wild hops

This weekend I'm going to transplant some wild hops that my neighbor has out in his pasture. Neither he or his dad knows the variety and from it's location doesn't look to be planted there by any person but rather by mother nature.
This plant has some beautiful cones on it every year and has been there for at least the last 50 years.
The only problem is that it's growing right in the middle of a raspberry briar.
Plan on just taking one of the outer Rhizomes so I don't kill the mother plant.
I will also try layering one of the shoots in a pot as a back up.
Should be neat to try making a beer out of some "Native" hops.

cool idea, just out of curiosity have you sampled the hops to make sure it's worth braving the brambles?

I think experimenting is worth it without even knowing what you'll get. Isn't that the exciting part?

Neat idea. Keep us posted.

been there 50 years, you could narrow down the list of possible varieties. some strains haven't been around that long

GrogNerd said:

been there 50 years, you could narrow down the list of possible varieties. some strains haven't been around that long

Click to expand...

Cluster is always a good start for narrowing wild hops varitel possibilities. They were commonly grown back in the day.

My wild ones should be producing some good cones this year (3rd season) so I can finally start testing their brewing value.

Not sure where I heard this, but a rudimentary way to estimate the AA for wild hops is to make tea:
1 "normal" size cone
1 cup of hot water
Measure teaspoons of sugar
-the number of teaspoons needed to balance the bitter is the approx alpha acid value. Plus you can get an idea of the potential aroma.

I found a bunch of wild hops too, kinda have a lemon smell and this AA test put it at 6. They were right beside an old railroad track converted to a bike path. No idea about the history, but it is almost an acre of coverage.

Finally!!
After 2 and a half weeks I finally was able to find and dig up a hops plant. I was able to get about 2 ft of roots with the start.
The trouble was that it was growing in the middle of a rasberry briar and I couldn't tell what start was what. Had to wait to see some true leaves before i could dig.
Will be transplanting it tonight.
Wrapped it im moist paper towels and fridged last night. We'll see how it goes.

sweet - patiently awaiting photos....







where the heck are the photos?!?!?!