Most versatile hop

It’s easy to harvest a small crop at the peak of perfection of you have the time. Not as possible when your talking acres of crop.
As vikeman said all the plants will not be the same in the harvest season and the farmer does not have time to skip a plant.

I used to grow around 500 tomato plants and even with helpers,ie kids, we had to sell many as canners or #2, not the best.

 

And because of the logistics of harvesting I am dubious of claims that hops can be harvested at 'optimum' dates/conditions.

And I often wonder/worry that we homebrewers get the "#2" hops with the commercial brewers (particularly those with hop contracts) getting the 'better' of the hops (but still not necessarily 'optimum').

Cheers!

P.S. I have one hop plant in my backyards which I harvest to produce a Wet Hopped Harvest Ale (an APA with wet hops added at end of boil). The majority of those hop cones are at what I deem to be 'optimum' but a sizeable minority are less than ideal.

 

It takes me a couple weeks with 1-2 people helping to harvest what I have. Due to work it is not fast. The smaller hop yard here basically picks 24 hr a day to get them all in with 3 people pulling in bines from the field and 4 running their picker. Tough work. And as someone who has looked into it, there are testing methods out there where you can tell how your crop is doing and help you plan. You really only have a few days, so spending the money is probably worth it for the bigger places.

 

which is why I like growing my own.

true, I do not grow citra, Simco or other proprietary hops,
But we are happy with cascade, Columbus, nugget, chinook, willamet, comet, tettnang goldings and fuggles,
Well I can make beer with them good or better than commercial similar variety’s,after a lot of trial an error, so we are content.

and with that big a choice, well we figure it’s all #1 rouse.

cheers

 

As well you should be!

But have you ever perceived a terroir effect here? For example, do you personally think that a New England grown Cascade (or whatever variety) is 'better' than hops grown in the PNW?

Or maybe since you have roughly equivalent latitudes there is equivalency here?

Cheers!

 

Well, I truly cannot say about cascade or Columbus and willamette because they yield more than I use on a yearly basis.

centenial is tough to grow for me and the results have been poor, much better when I buy them.
Chinook seems to be even results as does nugget.

what I do hear from my fam an friends is the combined goldings and fuggles, or fugglings as I call them, gives a very different, preferred taste.
I am sure some of it is vegetal cause I usually use double the amount of commercial produced hops due to early harvest due to disease.

I believe the combo is a softer hop presence and less dirt taste from the fuggles.

no idea with tettnang since I never bought any.

never bought any comet but I sure like the ones I’m growing.

 

My comet is fairly spot on for what is typical and NE hops aren't usually typical. I had them tested this last year and they were in parameters for everything. Now I will say I do notice a difference for when I run out and buy some comet. I and most who have tried both, feel my hops have more grapefruit. I did test different for my cascade, but these last few years have felt I had some citrus but mostly floral, which is typical for NE cascade which commonly is described as having no citrus, but then why do I have some? My galena was low for Alpha, which I was surprised about.

 

Each farm has their crew that comes and works the harvest, and many come back every year. More workers are employed in the spring than in the fall, believe it or not.

The farms have a picking window for each variety. The farms try and have a balance so that the picking windows are not stacked up, but spread out. Aroma varieties are ready first, alpha later.

The workers have other things to do when not working the hop farms. The Yakima valley grows everything from Asparagus to Zucchini (as told by a local) and the different crops don't all come on at once.

Edit - I've been to YCH Hop and Brew School 3 times. It is informative and a blast. You should go sometime when the have it in person again Jack.

 

When was the last time you went?

 

Jeff, I fully understand that the hop farmers do their 'best' to schedule their harvest times per hop variety.

Cheers!

 

Where in CO are you at? Here's some things I have run into in Castle Rock.
1. Hops grow in the wild in CO. Plant the right hops and you'll do well.
2. I planted 4 hills in a raised bed. I was able to set my soil up to drain well, and this also keeps my bines from going all over the yard.
3. Mildew has never affected my hops. My squash has had issues, but never my hops.
4. Centennial grows well, my Chinook is temperamental as far as cone size is concerned. I had one year where they set magnificent cones that looked like marlins beard. One year out of 6. The rest of the years they have been stunted.
5. My Centennial bines came from tagawa farms. As per everything from them these plants have been virile.
6. Lots of water is needed in our drought ridden state.
7. Plant where you want to keep the bines. I started my Chinook in a barrel, they never really recovered from the transplant.

Let me know if you have other questions.

 

I'm wondering how this takes off or doesn't.

https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/blo...ast-could-be-the-next-step-in-beers-evolution

 

Interesting article

at one time there was a big backlash against GMOs of any kind.
Since I retired from the produce buiz I do not follow it. Guess it will depend on the time it become a big thing and if the public knows.

all GMOs are not bad in my opinion

 

And I suspect that is still the case for a segment of the consumer market.

Cheers!

 

On another forum, I've seen some panicky posts about a couple of genetically modified strains that are currently available. Everyone is fine with the hundreds of ale and lager strains whose genetic mutations were the result of random chance (and domestic pressure). But poke a gene on purpose and people start imagining Sharktopus. Best not to look into how Golden Promise originated.

 

I believe some modified yeast is already in use.

 

We don't know. This stuff has only been around for 30 years and any reliable indication of safety would require multi-generational studies. It might also be difficult to find a control group. GMO's are different from traditional hybrids because genetic material from different species, or even kingdoms, are added. Unexpected outcomes are pretty much assured.

Having said that, my opinion is that most GMO's will eventually be proven safe (or safe enough; nothing in nature is perfect either). Most does not mean all. We are guinea pigs.

 

2019 was the last time.

 

Did you go to the homebrewer tech talks on the last day or the pro panels?