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:

Yeah! Another New Zealand hops to profile.  This time around, it’s Riwaka hops.

Developed in the HortResearch Hop Research Centre in the small town of Riwaka, they were bred from Saaz hops and NZ varieties.

I have a development year of 1997. I am unsure of when they became available commercially.

Origin: New Zealand

Aroma: Grapefruit. From description, it appears to be have west coast USA hop aroma properties

Alpha Acid: 4.5% to 6.5%

Typical Usage:  Aroma, but imparts bittering qualities like Saaz does when used early in the boil.

Beer Styles: Bohemian pilsner anyone? Could supplement other American hop late additions in an APA.

I was looking at hop varieties that people were searching for on our site and there was one variety that had a good number of queries but we hadn’t written a post yet.

Today, I bring you a post on Bravo Hops!

Developed by the Hopsteiner Breeding Program along with Apollo hops, this variety was bred from Zeus hops and a couple of unnamed hop variety.

This variety was used prominently during the hops “crisis” a few years back.   They are another one of these high alpha acid US hop variety.

Origin: USA – Released in 2006.

Aroma: Pleasant, aromatic.  I am guessing that means they don’t have any strong aroma that can be defined as anything but “hoppy.”

Alpha Acid: 14 to 17%

Typical Usage:  Bittering – it’s a clean bittering.  Smooth.

Beer Styles: American Ale and Strong German lagers.

I started seeing this variety available for purchase at a number of online homebrewing shops.  Revolution hops are grown by the Rogue Brewery in their own hopyards.  They are GYO certified – grow your own.

Revolution was the first variety they harvested this year according to their crop report.  If you are able to get your hands on some, you may be able to brew cloned Rogue recipe or at the very least brew with hops grown by a brewing company.

Origin: USA – Independence, OR to be precise

Aroma/Flavor: Noble in aroma and flavor.  Many different descriptors from the beers they brew themselves: spicy, piney, some citrus notes.

Alpha Acid: 5.4%

Typical Usage: Rogue categorizes all the hops they grow as aroma hops.

Beer Styles: American ales and German style lagers.

On Sunday, I harvested all the hop cones that grew on the bines since the first harvest in July. I didn’t expect there would be two rounds of harvesting this year but I am not complaining.

The cones are currently drying right now. I plan to bag them up and weigh them tonight to see what kind of yield I got this year.

UPDATE!

With the two harvests, I collected 5 ounces of homegrown Magnum hops in total this year. That is a 300% increase as compared to last year. Maybe we can see that same year over year growth in 2012?  We will certainly try.

Mmmmm….Lupulin… Bring on the Harvest Ale Brew Session!

Much to my chagrin, I harvested some of the hop cones this past weekend.  Last year, I picked all the cones in one session near the end of August. 

This year, there were a ton that were drying out on the bine and needed to be cut off for further drying.

I placed them on this screen that I used last year.  The cones I had last year dried out pretty well and I was able to use them in the Blonde Ale that placed in the Boston Homebrew Competition.

Here’s what they look like post harvest:

Mother Nature willing, this harvest won’t be the last one of the year. I still have more cones to pick and more li’l flowers blooming.

Tradition hops are a variety that was bred to be bigger, stronger version of Hallertau Mittelfruh – resistant to disease like yucky verticillium wilt and mildew and leaf eating incests.  The variety sometimes is labeled as Hallertauer Tradition, but not always because it is generally grown there and the geographical label is deemed unnecessary. 

I would put them in the same category as Mt. Hood, Liberty, Crystal, and Ultra.  These are all hop varieties that were bred in the US to produce high yields due to their ability to resist disease yet keeping all the noble hop flavor and aroma that we all know and love.

Since they are bred in Germany, Tradition hops are probably closer to the real thing.  Since there are so many different varieties that were bred to replace Hallertau, it brings up the question of how available true Hallertauer Hallertau hops are.  If I buy Hallertau pellets, are they the Gold variety or the Tradition version or what?  

Anyway, here are the stats for this particular version: 

Origin: Hull Hop Research Institute in Germany

Aroma: Refined, sweet floral, very much like Hallertau Mittelfruh.

Alpha Acid: 5 – 7%

Typical Usage: Aroma

Beer Styles: Pilsners, Other German Lagers, Wheat/Weizens