Ramble On

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Checking in on the Hops

Goldings.
Thought I might post a check up on my hops bines.  Here they are about two months up out of the ground.

The first photo is of the Goldings, which are in a pot right in the middle of Mary's truck patch - so the other plants there are summer squash on the left and eggplant on the right.

The second photo is of the Willamette, which took off and I thought would be better at this stage than the Goldings.  Looks like a squirrel chewed the training twine on one of the runners, and we had a little setback. But all's well, I don't expect much from them this first year anyway.

Willamette.
The Beer Making Book by Erica Shea and Stephen Valand (Amazon link below) describes the two varieties as follows:

Golding:  low to medium bitterness,  flavors of dried flowers, plum and moss
Willamette:  low bitterness, flavors of pear, eucalyptus, and earth

In the book, the Goldings varieties are listed as ingredients for blondes and lighter ales, while the Willamette hops are used in a couple of pale ales.  I've brewed some of each of those, so I know that I can use whatever these bines might produce.


Here's the link to the book:



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