thirdly, how much would i need for a 10L experimental brew?
-finally, could i even take hops on a plane home? it occurs to me that taking some funky-smelling bud-like plant matter through airport security might cause problems...

any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers, and merry christmas!
p.s. love the moo brew down here
 
You will be shit out of luck mate, harvest is a fair while off.
To get fresh flowers though you would really need to know someone in the industry as the vast majority of it is processed into pellets or you could don the 'ski mask' and run the midnight mission. (not that I would condone such behaviour)
I know my own hop plants are no where near showing any signs of flowers and as (most of) the commercial farms are only an hour at most away from me they would be in a similar growing stage.
 
Freshly picked hops rot rather quickly, unless you freeze them straight away.

If you're talking about flowers vs pellets then there arguably is very little difference, the pellets are just ground up flowers that have been pushed through a pelletizer.

ed; I think i missread the OP
 
thanks for the replies!

hyjak- where did you get seeds? how many vines do you keep on the go for a decent yield?
felten- i thought it wouldnt be too much different, just wanted to try a fresh back to back-to-basics thing.

btw, whats the best brew shop down here?
 
surprising there isnt much choice, this place seems perfect for brewing! ill check them out. and perhaps ill plant some hops here and see how they go. i dont think the NQ climate would be great for them.
Cheers
 
As far as I'm aware pellet hops have calcium sulphate added which improves efficiency.
 
I have never seen or heard that before, do you have any sources on why? I'd be interested in seeing them.
 
As far as I'm aware pellet hops have calcium sulphate added which improves efficiency.

Calcium sulphate can definitely improve the flavour contributions from hops by making the beer "crisper"

But it wouldn't make much sense for suppliers to add calcium sulphate to the pellet as each brewery will have its own desired water profile and additions.
 
Yes hop chemistry is important in beer making!


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I did read it somewhere a while ago. Will see if I can find it this arvo. Many of you may have heard of Burtonisation which works the same way.
 
Thus far I have only found an Iso-Pellets which contain MgO and only require 10 minutes of boil time for full utilization.
 
Rather :icon_offtopic: now but sorry.. to the above, all I have is..

trainwreck.JPG

and

clash.JPG

(which to be fair I was listening to today :lol: )
 
The bottom one there, the fella taking a nap, would be the individual who tip prunes his hops to try and turn them into dwarf. :D
 
Well if they did add calcium sulphate to hop pellets it would improve efficiency.... Yeah I got nothing. :unsure:
 
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