Hops

[Burt Dagger]

I love hops. I grew a bunch of hops. I don’t brew (I wish I brewed). I’m harvesting my hops.

I’m boiling some of my hops.


I’m vodkaing some of my hops.


I’m freezing some of my hops. You don’t need to see a picture of that.

What else should I do with my hops?

If anyone wants to brew with them, I’ll trade you as many as you want for a 6er of your eventual product (the hops are in Tacoma).

 

[Matt B]

What do you do with boiled hops, if you ain’t makin’ beer out of it?
Just curious. I like a hop from time to time. In beer, I mean.

 

[SculpinSwinger]

You can eat the new shoots off the rhizome, a bit like asparagus.

 

[Porter2]

Not sure what you can do with hops once boiled but they boil hops for a short time and then use the water. Let it cool down, refrigerate, and then CO2 it and you have a bubbly flavored mild bitter water than you can add anything you want to ( rhubarb syrup, elder berry, lime, lemon, orange, etc) or drink alone. Also depends on the hops you have. Some are more citrus like and then you have the more herbal type hops. The longer you boil your hops the more bitter your liquid will become and the shorter the more bouquet you’ll get. If you try it I would stage your hops. X number at 15-20 minutes, Y number at 5 minutes and X+Y at 1 minute. Or you could even dry hop it to. After it cools throw a bag of hops in the water container. Rest it for a few days in a cool spot. I would use a tight mesh bag in the boil to limit the hop debris in the water. Sure there is more info out the on the World Wide Web. Good luck.

 

[Matt B]

NRC’s gonna be all hopped up on hops tea.

 

[Burt Dagger]

@Porter2 got it right - just boiling to get me some hop water.



I wasn’t scientific about the concentration - I just maxed it out and plan to use small doses as an extract to add to sparkling water and maybe the occasional cocktail. The stuff is face-meltingly, throat burningly bitter. Mmmm!

Not that I need new hobbies, but I’m thinking about trying to brew up some hopped ginger beer. I’ve made kombucha but never ginger beer. It sounds like reasonably similar level of effort?