The Homegrown Hops Thread

Following up on the Hallertaur comment, I have a friend in State College, PA who also grows Hallertaur. His plants are monsters. I made a wet-hop ale with them a few years back. It was awesome -- much more hop character than I expected from Hallertaur.

 

Good timing on this post! I have a relevant question. I'm growing hops for the first time (Cascade), and I've started them in a planter (I'm going to put them in the dirt soon). They seem to be growing fast, but some of the leaves at the base are yellow and not doing too good.



What should I do with them? Should I cut them off? Should I spray any chemicals or anything on it? I've heard of fungal infection on hop plants, is this signs of that?

I have 0 growing experience so any help would be appreciated.

 

I'm in year 7 with Cascade and Centennial. They've worked well for me. In addition to the other advice, I'd suggest you eventually brew a fresh hop / harvest ale. I pick hops in the morning and brew with them in the afternoon. If you love hops, there is nothing like a fresh harvest ale brewed with your own hops.

 

There are many places to find hops information. Growing, pests, disease.
Here is what Freshops says.
http://www.freshops.com/hop-growing/hop-gardening
http://www.freshops.com/hop-growing/hop-diseases-and-pests

 

My biggest problem seems to be insects - some little buggers are eating my leaves (first year). I've been too lazy to get something to repel them just yet.

The second biggest problem was going away for 2 weeks when there was a major heat wave and allowing someone else to water them for me... they weren't looking so good when I got back, but they are starting to come back.

 

I just started growing some Cascade and Centennial. I had read that they only grow to 6'-8' in the first year, this is a LIE! Mine are easily 12' and still growing. The only trouble I've had is one of the Centennials appears to be dead. I think that's because it was getting water from sprinklers without my realizing, and so it got stupidly overwatered. I'm vaguely hoping it'll make another attempt next year.

Also, mine are doing roughly the same thing as Max's, I had heard it was overwatering and cut back. The dead leaves haven't rejuvenated, but the tops have kept growing just fine. (I think some of the leaves died because my stupid cat was eating them, I need to get him some damn cat grass. Incidentally, anyone know for sure whether or not hop plants are dangerous to animals? I've heard both yes and no, my experience is no.)

Right now I have them in pots, but I just moved into a duplex with a yard and I intend to plant them in the ground next year. I want to get them a good structure to climb up, right now they each have a line of training wire, and the two cascades are sharing that (for whatever reason they decided to grow together and I can't untangle them so whatever). I've also read that having them in the ground and mulched makes watering easier. (I'm a completely novice gardener, so this is all new to me.)

I'll post some pictures when I get home, all the ones I have are pretty old.

 

Hops are deadly to dogs if ingested. The plants are no big deal. The problem comes from spent hops, the dogs are after the sweet wort. Most deadly to whippets and greyhounds. Watch where you dispose of the spent hops.

 

And you can put them in your beer. You need to get them wet with beer and squeeze them - repeat (about 2-3 times) until you reach the level you desire/can stand.

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

I' ve had sucess with the Alton Brown herb drying method.
Box fan, AC filters, bungee cords. Plus it makes the house smell AWESOME!
Mostly I just make one fresh hop beer though.

 

That's a cool setup...I've heard though, that if you smell the hops...you are abusing them : )

Our humidity is so low here that the problem is that they dry TOO fast with absolutely no smell.

 

What would you call that white frame in your pot for the hops to grow onto, and where would you find stuff like that?

 

Apparently you've never been near a commercial hop yard when they're kiln drying hops; it smells like hops for miles around

Commercial yards generally use massive natural gas burners and fans to push hot air up through a 2-2.5 foot high bed of hops. You do lose some oil doing this, but it's primarily myrcene which you can afford to lose (it's the largest oil component and the least soluble in beer, so you don't need much). If they try and dry them more gently/slowly it's such a bottleneck that large farms couldn't exist - which maybe partially explains why all the hop farms in UK and Germany are tiny by comparison.

 

Yo hop farmers, got a freeze warning for Monday. How hardy are second year bines?

 

I have 4 plants - 2 4th year Newport (bittering, mostly) and 2 2nd year Cascade. I had to transplant them last fall, so they ended up a bit behind, I think. the 2 Cascade have popped a couple bines each, largest is maybe a foot high and one of the Newports is popping up. The second hasn't done anything yet, but I'm hoping it's right behind the other. I have to get my trellis set back up (today or tomorrow, depending on availability of assistance.)

For the Colorado with freeze warning - how high are the bines at this point? I would think that the bigger they are, the better they'll do - but just to be safe, I would think about draping an old sheet or something over them.

 

Yeah, doesn't make much sense for them (large commercial operations)...but for the backyard grower it doesn't make much sense to apply heat if you don't have to...I'll take the aroma in my pint glass...anywhere else is like using Simcoe for bittering...a waste, IMHO. : ) Cheers