Homegrown hops 2020

This was my third year of growing centennial and cascade hops, and wow what a difference. I always got a fair number of cones, but this year they were very large and loaded with lupulin.

I think that the biggest challenge in the sub-hobby of hop growing is knowing when to pick, and drying. This year I performed a moisture content test to determine harvest time (this was back in early september) I also used a box fan hop oast, as in previous years.

I had more hops than I could pick as I was pressed for time with a canoe trip I was leaving on, so as a hail marry I took a bunch of bines I had cut down, put them on a clothes drying rack and pointed three fans at them while I was gone. I got home to find them probably on the drier side of dry, but they smelled amazing, so I picked as many as I could, still not getting them all (picking cones off a dry bine is a bit messier and harder)

Over all i wound up with about three pounds of dried hops and I am very excited to use them. It is a blend, as the centennial were all tangled in with the cascade, but I recon those will pair well nicely.




realizing now I should have put something on the table for size reference, but that big one was about 2.5" long. Also kinda cool how you can tell the difference between the cascade and centennial by looks once they mature. The centennial are paler in color and rounder, the cascade greener and more tapered.

 

An update to my Illicit Neighborhood Hop Harvest, now part 2.

It looks like I got a decent amount, but it's very deceiving. I harvested these a week exactly after the first Illicit Neighborhood Hop Harvest, and what's amazing is how much the hops changed within that week.

Last week when we harvested, it had been still warm, up in the upper 70s F, until then. The hops were extremely aromatic, smelled wonderful but tasted quite bitter in the tea I had made. They basically seemed to be at the height of their aroma, literally bursting with lupilin and the yellow powder.

Fast forward 1 week. It had been colder, never below freezing, but down into the 40s F and raining almost every day for some part of the day, and basically zero sun. I got to harvest them and immediately notice after cutting off the cones that many have lost most of their aroma. Some cones, if I rubbed them vigorously, did exhibit a small burst of aroma, but overall not so much. Some cones had zero aroma no matter how vigorous I rubbed. I opened these cones and notice small seeds. Basically, the hops I should've harvested last week but didn't due to darkness and drizzle had gone to seed. I tasted the seeds and their lack of any flavor was disappointing. Many of these cones with seeds had opened themselves up as if the green leaves had exploded open. More than 1/2 the cones were like going in this direction.

It's amazing how much difference a week makes and also the influence of cold, wet weather had. I felt privileged to be able to learn how important timing seems to be in the harvesting of hops. Too early and they have no aroma and no lupilin, and just a little too late and all aroma and lupilin is goes to seed, and happy to have learned this on free neighborhood hops. If none of this 2nd harvest is usable in beer, then I'll have lost nothing but time and energy.

Also, the hop plants I bought stopped growing about 2 weeks ago.