Hi everyone
I've been thinking that with all the debate surrounding hops at the moment maybe a thread describing results of beers brewed with the same name hop but from different locations. Obviously this is done already with the established commercial hop market, but I am talking more about experiences with home grown varieties (and if people see fit hops like the ones from new areas such as China).
On the home grown front:
A lot of people here seem to be growing their own hops these days and if they were all to pool their information maybe a solid pattern of what to expect from a variety grown in different specific locations of Australia might emerge. With enough feedback maybe the information gathered could even lead to a fairly accurate guide for amounts required to achieve various bittering/flavouring/aroma levels.
I don't grow any hops (renting) but I gather such information as: Location in garden, hours of sunlight, temperature ranges, soil preparation, watering, fertilizers used, trellis design, general health care and maintenance for the plants should be recorded (the people who grow them would sort this all out).
At harvest the hop cones could be described, followed by drying method, storage, and finally brewing results with:
This could be totally unworkable in practice but I think people would probably enjoy such an attempt. It would be really interesting to see if results fluctuated wildly or fell within certain sweet-spots (hmm <_< or should I say bitter-spots) from area to area. Someone who grows hops would have a lot better idea of what's needed to do something like this, I freely admit to having little knowledge on the subject.
Anyway as hops is currently a topic with a huge interest at the moment this is just an idea I wanted to add to the brewpot :icon_cheers: .
I've been thinking that with all the debate surrounding hops at the moment maybe a thread describing results of beers brewed with the same name hop but from different locations. Obviously this is done already with the established commercial hop market, but I am talking more about experiences with home grown varieties (and if people see fit hops like the ones from new areas such as China).
On the home grown front:
A lot of people here seem to be growing their own hops these days and if they were all to pool their information maybe a solid pattern of what to expect from a variety grown in different specific locations of Australia might emerge. With enough feedback maybe the information gathered could even lead to a fairly accurate guide for amounts required to achieve various bittering/flavouring/aroma levels.
I don't grow any hops (renting) but I gather such information as: Location in garden, hours of sunlight, temperature ranges, soil preparation, watering, fertilizers used, trellis design, general health care and maintenance for the plants should be recorded (the people who grow them would sort this all out).
At harvest the hop cones could be described, followed by drying method, storage, and finally brewing results with:
1) A description of the wonderful beer produced.
2) A comparison of the hop used to the expectation of the original species.
If say a member in Melbourne and a member in Sydney grew the same hop they could brew the same recipe and exchange a few beers to compare the results.
This could be totally unworkable in practice but I think people would probably enjoy such an attempt. It would be really interesting to see if results fluctuated wildly or fell within certain sweet-spots (hmm <_< or should I say bitter-spots) from area to area. Someone who grows hops would have a lot better idea of what's needed to do something like this, I freely admit to having little knowledge on the subject.
Anyway as hops is currently a topic with a huge interest at the moment this is just an idea I wanted to add to the brewpot :icon_cheers: .
