Here's the deal. I'm going to plant 3 hops plants, all different varieties. Why 3? Well that's about enough to fill the location I'm planting them. 2 wouldn't be enough and 4 would be too much for what I'm trying to do. I'd like to get 3 different varieties to be able to cover as much of my future hops need as I can from my own fresh crop. If you had to pick 3, which would you pick? I'd try to help you out by giving you my beer tastes so that you'll know what I like and can make a better choice but I'm all over the lot. I love everything and switch what I'm drinking from day to day. I will say that if anything IPAs will be brewed more than any other style.
Hops have specific ideal situations , although you can plant any variety more or less anywhere some will thrive better than others under a given set of conditions.It's worth doing some research to match your soil and climate to what grows best.
Well scratch that idea to do 3 types. Reading now that plants should be 5' apart for different varieties and I just don't have a desire to plant them that far apart in that space. Would have to completely redo my plans for how I was going to build the boxes/trellises. So I guess I'll be sticking to one.
Cascade or Centennial are good all purpose hops. I have good luck with my Cascades here in upstate NY. Just watch out for the bugs. Spider mites wrecked mine last year. Cheers!
I'm in central CT so I'd probably be pretty darn close to you in climate. I'm definitely planning on using some natural bug control methods on these. Certainly no plans for pesticides. I don't want them in my food and I value my beer more than my food. I was also thinking about Chinook. Thoughts?
From reading similar threads in the past, it appears that Cascades are quite hardy. I grow them here in Utah, and they have done very well. They seem to do well elsewhere. I have a friend in State College, PA who grows Hallertauer. Grow there, they are super spicy. Made a single-hop pale ale (wet hop) with them once that was awesome.
I bent a shovel trying to dig some Nugget rhizomes yesterday...you will want any variety > 10' apart...and even then they will grow together eventually...I'd plant all my "like alpha" varieties together for just that reason.
I picked Columbus for bittering but for you, having room for 3 different ones, pick ones you like for styles you would like to brew during harvest cause I hear wet hopped brews are to die for!
