Oooooooooold Hops

[RobD]

A buddy of mine recently told me of some hops plants that are growing at his family farm (between Truro and Pictou), and he mentioned to me that I was free to take all/some of them once harvest time comes. The only "problem" is that he has NO idea what kind they are as they were planted by his great grandfather 100+ years ago. The family doesn't drink much at all, so it wasn't something that ever considered doing anything with, so they haven't been well taken care of at all. He's going to take some pictures the next time he's out. He mentioned that previous years growth is pretty high up in some trees, and the new growth has been climbing the old stuff, so there should be plenty of cones. (IE.. definitely enough to share - free)

So.. my question is. Is there any way to determine what type of hops they are? Are there identifying characteristics to the leafs/cones or anything else that I could look for?

[NASH]

There are ways to identify them, one of the big hop brokers put out a huge binder in the 90's for hop identification, different shaped cones, leaves and bines, stepped or parallel bracts etc etc. Problem is I haven't seen the binder in about 10 yrs.

Regardless, there's wild hops growing all over the province, I found a shitload of them on the Amherst shore that grew wild there for at least 75 yrs, likely longer, hanging out of giant spruce trees 20 feet up, hanging out of the alders. Another guy dropped by to see me a few months ago and told me about the old family farmstead outside of Antigonish that had hops growing wild everywhere since his father was a kid.

Hops grown commercially are replanted about every 10 yrs so they don't mutate loosing there prized qualities, adapting to their surroundings and morphing into some other type of hop, wild hops. So I'm doubtful any attempt to identify them would yield anything other than 'hops gone wild'. And there's only one way to find out if they are any good in beer or not - make beer with them.

[jeffsmith]

I found a shitload of them on the Amherst shore that grew wild there for at least 75 yrs

Care to reveal the location?

[KMcK]

I found a shitload of them on the Amherst shore that grew wild there for at least 75 yrs

Care to reveal the location?

Yeah, they sound appropriate for my A.S.A.P. (Amherst Shore American Pale) Ale.

[RobD]

Thanks for the info Nash!

When harvest time comes, I'll head out, and he and I will harvest as much as needed, and then I can distribute them if anyone wants to give them a try.

He goes out every few weeks, so he's going to keep an eye on them (and take photos each time).

Generally speaking, harvest time should be late August or early Sept?

[derek]

There are labs that could identify the DNA, or more easily give you the alpha/beta values, but it would get expensive and as Nash says nothing beats actually putting it in a beer.