Home of the BrewNosers

This may be a weird question, but is there anyone out there in brewnoserland that would be able to identify hop/bine varieties by sight/smell/taste? I screwed up this spring when I transplanted. I ordered 3 varieties of hop rhizomes from BC - Nuggets, Galenas, and Mt. Hoods - and they arrived too early to plant in the ground. So I built several wooden planters to hold them 'til the ground was ready for transplanting. Unfortunately, what I thought was a permanent marker washed off in the rain so I had to try to remember what went where. I think I figured it out, but I cant be certain.

Can anyone help?

How feasible this is depends upon how different these varieties are from one another. I can tell you that it's very easy to tell the difference between Cascade, Goldings and Chinook but these are the only varieties we have that are currently mature. I can also tell you that Nugget is supposed to be extremely pungent, so you probably have a decent chance of recognizing those by smell/flavour alone.

Not sure where to find this info, but the leaves would have unique signatures - if you had something to reference to of course... If you took some detailed photos and posted them, maybe some of us could help out that way.

If just going by the final hops, unfortunately Nugget & Galena are fairly similar but fortunately, you can just use them interchangeably without too much concern... Mt. Hood is closer to a noble variety so you may be able to at least pick that one out as the 'odd ball'.

This is a pretty good guide http://www.yakimachief.com/hopvarieties ... ieties.pdf ; there is another one that is in colour, but I can't seem to track it down in my office. When I find it, I will post.
Leaves actually aren't the best way to tell as their morphology is strongly affected by daylength, fertility, and other characters.
Check the morphology of the cones as they develop. Compare what you see in the yakima chief variety list, with the ones that you have. Then try to match them up with maturity, i.e. nugget will likely be your latest, mt. hood will probably be the lowest yielding. I am betting that your galena is probably the furthest ahead.

3 separate SMaSH brews?

The different hop varieties have a bunch of defining characteristics, some strains are tough to identify without knowing a few of them. The bine shape, hairs, node placement, bracts, leaves and bracteoles are all defining. A friend has a huge book on hop identification and it's pretty in depth with awesome photos but I've never been able to find as good a resource online.

Regardless, here's photos of cones from the three varieties in question. Pay attention to the placement of the rounded vs pointed bracteoles...

NASH wrote:A friend has a huge book on hop identification and it's pretty in depth with awesome photos

Do you know the name/author? I'd love to track down and buy a copy.

Jayme wrote:

NASH wrote:A friend has a huge book on hop identification and it's pretty in depth with awesome photos

Do you know the name/author? I'd love to track down and buy a copy.

I think it was from SS Steiner. I did a quick google but didn't find anything like so many other things that existed before the interwebz. The book he has was likely printed in the late 80's or early 90's and is more of a large binder-type book with in-depth identification of most if not all hop varieties in existence up to that time. Send them an email!

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?keywo ... x=0&hs.y=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchR ... iner&sts=t" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pretty sure it is none of those, it was for all hops plus I'd expect it to be quite pricey

I send an e-mail to SS Steiner to see what they can tell me.

Where can I get some transplants so I can grow my own hops? I have a big garden that I am not using right now.
How many different types should a person try to grow?
Lindsay

Wrong time of the year - but rhizomes (roots) are pretty easy to get in the spring. Grow as many types as you can get your hands on!

I'll send you a PM with the e-mail address of the farm I bought some rhizomes from last year.