Profiles in Hops @hawksbillhops - Chinook

A Chinook bine with  formed cones (it's planted
near the buckwheat cover).

As I mentioned in my post the other day, things are starting to shape up for the coming harvest at Hawksbill Hop Yards.  In my walks I took a few photos and planned this "profile in hops" series of posts - today I'll write about the Chinook bines.

As before, I'm citing the Wikipedia about hops varieties, which you can find here.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Chinook:

This green bine cultivar (W-421-38) was released in May 1985 in Washington State and Idaho from a cross between a Petham Golding and a USDA-selected male (63012M). Slightly spicy and very piney. Its alpha acid content ranges from 12 to 14%. Substitutes for bittering: Eroica, Galena, Nugget. Substitutes for aroma and flavor: Southern Cross, Sticklebract.

Another Chinook, with cones.

As with the Columbus, we planted 120 bines.  They're on the east side of the yard, near the Columbus, but separated by the open row we left there to allow for ventilation of the Columbuses.  The empty row is in buckwheat cover for now, audibly buzzing with honey bees, but it will be either a row of Chinook or Columbus next year, depending on which does best in the market.

Chinook is the strongly flavored hop that Sierra Nevada uses in Torpedo, and that is one of the reasons we chose this variety.  The other is the recommendations we received from other Virginia growers, that they had done well with it.  At the NOVA Brewfest a few weekends ago, it was even the topic of conversation for one of the breweries and one of the growers that was at the show.

The Chinook is doing well, but on the whole, I'd say that our Columbus crop is a bit more robust then they are.  Still, it's another that we should have in commercial quantities when all is said and done.  

And I'm happy about that.