9 replies to this topic

[chadm75]

Was brewing yesterday with some Sterling leaf hops and as soon as I added these hops to the boil, there were some seed like floaties churning in the boil. I can only assume these came from the hops. Any clue what these were? I assume they were seeds but I know what happens when I assume something...

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

Was brewing yesterday with some Sterling leaf hops and as soon as I added these hops to the boil, there were some seed like floaties churning in the boil. I can only assume these came from the hops. Any clue what these were? I assume they were seeds but I know what happens when I assume something...

I've seen that before and I have no idea.

[BrewerGeorge]

They're seeds. They won't hurt anything.

[chadm75]

Huh, interesting. Been brewing for 3+ years and have never seen that before. Can I plant them and get hops?!?!

[BrewerGeorge]

Huh, interesting. Been brewing for 3+ years and have never seen that before. Can I plant them and get hops?!?!

You can plant them, but they wouldn't come up the same variety since they've been fertilized. It would also be a crap shoot whether the resulting plant was male or female. Hops we use in brewing are female plants. I've read that letting the hops get fertilized tends to increase yield, but decreases alpha acid. Hops that are hard to grow, like English varieties, tend to be fertilized. Home-grown hops may or may not be fertilized depending on whether there is a male plant (probably wild) nearby.

[MolBasser]

English hops are very often seeded. They just don't care about it over there.MolBasser

[djinkc]

English hops are very often seeded. They just don't care about it over there.MolBasser

I would guess that if heat was used to process/dehydrate the seeds are sterile. Just a guess. I've had seeds floating in the boil lots of times, no problem.But, never had a single seed in Simcoe or Summit whole hops. I would have tried to germinate both, but no............

[MolBasser]

Simcoe and Summit are US varieties. We are very anal about having female only crops in the US.The British just don't care.I can't begin to count the seeds that I have scraped out of our hop strainers when we use British hops.In general, it doesn't seem to seriously effect the hops, although there is a difference. I would have to defer to our hop guy to explain it.ETA: and I would suspect that because of the kilning, the hop seeds are dead in the British hops.MolBasser

Edited by MolBasser, 06 August 2010 - 09:41 PM.

[lowendfrequency]

Seeded U.S. hops generally tend to be from a hermaphrodite plant. This is of benefit because a ) the hop variety will be the same, not a cross breed and b ) the seeds are feminized and will result in only cone producing female plants.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

Simcoe and Summit are US varieties. We are very anal about having female only crops in the US.The British just don't care.I can't begin to count the seeds that I have scraped out of our hop strainers when we use British hops.In general, it doesn't seem to seriously effect the hops, although there is a difference. I would have to defer to our hop guy to explain it.ETA: and I would suspect that because of the kilning, the hop seeds are dead in the British hops.MolBasser

ah - the one time I've seen this it was leaf EKG.