For this year’s harvest, I create a plan to brew a beer to showcase each of my hops plant cones. With three plants, there was going to be three beers. The first one that I brewed was an American Brown Ale with Nugget hops. These cones were the first to ripen so they got used first. Check out this video where we discuss the results of this beer:
Sometimes Beers Are ‘Just OK’
Although I used a large quantity of my homegrown hops, the flavor that came through in the finished beer was more earthy than pine and more herbal than citrus. It was a fine, drinkable beer but it didn’t fit an American hop profile.
Mike found that the hop profile actually had a black tea component. The malt background was strong because of my use of Special Roast malt. The hops flavor made for a nice autumn beer.
So What Did We Learn?
Thinking about it from the time we tasted this beer and writing this post, I have come to the conclusion that the ol’ Nugget hops won’t be used in any of my single hop beers again, if at all. Where I planted this variety is near my vegetable garden and I think it’s choking out my plants. I may need to rip this one up and plant it somewhere else (if it survives).
BREW ON!
