Beer Forum

She said when the snow clears out (probably April or May) I can come out and check it out. Take what I want.

What kind of hops could grow up here in my area? I'm in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (Google "Houghton, MI"). Could I narrow things down to a few varieties based on range?

http://michiganhopalliance.com/ seems to be able to grow a few varieties. They're a little south of you but not that much. You might need to look into local history to get a better idea. Maybe a previous owner was a homebrewer? Maybe your wife's co-worker has the hots for you and there are no hops!

But it would be pretty near impossible to tell what kind they are in April-May before they even start growing again. Hell, unless she knows exactly where they are, they might even be difficult to find. (I don't know what the local foliage is like).
My brother in law found some pretty deep in the woods in northeast PA growing amongst a bunch of thorny vines and under a pretty full canopy. It took us about 45 minutes to actually find it again. Luckily it was later in the season so the cones were formed.
Anyway, I'm blabbering, time to get to bed.

I'll check and see if she has pictures of the flowers to see if I can narrow it down from there. Otherwise I'll have to wait a while before I can find out.

Will you be able to narrow it down based on pictures of the flowers?... one hop cone looks a lot like another to me, and the wild growing ones she has may be much smaller in size than any of the commercial varieties available. It may even be something that doesn't exist commercially, depending on how long they've been there...

spiderwrangler wrote:Will you be able to narrow it down based on pictures of the flowers?... one hop cone looks a lot like another to me, and the wild growing ones she has may be much smaller in size than any of the commercial varieties available. It may even be something that doesn't exist commercially, depending on how long they've been there...

+1

I don't know how to ID hops, so I figured visually was one method. I'll post pics and such here as well as check with a horticulturist professor at MI Tech if they can help me. The house was her boyfriend's grandparents house and they've been on the property since then. No one in their family ever brewed. From what we know about them, they're as wild as can be.

NE PA really?
Hmm might have to do some looking next time I go to Honesdale for paintballng.

My brother found some while hunting in VT but it was late in the season and most were past their prime. Making plans to go up in Sept to check the harvest.