How are your home grown hops doing?

Very cool, the little info I found on Tardif makes it sound great, would love to try it one day. Cheers!

 

Yeah, I have only used Tardif in a "Spring Saison" (read, the APA American Stout project sans dark malts) that finished way too high, so I soured it plus added 1# of Special B, so I have no idea what it really brings to the table. I have 0.60 oz each at 20 and FO of Cerera in a Vienna Lager that has a nice noble character to it. I need to do a full review of it and see what I get out of the hop.

 

First Cascade pick. A lot of them weren't quite ready yet and I didn't want to rush them.

 

Found a little friend hanging out in the Crystal last night, moved him to my Columbus after harvesting this plant.

First harvest of Columbus got 15oz wet hops on a first year plant.


Had some help this year which was very nice.


Heavy lifter, he even helped me get them down from the rafters too. My kid's a beast.

First year plant, first harvest, Magnum.


Only have a second harvest of Columbus left on the bines, everything else is picked clean and drying (or dried). Next up is packaging over Labor Day.

 

I'm curious, I used the video posted below on an indication of when to pick my hops. Yours seem much greener than mine, and now I'm wondering If I'm waiting too long. Any thoughts?

 

When I have purchased wet hops in the past they look just like the ones in my bags. I have a couple with browning edges here and there, but for the most part they are still bright green. I give them a squeeze, smell them, pick the good ones, leave the smaller and fluffier ones for later. I am still new to this as I am a couple years in and probably picked some of them too early (after watching this video). Quite a few of mine were papery and breaking apart as well.

 

I'm new to this too, this is my first year. I was just wondering, that's all. I didn't want to be picking them too late. Looks like you had a good harvest and a good helper!

 

For sure. It is always different depending on who you ask. Like I stated, I have gotten them directly from hop farms wet, just harvested, and they are plump, moist, and bright. Honestly the stuff he was picking in the video resembled what my hops are like after I dry them, not before (not totally, mine are for sure dryer than that after drying). I did glean some info from it though, like playing with the cones and seeing if they can take lots of handling, if so, too early. I am also looking at others in my area who have been doing this for many years (10 or more years) as well as local hop farms to see when their Cascade, or Centennial, or Chinook, or X are being harvested and get in on mine about the same time.

 

Hops are dried. Grabbed them off the oast last night and shoved them in ziplocks until I have time to package next week. The hops, the bags, my hands all smelled super dank and pithy. Those bright green hops were potent once dried, so I don't know I am totally convinced that they have to be as far along as the video suggests. I still have half the Columbus on the bine until the weekend is over, we will see if there is a substantial difference.

 

My Cascades are about ready to harvest. I'll use some fresh in next weekend's batch of APA.

 

Already posted a few of these in the brew day thread, but thought I should update here.

I only got about 3 oz wet from my 2nd year Goldings:



(They look greener than they actually are in the pic)

I picked 24 oz of my Cascade yesterday, for my wet hop APA, and there is about 6 oz left on the bines. So that's 30oz wet from my 2nd year Cascade.







I'll take it, considering the crappy weather we had in Minnesota this year.

 

Picked the last of it yesterday. It was fun growing them, and now I can't wait to turn them into good (hopefully) beer.

 

Very helpful posts you've linked, cheers! As a first year hop grower it's hard to sift through a lot of the info out there, and everyone seemingly has a slightly different approach/opinion.

The thing that puzzled me most was when to package and freeze hops that are drying out - the bract are paper dry but the strig are still moist and don't break before bending. Now I know to wait a bit longer!

 

My first year Cascades (last year's crop died due to the polar vortex last winter) are blooming late, but really producing well for a first year crop. I'm stoked to do a harvest ale, likely next month sometime.

 

thanks for reminding me...my son brought over some Chinooks that should be just about dry.

 

Picked the last on the 13th. With hindsight, this was a few days too late as there were a few brown cones. Most irritating, I lost about 90% of my transplanted wild hops to aphids... funny how they are less resistant to pests and disease than cultivated hops from somewhere else. My yield of the healthy hops was much lower than last year but quality is similar.

 

Hop harvest, finally! I'm guesstimating between 2 and 3 lbs dry when all done. All Cascades.

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I got 6 oz wet off my first year late plant centennials. They went into an american table beer I will be bottling tomorrow. Not being able to leave well enough alone I dryhopped with some bavaria mandarina too. Lol.