What to do with hops?

Are you sure it's hops? Is dad a sketchy type of guy??? Lots of questions

 

They can work really nice with pickling.

 

Now I really want to try this... Mosaic and Citra ice cream, it'd be like a beer lovers orange creamsicle. With cascade I'd imagine you would have to steep it for a short time to keep down on the bitter alpha acids and add a good bit of sugar. Seriously though, this is intriguing, and after some of the ice cream flavors I had in Japan that were surprisingly good, this wouldn't be to far of a stretch.

Edit: Apparently there are some places out there that actually make IPA ice cream, including one I saw that was made with caramel and Troegs Perpetual IPA.

 

Hop candy

 

What he said. If you want to experiment with some of the other ideas as mentioned above, just hang on to a couple ounces and play to your hearts content. Trade the rest for beer with some of your home brew friends while they are relatively fresh.

 

Throw them in the cat litter.

 

Maybe your dad is trying to tell you he wants you to start brewing? I saw a show where they dropped some whole cone hops into olive oil to let it infuse and used it for dressing and such, not sure how the pellets would work since they will break down. Also there is this http://poorandglutenfree.blogspot.com/2014/07/10-ways-to-use-hops-other-than-in-beer.html

 

That's hilarious.

That's genius. Orange or mango flavoured ice cream seems like it would be fucking awesome with hops.

 

Hop jam or jelly, Hop mustard and hop tea, hop infused liquors and hop candy are some other ways to use hops. No one has posted any on facebook yet for hop barbecue sauce or hop vinegars.

 

I'm surprised no one has suggested a Randall. Throw them in the Randall and dry hop your beer for a little extra bite!

 

If it's sealed, DO NOT OPEN! If you open it you have about a week or two to figure out which brewer you know, or homebrew club to visit, to gift them. A pound of Cascade is about 16.00 so no big deal if you just throw em out. I have heard hop tea is a soothing beverage, but I doubt Cascade would be my choice for that.

 

What happens if you put hops in honey?

 

Good question. I think that would be a great experiment. Sounds like the syrupy sweetness of honey and piney bitter citrus pith of Cascades might be a match made in heaven. How much to use and how to do it are the next questions.

 

Give them to one of your home brewing friends. As a home brewer and hop grower myself I know they'll appreciate them. Anything else is a waste of precious brewing resources in my opinion. I'm sure they'll reciprocate with some tasty home brew.

 

Home brewing is pretty fun. It's a little pricey to get started, but not that crazy, and IPAs are super easy.

 

stick some in your pillow, the aroma of it is supposed to induce calm and relieve stress, much like lavender. Maybe bake it some dark bread!

 

I did it with 6 different hops at once and didn't find the beer to be anything more than a base. In fact, given all the poorly balanced IPAs out there, this experiment had a familiarity to it that suggested it was actually an off the shelf, undermalted IPA.