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Unknown hops - how to design a beer

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  • Unknown hops - how to design a beer

    Hi all

    Just wondering how you would go about design a beer based on this scenario:

    We got a few hop plants on our old farm in Sweden that has been around for a long time since the time when each farm had their own brewery and bakery. The farm itself is from 1760s but the farm was making beer a bit later than that. Needless to say I have no idea what AA strength these hops have. They smell good, somewhere in the continental European hop territory of character and we harvested and dried the hops.

    I am planning to brew a bitter in our brewpub with these hops and I am wondering how other brewers would tackle this. I will start off with brewing a test batch of 50 liters. I am mostly concerned with the balance of the beer since I have no idea what kind of bitterness these will give out.

    Would boiling a few hops in wort make sense to try to figure out how much I would use for bittering in the real batch?

    Can one assume that old hop plants like this have a lowish AA level?

    Thanks a lot!

  • #2
    That's a cool story. We grow some hops with a local farmer, enough for one 40 bbl batch a year. We pick them and use them fresh, using our mash tun as a hop back after the boil. We have had the hops genetics analyzed and they are of the Cluster variety. However, they do not smell or taste like Cluster hops I can get from a broker, so I'm sure that the growing environment has a big part in their flavor and aroma.

    We start with a basic Pale Ale recipe, using pellets to get to about 25 IBU in the first addition in the kettle. The actual bitterness seems to vary a good bit from year to year. I think you would be safe to assume your hops are low alpha, and to use them primarily as a late addition, to see if you like the flavor and aroma.
    Linus Hall
    Yazoo Brewing
    Nashville, TN
    www.yazoobrew.com

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