Home Grown Hops - Part 3 of 3: 3rd year of growth and a look at acids and oils.

Congratulations! Your plants will hit full maturity this year! It took some time, care and attention but it’s about to all pay off. What does reaching maturity mean for a hop plant? All the good stuff - robust growth and more cones, packed with full strength acids and oils! So, let's get growing!

Didn’t we just do this?

You guessed it, it’s time for all the spring cleaning jobs - cutting down the over wintered bines, cleaning up the area, checking any maintenance needs of the trellis and ensuring your watering system is ready to go. Once your plants have shot out and the shoots are long enough, stringing, training and fertilizing are on the agenda. While we sit back and let the plants do what they do best - plus of course watering, fertilizing and keeping an eye out for signs of pests and disease - let's talk more in depth about lupulin, its qualities and its role in beer. Because after all, we grow for the beer!

What is Lupulin?

Lupulin, as we discussed in Part 2, is produced by glands inside the fully ripe hop cone.The sticky, resinous, fine golden yellow powder is only produced by the female plant and gives beer its distinctive aroma and bitterness, while also acting as a stabilizer and balancing the naturally sweet flavour of the malt. While research is still on going as to all the properties and potential applications for lupulin, this is what we know -

Lupulin is made up of a mixture of compounds:

• Alpha Acids (humulone, adhumulone, and cohumulone) - the key to bittering.
• Beta Acids (lupulone, colupulone, and adlupulone) - contributes to bittering, if oxidized. 
• Essential oils (myrcene, humulene, and caryophyllene) - aroma.
• Xanthohumol, a prenylated chalcone that is being studied for potential health benefits.

To make matters even more fun, each variety has different levels of each compound, lending some to be considered a ‘bittering’ hop or an ‘aroma’ hop, with others doing a decent job of both at the same time. Here are a couple examples from our BC grown varieties:

As you can see, they have very different alpha percentages (the strong bittering compound), lending Magnum with the higher values to be considered a ‘bittering’ hop and Sterling with low alphas more of an ‘aroma’ hop. You can also see by looking at these varietal values that Magnum is a much punchier hop, with generally higher Betas and Oil whereas Sterling is more mellow - characteristic of a noble hop, to which it owes to its lineage (don’t worry, more on that in a bit). Now, did you notice those fun little fruits and veggies and such on each image? Those are note indicators for aroma, imparted mostly by the lupulin essential oils - Magnum is going to lead the nose with a dank note (the garlic), then finish with a touch of citrus and grassy notes. Sterling however will start herbal, with touches of grassiness and spice. While it is standard to include a sensory analysis, it is important to note that it is subjective, as smell receptors are unique to the individual. And terroir has a significant effect on the profile of the hop. It is really quite amazing how much this fine, plant produced powder can do and this is really just the tip of the ice berg - pairings, boiling times, dry hopping - are just a few of the ways brewers manipulate the values to produce what they want. Check out this great blog post by a home brewer, about techniques and what he calls ‘Lupulin Lunacy’, it's a good read for an aspiring home brewer.

Can lupulin values vary?

Absolutely! A hop variety grown in one region could have great brewing values, and have terrible ones in another region. The plant may receive identical care by the farmer but the environmental factors play a huge role in the success of growing brewing quality hops. Take this study done in Nova Scotia to explore the viability of growing hops commercially in the province. Only 3 of the initial 7 varieties they grew to maturity received a passing grade for brewing values, despite a lot of things about the region being ‘right’. So, why would they fail there but thrive here in the Fraser Valley, BC? Terroir. It’s an interesting word to get your mouth around! The word is mostly used in France in relation to vineyards, the idea that you can literally taste the qualities of the region in the wine - that the climate, sunshine and soil create distinction in the fruit. While the tasting aspect doesn’t exactly translate to hops when used in brewing - because beer isn’t a single ingredient beverage like wine - it can certainly translate to brewing values of the lupulin produced by the cone - the literal fruit of a hop plant. 

Consider this: North America is 16.5% of all land on earth, yet the largest commercial cultivation of hops is centred in one stretch of area - the Pacific Northwest. Spanning British Columbia, Washington State and Oregon, the Pacific Northwest region is a hot bed for top quality beer hops, with Washington tipping the scales with 64.1 million lbs produced last year. If we go back to the idea of terroir - all these areas have a similar climate, check. They have very similar amounts of sunshine, check. Soil is a little trickier but if we consider that the Fraser Valley and Yakima Valley (the largest producing area in the USA) are mere hours apart, it stands to reason the soil is likely comparable. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when comparing brewing values of the hops grown in the Pacific Northwest region, there is very little difference in most varieties. The region simply put, has the right terroir to meet or exceed all of the specific needs of the plant.

How do I find out if my hops are producing good values?

It ultimately depends on what your plans are - are you looking to sell your hops to a commercial brewer or just use them for your own home brewing? If your answer is to sell, you will have to find a lab that provides testing for hops. Commercial brewers want to ensure they can replicate their brews in large amounts and require the kind of data that the lab results provide. However, if you plan to use them for home brewing, the choice is really yours - spend the money to lab test, do a tea test or just wing it! What is a tea test? If you remember at the end of Part 2, David had a video about brewing with your home grown hops - in it he discusses a tea method to compare your hops against a commercially grown and tested hop. To be honest, we thought it was a pretty ingenious idea for home brewers/growers. In essence, you take a tested hop and your own home grown (of the same variety) and make a cup of tea with each, then use your senses to compare the aroma and bittering qualities. Pretty smart, right?!

 Example of a Commercial COA sheet:

If you are feeling a little overwhelmed by the data, hop over to our earlier blog - HPLC vs Spec - where we help break down the science of hop testing.

Wait a minute… what is a noble hop???

Ah! We almost forgot! Noble hops are usually considered a group of traditional European hop varieties: Hallertau Mittelfruh, Saaz, Tettnang and Spalt . However because there is no set rule on what is considered ‘noble’, other varieties that contain similar characteristics such as Fuggle and Golding can be included. Those shared characteristics are: smooth bitterness, low alpha acids and delicate, floral and spicy aroma profiles. This group of hops is also another place you will find discussions about the importance of terroir. If a hop variety comes from ‘noble’ lineage, you generally find one of the first four varieties in its breeding program - in Sterling’s case, that would be Saaz. Hops with noble qualities like Sterling are most often used in traditional types of beer but when combined with another hop variety, they can offer depth and complexity to just about any style. 

Is that a wrap?

We’d say so! You’ve got a lot of harvesting and drying ahead of you this year and its really pretty exciting. Thank you for coming along with us on this 3 part journey into growing your own home grown hops, we hope you have learned some new tips and tricks. We wish you well on your hop growing adventure, wherever that may be!