Last year my hops came up about the first of March, which was about two weeks earlier than in 2022. This year they've gone back to their regular programming poked through about 1.5 weeks ago, on/about March 20. They're 6" - 12" tall. As in the past, Goldings were the first to make an appearance, with Cascade about a week later. Just finished stringing my grand total of four lines and will set up the watering system either in the next couple days or when I get back here the week of Apr 7. I'm thinking about digging up some rhizomes and trying them again in North GA. When I tried that 2-3 years back it was unsuccessful. Pretty sure they didn't get enough water in the heat of the summer. Hope everyone who tends to hops has great success this year!
Where I'm at in Pennsylvania they're out a foot. I use bamboo and twine and it takes me a while to complete the varieties I have. I get 2250 feet of twine at HD and the price has about doubled for it.
Well this year we just put our home up for sale to buy another house. Gonna leave my hop bines behind and start over at the new place. Cascade came up mid March and Mt. Hood poked through. The Vista hop bines came up Yesterday. It’s their 1st year really cause I planted them at the end of summer last year. Plan was to let them do what ever they wanted to this year but that will be up to the new home owners now. The Prussian and Hartwick have not came through yet.
After the latest snowfall, I can’t see any shoots, yet. Last year a hail storm ripped the leaves, that was a gateway for infection, and there was no harvest. Hoping for better this year
Burrs started forming late last week, mainly on the bines that get the most sun. That's at least 30 days earlier than any of the previous 3 years. Hopefully, nothing will derail what could be the best production since starting them in 2019 (I think). This is probably the last of my small NC hopyard. The plants seem to like the conditions here, but retirement at the end of this year is looking more and more likely and a move away from NC is not out of the picture. When first starting I planted 2 Cascade rhizomes and 1 Goldings rhizome. Over time the Cascades fizzled out, but the Goldings have been decent enough producers for me.....at least enough to keep me interested. This year it's looking like there are 19 cone-worthy bines.
This is the third summer for my Cascades. The first summer I actuallly got a few cones. Last summer it really took off. This summer it is going crazy!!! I am going to have to extend my lines another 10-12 feet at least from what I can tell. I don't know how hop farmers can keep up with cutting back all the new shoots that keep popping up every few days.
What I look for is for the petals to start losing some of their pliability and they have a bit of a crunchy sound when squeezed, kind of like dry onion-skin paper. I also look for some browning on the tips of the petals. They should have a good hops aroma when rubbed between your fingers, or when breaking them open. If you do break one open you should be able to see a decent amount of yellow lupulin. If they're not ready they often have a vegetal/green leaf smell. I'd suggest sacrificing one now and compare it to how it looks to another fresh one in a week, 2 weeks, etc. Last few seasons in the mountains of western NC mine weren't ready until mid September. Might be a little earlier this year.
Since other growers and local brewers were picking I decided to harvest a little earlier than I normally do. Out of the 4 stalks I got about 1.5oz of keepers. Most were at the very tops of the stalks. I opted not to keep the smaller, more pliable, ones. I think the dry and heat of VA kept them from producing.
Unless you're trying to perfect a clone beer, the hops additions can vary to your personal taste a little bit. But here's a link to a chart that will give you what you're looking for. https://learningtohomebrew.com/whole-hops-vs-pellet-hops-conversion-calculator/
Also keep in mind that using a large amount of fresh (wet) hops will also result in them 'soaking up' a lot of the wort and you should adjust your recipe accordingly. I am not aware of a formula or rule of thumb here but you will need more wort then if you brewed a beer just using pellets. Cheers!
