Difference between Us/UK Chinook hops

[Northern_Brewer]

I can't imagine English Chinooks turned into US Chinooks though?

I can't speak for Chinook - quite possibly not, but certainly eg Fuggles became rather closer to Savinjski/Willamette than usual; conversely in the cloudy 2017, Goldings had a lot of that earthiness we associate with Fuggles.

For hops in climates like the UK, there's a lot more vintage variation than people realise, it's more like the variation in eg Burgundy wine, whereas hops in the US are mostly grown in near-desert fed by irrigation, so unless the irrigation fails their conditions are far more consistent.

 

[Sandimas]

I grown Cascade and can confirm it's different to it's US counterpart, less fruity. Also it does vary year-to-year, this year's crop has been pretty good and fruity: must be a result of the amount of sunlight and heat, as others have said.

 

[clib]

I can't speak for Chinook - quite possibly not, but certainly eg Fuggles became rather closer to Savinjski/Willamette than usual; conversely in the cloudy 2017, Goldings had a lot of that earthiness we associate with Fuggles.

For hops in climates like the UK, there's a lot more vintage variation than people realise, it's more like the variation in eg Burgundy wine, whereas hops in the US are mostly grown in near-desert fed by irrigation, so unless the irrigation fails their conditions are far more consistent.

That's very Interesting, cheers. I don't think of Washington and Oregon having near desert conditions? Never been there though.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

That's very Interesting, cheers. I don't think of Washington and Oregon having near desert conditions? Never been there though.

They're wet on the coast, but US hops are mainly grown in the Yakima Valley, which is in the rain shadow of the highest bits of the Cascade mountain range (Mounts Adams, Rainier and St Helens) - it only gets 8 inches of rain plus some snow in winter, so it's very dependent on irrigation. (and they're getting a bit nervous about the effects of climate change on the snow that provides that irrigation)