Growing Hops 2022

He lives! Good to see you, Sir.

 

Dave,

Firstly, it is good to ‘hear’ from you!

Do you have any ideas or theories about why you had bad luck when brewing with wet hops?

In contrast I have been homebrewing a wet hopped beer every year since 2013 and every batch has turned out very well. I just wrote an article which includes my homebrewed batches, hot off the press:

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Brewing_Fresh_Hops

Cheers!

Jack

 

Breakside in Oregon supposedly flash freezes the wet hops with (I think) liquid nitrogen and then shatters them. Not sure how easily you could emulate that at home, but it's something to consider

 

That's what Falstaff/Narragansett did in the mid-late 1970s when they dry-hopped Ballantine India Pale Ale, according to Narragansett masterbrewer Bill Anderson (quoted in the article The late, great Ballantine - traditional American ale - Modern Brewery Age, March 27, 2000 by Greg Glaser).

Eventually replacing the original P. Ballantine & Sons brewery's use of distilled hop oil.

 

I harvested around 1.5lbs of my Cascade this year. Amazing yield. Maybe I harvested them at the perfect time this year but they’re throwing off a ton of guava and citrus so I’m excited to try them in a few projects (dry hopped Vodka and Gin to start). Also, for anyone looking for a pretty easy drying method for large quantities, I laid them all out on my dogs hammock (he doesn’t use it so figured I’d put it to good use) and hit them with a fan for two days.

 

Yeah. I’ve only ever done spirit infusions with fruit before so we shall see how this pans out. Smells great so far though.

 

Rrrrrripper, the foundry hops were planted for “art” value but I brew with them, hell I planted them. The owner does nothing but tie them up. I harvest and make him a batch. Good deal seeing I get multiplayer lbs of dry.

 

Nice! I assumed it could get skunky too so I did the same with storing it in a dark spot. I just tried both the other day. The gin has more hop aromatic’s but is also more bitter. The vodka has less aroma and bitterness but more flavor. Cool experiment. Now to make some cocktails…

 

Posted this in beer news, then thought it would be of interest here. Philly city workers chopped down an urban brewery's hops...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...sedgntp&cvid=8f1747423dac42e7b74c95cf6443e348

 

That's a bummer. But I can't help but notice...

"She estimated the company will lose $30,000 to $40,000, revenue it counts on each year"

Hmm. I don't think there were 30-40K worth of hop plants in that picture. A few hundred dollars maybe. I guess if they can't brew their Harvest beer, they just won't brew anything.

 

I'm not an expert on hop yield, but I thought the same thing.

 

Nice yard, dude.

 

Thanks. I can’t take the credit my wife did most the work. We cut down a dead tree there and it was a mud hole so we had to do something with.

 

Is it typical for hop bines to produce a “2nd harvest” ? I picked all the hops in early August but it looks like I will just as many to pick again here soon before the first freeze. I didn’t know if this is regular as it’s my first year growing them.

 

Sure, mine do

 

Is obtaining a second harvest variety dependent?

Cheers!

 

You bet, and weather dependent. Since frost comes
Later these days, it can be semi annual with chinook and cascade.
Never happened with the rest.