Let's Grow!

I only have room for 2 varieties of hops to grow. If you were me which 2 would you choose? I live in upstate ny, if that matters. Thanks.

For me, it would be Chinook and Cascade...

Cheers!

I have ctz and centennial. Wish it was magnum or warrior and centennial. Now that I think about it more though, maybe one shouldn't grow bittering hops unless one is getting the AA tested. Cascade and centennial it is.

chumpsteak said:

I have ctz and centennial. Wish it was magnum or warrior and centennial. Now that I think about it more though, maybe one shouldn't grow bittering hops unless one is getting the AA tested. Cascade and centennial it is.

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Why not to grow bittering hops?

morky92 said:

Why not to grow bittering hops?

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Because there is no way to test for your IBUs. You would be unable to produce correctly tasting/consistant brews.

Cascade and Centennial.

chumpsteak said:

I have ctz and centennial. Wish it was magnum or warrior and centennial. Now that I think about it more though, maybe one shouldn't grow bittering hops unless one is getting the AA tested. Cascade and centennial it is.

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Check this out

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f41/5-ibu-testing-405038/

This opens up the gates of not doing Bittering hops.

Make a small batch of beer, say a gallon using a known amount of hops. Use Beersmith or something like it to calculate what the IBU would be with a set AA rating. With the report they give you back it and some number fiddling in Beersmith with the hop AA values to match the IBU output they gave you should be able to figure out exactly what AA it was.

$5 is a great price and i hope they stick around doing this.

Agreed. That is a great price as long as it's not just some dude drinking your beer next to a Stone IPA and pulling an IBU number out of his arse .

In any case, you'll have to get it checked every year or just take any reading you get as close enough.

I have 4 varieties (2 low AA, 2 high AA). I realize people say don't use homegrown hops for bittering but I couldn't resist :-D Plus the Nugget and Zeus I planted apparently are better for my local climate than the Hallertau or Mt Hood (based on yield).

And to be honest, one of the best beers I've brewed with any of them is an IIPA of entirely homegrown hops. Granted, when you're trying to brew a hop bomb it doesn't matter if you know the AAUs. I simply deduct about 20% from the nominal AAU value when I formulate a recipe with homegrown.