Wet hop advice

[spears104]

This summer I started growing my own hops. I originally planted 12 plants but only five came up (thats a waste of $35!) The bines are about six feet long and have a modest amount of hop cones on them. I was told not to expect stellar yields the first year. The varieties I have available are Nuggat (2 plants), Centennial ( 1 plant) and Galena (2 plants.) I was thinking of just making a big batch of a wet hopped IPA like beer but I am not at all familiar with using wet hops. What is the weight ratio between dry/wet hops? Is the alpha acid utilization similar to dry hops or should I use dry hops with a known alpha acid percentage to establish the bitterness and just use the wet hops for flavour and aroma?. What amount is typically used in a five gallon recipe? I'm not against pushing the limits and putting copious amounts of wet hops in the kettle. Any and all advice would be appreciated. Cheers!

Jason

[Jimmy]

I've got nothing useful other than



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[Timothy Doane]

Use them all in one batch!

[akr71]

With fresh hops you need to use about 4 to 6 times (by weight) as you would dry cones.

Its been my experience that you are better off using commercially grown hops as your bittering charge and use your fresh hops for flavor and aroma. The commercial hops have a known AA%, where you're home grown ones don't.

[mr x]

+1.

[Jayme]

Sounds like you're going to have more Nugget & Galena than anything. I ended up with a large amount of wet Nuggets last year. We tried doing a beer with pellets for bittering and all wet Nuggets for the late additions. It was terrible - very, very herbal and just not what I was looking for. So since we still had a butt load of these wet hops (frozen, which I have heard ruins wet hops but we didn't notice much difference), they all got thrown in one batch. We aged it for about 6-8 months, at which point it was quite good!

Anyhow, that's what worked for me last year. Another year once you have more yield, if I were you, I would use the nugget and galena wet for bittering additions and hammer the centennial late in the boil. Nugget & Galena are just poor late addition hops IMO.

[amartin]

As for using your own hops for bittering, you can estimate their AA%. What I did when I started was used the average amount that you'd see in commercial hops, and then only use them for half of the bittering hops in a beer style that wouldn't suffer much if it was over or under hopped a little. It's easier if it's a recipe you've made before, so you know what to expect, or ever better if you still have some on hand so you can compare. Then adjust as necessary.

[HopGrower]

...in a beer style that wouldn't suffer much if it was over or under hopped a little.

I don't understand... What is this 'over hopped' you speak of?

[Tony L]

I've got nothing useful other than



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Come on Jimmy, you can squeeze a few more in there.

[Jimmy]

I've got nothing useful other than



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Come on Jimmy, you can squeeze a few more in there.

The credit on that brew goes to mr x...though it does appear there is room for a few more hops in there!

[spears104]

I've got nothing useful other than



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Where is the "like" button on here?