Cascade Hop Harvest

     Took a close look at the hops yesterday after being smacked in the head by a drooping vine, and realised it's time to harvest. So out with the scissors and bowl for the first harvest of our Cascade Hops. These rhizomes are only 1 year old so not a lot was expected of them, most hops peak at 2 - 3 years and are dug up and divided.

 
     Total weight for the first harvest was 165gm once cleaned with probably another 20gm on the vines still. This should be enough for 1 batch of Beer as the usage rate of fresh hops needs to be about 5 times that of dried or pelletised, so we are looking at about 53gm of pellets.

     What we are using with these hops is the yellow lupulin glands which contain the essential oils which give us our alpha acids which are isomerised during the boil giving us our bitterness. ( very simply the higher the alpha acid content and longer the boil the more bitter the Beer. Big Beer companies want and develop ultra high alpha acid hops 14 - 20% so they can use less hops making cheaper but not necessary better Beer.) We will also dry hop with these to give us a nice aroma as well