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Hello :) It is the first time I try to cultivate hops, and I'm not a homebrewer. I started planting about 1000 plants of Cascade and I made analysis to my hops. Now I have the analysis but I have not idea if they are good or not, because I don't know if it's better an high value of alpha acid or low. Could you help me, please?
An instant reaction to this analysis is "Good". Hops nice and dry - should be good to store/bag/generally handle Alpha acids (which when isomerised add to the bitterness of the beer) are about average for Cascade. So that is good/useful Beta acids quite high so there should a good amount of "Cascade" aroma and beta acids to keep the flavour up and improve long term bitterness.
Typical cascade is 4.5-6 AA.
Personally I prefer my aroma hops to be on the low end of the spectrum. So I can use more with out too much of a flame out bittering spike. And don't have to adjust my bittering hops much.
It all depends how the brewer wants to use them. Higher AA allows a brewer to shift more of the bittering load to late additions.
All in all I would still purchase the crop, it all has good application.
