I conducted some research into a hop variety that I have not used yet in my homebrewing sessions but this one caught my eye since it was an English variety. I present this information as our profile of First Gold Hops.

Bred by Wye College in Kent, they are the first dwarf hop variety that was specifically created for aroma additions in the English market.  Other dwarf hop varieties that we have examined on this site are:

• Summit Hops
• Pioneer Hops
• Pilot Hops

Dwarf hops are ones that do not have tall bines, which makes them easier to harvest.  Believe me, hand picking hops cones for one plant was challenging.   I can understand how tough it may be to harvest a whole field, especially if you are doing with machines and trying to preserve the delicate cones.

They are a mix of the Whitbread Golding Variety, AKA WGV, and some unnamed dwarf hop variety.

Here are the typical specs that I write up:

Origin: UK  (see above)

Aroma/Flavor: Spicy, cinnamon, orange peel

Alpha Acid: 6.5% to 8.5%

Typical Usage: Aroma

Beer Styles: Extra Special Bitters, other English pale ales

The hop rhizomes that I bought through Northern Brewer arrived earlier this week. I stashed them in the fridge until I decide where to plant them. There’s only a few places in my backyard that get a ton of sun in the summer time. The trees shade most of the area so it’s going to be a bit of a challenge, but it will be worth it.

I got a bine of Willamette and one of Cascade hops.

If you look real close you can see the shoots pushing out of the bags. Ok, not really.

Spring has sprung and the hops have started to shoot out of the ground.

This year is the celebrated “Year 3″ of my hop growing. All the resources that I read talked about the third year being a magical year of crop bounty. The root system should be fully formed and the bines should be primed to produce a good amount of hop flowers.

I had a good harvest last year. My goal is to get a pound of hops from this bad boy. Maybe this will be the year.

To help my efforts, I bought two more rhizomes to plant this year. If I am lucky, I will have Cascade and Willamette hops to harvest too.

What I have been seeing lately in catalogs and online are pellet hops that are special blends of different varieties. One of those blends is called Falconer’s Flight™ Hops.

After I read more about this blend, I learned that they are named after a homebrewer from Oregon named Glen Hay Falconer. He passed away in 2002 (there’s a non-profit organization named in his honor) and this blend was created to support his legacy.

Now, the exact varieties and the proportions in which they are used in this blend is proprietary, but there are a few named hops in it:

Citra Hops
Simcoe Hops
Sorachi Ace Hops

Here are the other vitals:

Origin: USA – Hopunion

Aroma/Flavor:  Citrus/grapefruit with fruity, spicy, and earthy

Alpha Acid: 9 – 11%

Typical Usage: Dual Purpose

Beer Styles: IPA or any beer style where you want to showcase hop flavor and aroma.

Green bullet hops were released in 1972 from the New Zealand DSIR, which is now HortResearch. HortResearch has developed other varieties like:

• Pacifica Hops
• Riwaka Hops
• Nelson Sauvin Hops
• Pacific Jade Hops

It was bred following an open cross-pollination of the New Zealand “Smoothcone” variety and has Styrian Goldings as a parent

Here are the other vitals for Green Bullet hops:

Origin: New Zealand

Aroma: Slight spiciness, floral, raisin(?), lemon

Alpha Acid: 11% to 14%

Typical Usage: Bittering

Beer Styles: Well, certainly Australian lagers but how about pale ales or bitters or adding them to your next ESB?

Opal hops are a new-ish variety that was bred by our friends at the Hull Institute. They were registered in 2001 and I have started to see them available online.

One bit of information that I found out about this variety is their initial aroma when they are first dried. They produce a noticeable aroma of garlic. This garlicky scent dissipates after a few months of storage but it is interesting that it has such a peculiar component.

Here is the rest of the vitals on Opal hops:

Origin: Germany

Aroma: Peppery, light citrus, smooth pleasant bittering

Alpha Acid: ~10%

Typical Usage: Dual purpose

Beer Styles: German lagers, German wheat beers, saisons, and Belgian ales

For the harvest ale, I dry hopped it using my home grown hop cones. I know using whole cones are going to make it difficult to clean out the carboy, but not impossible. For this brew, I wanted to stay true to the concept of the harvest and only use hops that were grown by me.

I transferred the beer from my primary fermentor to a secondary carboy. I kept it in the primary for two weeks. I probably could have dry hopped a week ago but I didn’t get to it until last night.

Anyway, I put the hops in the bottom of my sanitized carboy and I racked the beer on top of them. Here are some photos of the process: