Hops Growing - Wet Hopped Beer?
by Jim Vondracek on 08/03/13
Our Cascade hops are doing well this year. This is a photo from our second-floor bedroom window - the vines run up twine from our window to the hop hills below.
There are two hills, each with multiple vines, running up the twine. I'm thinking that when they are ready to be picked, we might have folks over for a group brew day. We'll cut the twine down from the window and folks can pick all the cones. Then we'd brew a beer with them, the same day. The hops would go straight from the vine to the brew kettle. This is called wet hopping, when you use the fresh hops, without drying and preserving them.
This would be a bit of a mystery beer, because we don't know the level of bitterness, or flavor or aroma, that the hops will give off. Hops that you buy have been tested for their alpha acid content, so you can craft recipes with some exactness. That won't be the case with these wet hops.
Maybe an American Pale Ale would be a good base style, throwing in some of the hops into the boil kettle early in the boil for bitterness, then later for flavor and aroma. We'd save some of the hops to throw in after fermentation is done, to add more aroma.
If you have other ideas for a fun, wet-hop group day, let me know in the comments. And you've like to join us, drop me a line.
