Growing Hops Varietal Info Please
 

Okay, since my daughter is going to start an herb garden next spring and I garden anyhow I'd like to grow some hops.

Can anyone point me in the right direction as to the reasons/flavors/etc to grow a certain type?

I only know that my husband loves Irish Stout and I want to brew some wheat beers later from our own wheat. (This could be way way down the road depending on how difficult it all is)

Thank you,
Jennifer

Well find a few recipes that you like and see what kinds of hops they call for and then grow that kind.

You need to order your rhizomes pretty well in advance, cause most places only ship em in the late winter and early spring.

I found a place online you can get 3 varietys for $9 or 1 variety for $3.60 or something like that.

I'm going to grow some in my yard because I've already got a nice place for em to grow and if I can use some to make beer - fine, if not at least they smell nice. I ordered Cascade, Northern Brewer, Perle, and Hallertau just because those seem to be the most common flavors. I have no idea what the difference in taste or anything like that is though.

Hallertau, Tettnanger or Saaz for your hefe needs.

i like e. kent goldings for stouts.

you can use hallertau for just about anything.

we have fuggle, hallertau and cascade growing right now.

A starting point:
http://www.byo.com/referenceguide/hops/index.html
http://www.freshops.com/gardening.html
http://pw2.netcom.com/~dluzanp/backyard.htm
http://www.northernbrewer.com/instructions/growhops.htm
http://brewery.org/library/HopGrow.html

My $0.02: stout will benefit from English hop varieties (East Kent Goldings, Fuggles, for example.) and wheat beers can use continental hops (Hallertauer Hersbrucker, Tettnang Tettnager, Saaz, etc) or American varieties depending on beer style.

In the end, you can use any good hops to make good beer. So you might want to just pick one or two types based on your growing conditions, because different cultivars have different needs - the primary considerations being disease resistance and length of growing season.

All good info, thank you everyone for your input. I will probably order as soon as I can and plan on a place for at least two varieties. Well, maybe four...

I like overkill.

Jennifer

The rhizomes are only available in the spring, but some places will take advanced orders. If your summers tend to be hot & moist, look for highly mildew resistant hops. Fortunately, East Kent Goldings & US Tettnanger are both resistant.