my buddy just acquired a property that has some hops growing on it they were planted anyway to determine what strain, AA's? where can I send em? anyone little clues to tell of the quality by look,smell? before we invest money
Did he ask the previous owner what the variety was? AA tends to vary by season. Having the AAs analyzed every season is cost prohibitive. Thus, homegrown hops tend to be used for flavor/aroma, with the bittering coming from commercial hops with known AA%.
I can't think of a way short of genetic analysis and database matching (not even sure what database) to ascertain your strain. But since strains may express different characteristics depending on where they grew, maybe you just should try a beer with it and compare to other experience.
Here's a link to an old post from 2012 that might help. I think I can recall one that was more recent, but I didn't find it when I did a quick search. I think that post was more similar to your inquiry. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/got-some-wild-hops-now-what.33848/#post-424011
Post some pix of the cones. Rip a couple open and rub em all up in your hands. Give em a big wiff and post what you smell (be as descriptive as possible, ie, grapefruit, tangerines, lemon, not just citrus). Between the two some experienced growers might be able to give you a couple educated guesses.
You can guesstimate the bittering potential by making hop teas with the mystery hop and a couple of hops of known AA%, keeping quantities exactly the same. We did this as an experiment at a club meeting (except the guy who made the teas knew what the 'unknown' was). We were all able to guess the alpha of the unknown within 1%.
thanks guys tracked down a relative they cascade for sure it was funny it was a man in his 80's that used to brew with his brother
