Tag Archives: Hops

Now I Can’t Taste Nuttin’

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Green Flash Palate Wrecker

Green Flash Palate Wrecker

I haven’t had one of these bad boys in about a year until the other day. It is a monster filled with oodles of hop flavor. This thing gets it’s outstanding “I’m sucking on a hop cone” flavor from mashing and sparging with hopped wort and a serious regiment of hopping during the boil. This brew has a pungent resinous pine flavor through out. There is not an over the top bitterness to this beer; with the amount of hop flavor it is kind of surprising.  One thing that I found odd is that this beer had no nose to it. Like seriously no smell. I had two other folks give it a whiff and nothing. I don’t recall this being the case last time I tried the beer but the bottle I tried was quite a few months old at least if I am not mistaken. Either way it was delicious, bold, and enjoyable. One tip for drinking this beer: DO NOT DRINK THIS FIRST! If you are going to drink some different beers and are looking to actually taste the hops in them then leave this beer for last cause it truly does wreck your palate.

These Things Grow Fast!

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Columbus Hops

Columbus Hops that were panted about a month ago

Less then a month ago these hops were just barely breaking the surface of the soil now they are over a foot long! It is kind of amazing how fast these things take off. I have noticed over 2 inches in growth on some days alone. They are looking good and growing fast, it is about time to get a trellis in place for these to climb on.

Cascade Hops

Cascade Hops

The cascade hops are the biggest of the bunch so far with the Chinook coming in a close second. The Chinook started off slow but has been showing some speedy growth lately.

Chinook Hops

Chinook Hops

I can’t wait till these things turn into monsters this summer and take over my patio with a wall of hops. You can check out the previous pictures of the hops from about a month ago here: http://www.beerdestroyer.com/?p=118

Grow your own!

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Cascade Hops

Cascade Hops

The hops are all finally sprouting. I have been growing two of these plants for three seasons now and they luckily keep coming back each year. My hops are grown in containers since I currently have no yard; before winter they are cut down and brought inside to hibernate with out freezing. It still surprises me when they actually show back up each spring. My two older plants are Chinook and Cascade and they grow completely differently. The Chinook is a thicker vined plant with large broad leaves that get as big as my hand and it grows relentlessly. The Cascade plant grows thin delicate vines with small leaves that don’t get much bigger than a couple of inches across. I am interested to see how the new plant Columbus does. In addition to the hops at my place I’ve got a few rhizomes growing up at friends houses in the area. Hopefully I’ll be brewing a fresh hop beer with locally grown hops come fall. I’ll post more pictures as they grow. BTW, you can still find hop rhizomes online for purchase so it is not to late to grow them this year.

Chinook Hops

Chinook Hops

Columbus Hops

Columbus Hops

 

Can’t stop the Hop

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SweetWater LowRyeder

Whats left of a SweetWater Lowryeder Hopped in glass with wet Citra Hops.

I can’t stop putting hops in my beer now. I destroyed two SweetWater Lowryeder‘s that I hopped up with a few fresh citra hop cones. It’s to bad that its not harvest season yet cause I could do this every day. The hops tend to cloud the beers a bit as well as adding little yellow hop “flavor crystals” that float around. With the wet citra hops you get a nice combination of citrus and pine. The wet hops also add a layer of spicy heat to the finish, makes me wonder if hops rate on the Scoville scale at all.

Hoppilicious Bigfoot

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A glass of Sierra Nevada Big Foot with Wet Citra Hops added to the glass

Big Foot hopped up with some wet Citra hops.

I decided to amp up an all ready big brew(Sierra Nevada Big Foot) by throwing in some Citra hops that I had in the freezer; the Citra hops were wet hops left over from harvest season. I made sure to stash some in my freezer for future use. I swirled and squished the hops a bit in the beer to force some of tasty fresh hop goodness into the beer immediately. After it sat for about 5 – 10 mins it was like i was drinking a completely different beer. It tasted like a malt bomb of an IPA with the fresh citrus notes battling the malty finish. The fresh Citra flavors hung out for a while after sipping and left my pallet begging for another swill.