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HBC 438 “Ron Mexico” Out Now!

November 29, 2015 by Derek Springer Leave a Comment

If you remember my review of the candy orange/passionfruit-forward HBC 438 “Ron Mexico” from a few months ago, I mentioned it should be available for purchase after the fall harvest season. Good news: according to its grower, HBC 438 should now be widely available!

News of the recent home brew exclusive testing of experimental hop variety HBC 438 has been creating a buzz throughout the home brew community since its release announcement at the 2015 National Homebrewers’ Conference. We are happy to report that these highly anticipated hops are now hitting the shelves at home brew stores throughout the United States.

Source: Experimental Hop Released – YCH HOPS

HBC 438 is great in any hop-forward ale and should be strong enough to stand on its own or can be mixed with other citrusy/tropical hops to add some amazing depth. You should be able to find HBC 438 wherever Hop Union/HBC hops are sold, but if you cannot find it locally the hops are available at the following online retailers:

  • MoreBeer!
  • Northern Brewer/Midwest Supplies
  • Label Peelers
  • Adventures in Homebrewing

Full Review

Filed Under: General Tagged With: HBC 438, hop, neomexicanus

Cheap and Easy Hop Storage

February 4, 2015 by Derek Springer Leave a Comment

Hop Storage

Over the past year or two I have slowly been developing a process to store bulk-purchased hops cheaply and securely. It took me far too long to write it up, but I am happy to announce that the article is finally published over on HomeBrewTalk.

Being a tightwad I have spent a lot of time thinking on how to come up with a cheap option for hop storage. The solution came to me on a random idle evening as I went down the path of following just about any link I could get my hands on to perpetuate my idleness. As we all know, sometimes that means you stumble into a community dedicated to preserving salad in jars; sometimes that means you become enraptured by one-upmanship of the salad-in-a-jar enthusiasts as they try to preserve their salads in the cheapest way possible. And sometimes that means you crib come up with an idea for storing hops in such a cheap and easy way that you feel like you should start a life in the informercial biz…

Read the full article over on HomeBrewTalk!

Filed Under: Techniques Tagged With: homebrewtalk, hop, storage

Neomexicanus Hops: What’s Available

December 15, 2014 by Derek Springer 4 Comments

Part 2 of my series on neomexicanus.

If you recall from part 1 of this series, there is a “new” variety of Humulus lupulus available to homebrewers called neomexicanus that has been cultivated from wild plants in New Mexico. Though the variety is nearly 500,000 years old, it has only recently been cultivated into varieties compelling to brewers. Thanks to the efforts of enterprising backyard hop growers like Todd Bates and professional growers like Eric Desmarais at CLS Farms we are on the frontier of an exciting new hop variety.

Hop Wheel (Tim Kreitz)

Hop Wheel (Tim Kreitz)

Much like neomexicanus’ European sister lupulus there is not a simple way to describe the characteristics of the hops; whether through happenstance or selective breeding there exists a broad spectrum of bitterness, flavors, and aromas that the hop can possess. Instead of attempting to describe the characteristics of neomexicanus in broad terms I am going to examine what is available at the moment whether for brewing, growing, or drinking.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: General Tagged With: hop, neomexicanus

Neomexicanus Hops: A Primer

December 8, 2014 by Derek Springer 9 Comments

Part 1 of my series on neomexicanus hops.

hops photo

Photo by epicbeer

Humulus lupulus: the brewer’s favorite flowering plant. Its pungent flowers, commonly referred to as hops, are responsible for the signature bitterness in beer and contribute a complex bouquet of flavors though concentrations of myrcene, humulene, xanthohumol, myrcenol, linalool, tannins, and resin. Though the lupulus variety takes up the lion’s share of the homebrewer’s attention, you might be surprised to discover there are actually five distinct varieties of the plant (six, if you include hybrids):

  • cordifolius – Eastern Asia and Japan
  • lupulus – Europe, Asia, and Africa
  • neomexicanus – Western North America
  • pubescens – Midwestern US
  • lupuloides (aka americanus) – Eastern and northern North America

As a follower of Stan Hieronymus’ blog I was recently tipped-off to the fact that a monastery in New Mexico has successfully cultivated and is selling homebrew-sized batches of neomexicanus hops from their website. Though they are perhaps the most expensive hops I have ever purchased–$50 for six ounces–like any good homebrewer my desire for experimentation knows no limits! I’ll be writing more about the beers I make with the neomexicanus hops, but since the variety is new to the homebrew and even professional brewing scenes I thought I’d do a bit of research and share the details.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: General Tagged With: history, hop, neomexicanus

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Derek Springer

Derek Springer

I write code & brew beer--if you ask nice I'll share some with you :)

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