2014 Hop garden photo thread

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These look great! I like the trellis idea too! There are a ton of cones up there!

I posted back a bunch of pages ago, but the top of each trellis has the name of the varietal routered into the header. Used a sign making setup and roundnose bit.

These hops are second year growth from a crown.
 
Brewer's Gold. They should be much bigger by now but there was a huge freak hail storm a couple months ago. They are thriving now though and side shoots are popping out.

There was no freak hail storm where I live and that's about how mine are doing. Some of the plants on this page are growing HUGE compared to any of mine. I have mine in 5 gallon pots because I may be moving, think that would be the problem? Even my second year plants are hardly bigger than this and they've all been in the soil since April.
 
Burrs on first year centennial
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Several actually. The first shows my bine lowered to the ground sort of. The next two show funny looking cones? Seeds? I don't know what they are. I left then on.

Last pic shows an old LME bucket from an AHS wheat kit (don't have an adjustable mill), it's filled with Columbus cones..

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I saw similar on my Columbus last year. They only appeared later on so I was hoping they were going to develop into more cones. I was disappointed.

Doing some reading this year I found out that these are actually male flowers (http://www.greatlakeshops.com/hops-blog/hop-identification). Seems that some hop varieties are triploid and thus can produce both. The link specifically mentions Columbus and Zeus. I didn't do anything with mine but it's possible that you could get some cross pollination with your other plants, they may even self-pollinate. No idea if this has any material effect on your hop production other than giving you hybrids and/or seeds.
 

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So it's been six weeks since I had to butcher the roughly 5 foot long bines on all fifteen of my plants right down to grade so I could stain the deck railings. The plants are doing quite well considering that trauma, though I decided not to erect the ten foot tall risers on the upper deck this year.

There are four Centennial (with three potted Fuggles hiding behind them) to the right of four Chinook, then three Cascade at the other end of the deck. There's a newly cloned fourth Cascade hiding in the latter pic that replaced a crown that had some weird genetic or viral issue that caused strange growth patterns and only bear about 1/10th what the other three produced. Aside from the new-born the plants are all in their fourth year.

Everything's sprouting flowers, right on schedule per the past three years.
One good thing is I totally avoided the early season "hop worm" infestation, and aside from minor JB chompage the plants all look very strong...

Cheers!

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First year centennial and first attempt at growing in Wisconsin...seems to be going well, I think, given I wasn't expecting any yield year one. Any feedback on how things are looking would be appreciated.

It climbing to about 15 feet overall which is promising for first year but early buds just starting to show so not sure if thats too late.

Thanks!

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I love that I get to wake up each day to see how my hops are growing straight out my 2nd story window! They have hit the roofline+ 20foot or more. This week finally got some cones forming, about time!
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I was just about to start searching for flowers that look like this. I have one of my cuttings that is growing in back yard starting to put out flowers like this. All my other flowers are real individual burrs that are out on their own little stems. These flowers have like three of em with leaves around like this.

Is this a common way for female flowers or is this not female?

My first year cascades are looking good!

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OH...and DANG my centennial hops are smelling AMAZING! I went up the ladder today because the cones have been up there for months, but they are not ready to pick since they are not dry yet.

I got three to smell em, and wow, crushing them in my hands is pine, grapefruit, slight dank. I can tell these are going to be my flavor and aroma additions!!
 
Went on vacation, came back and found a ton of these (first year cascasde), yeah!

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One of the Brewers Gold is looking great and even has some burrs! The other one is still trying to catch up.

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I was just about to start searching for flowers that look like this. I have one of my cuttings that is growing in back yard starting to put out flowers like this. All my other flowers are real individual burrs that are out on their own little stems. These flowers have like three of em with leaves around like this.

Is this a common way for female flowers or is this not female?

Those look like female flowers to me. Have a look at my previous post to see what male flowers look like.
 
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This is round 2 on my Columbus this year! My first harvest was in mid June. I cut them back to ground level an they are now about 15' tall and have about half developed cones. We'll see how they turn out. Has anyone else gotten multiple harvests from the same plant in one growing season?

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This is round 2 on my Columbus this year! My first harvest was in mid June. I cut them back to ground level an they are now about 15' tall and have about half developed cones. We'll see how they turn out. Has anyone else gotten multiple harvests from the same plant in one growing season?

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Those are some nice looking cones. I've started harvesting my Columbus too. Hoping to do so several more times this year :)

Just wondering if you've noticed the male flowers you've got there. You can see them clearly on the second image (they're the much smaller ones). Apparently Columbus can produce male and female flowers (plant sex is weird). I've seen similar on mine too. I've been picking them off whenever I see them. I'm hoping to avoid getting seeds in my female cones, especially as I have two other varieties growing right beside the Columbus.

Hope this helps.
 
Fall colors showing up in the midwest? It seems that all my hop plants are showing yellow leaves, haven't seen anyone else post this yet. My cones are still not ready to pick, but leaves are starting to drop off lower down.

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Hop Harvest 1

2nd year plants with plenty left on the vines. Cascades from two plants on the screen and Centennials on the cookie sheets. Got 5.5 gallons of Cascades. Any idea what weight this will amount to when dried? I'm guessing at least a half pound.

Notice the giant Cascade hop with leaves growing out of it. I got several like this.

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Notice the giant Cascade hop with leaves growing out of it. I got several like this.

I have a couple of big funky Chinook cones like this. I'm thinking it's because I probably fertilized after some of the initial burrs formed.

What was the initial weight of your cones? If your initial weight was 25oz, expect about 5 dry oz. Take your initial weight and divide by 5. That's about what you'd expect dry.
 
Fall colors showing up in the midwest? It seems that all my hop plants are showing yellow leaves, haven't seen anyone else post this yet.

Mine are starting to yellow as well, in Cleveland Ohio. Mostly the ones lower and older. Does this mean anything specific?
 
Mine are starting to yellow as well, in Cleveland Ohio. Mostly the ones lower and older. Does this mean anything specific?


The plant is not actively taking up nutrients from the soil, instead it is utilizing resources already present in its tissues to account for the growth of the cones. It's been shown that additions of fertilizer once flowering begins isn't correlated to increased yields.


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I have a couple of big funky Chinook cones like this. I'm thinking it's because I probably fertilized after some of the initial burrs formed.

What was the initial weight of your cones? If your initial weight was 25oz, expect about 5 dry oz. Take your initial weight and divide by 5. That's about what you'd expect dry.

Not quite sure on the wet weight.. I'd guess 2 to 3 lbs so a half lb sounds about right.
 
I have a couple of big funky Chinook cones like this. I'm thinking it's because I probably fertilized after some of the initial burrs formed.

Curious if that would affect the quality of the hop or amount of lupulin? Or if it's just cosmetic?
 
Those are commonly called "Hop Birds" and "Hop Angels", and they typically appear at the very ends of bines and long side-arms. Some strains are really prone to them - I get them on my Chinook and Cascade (these were Chinooks) but rarely on my Centennials and never on my Fuggles. I doubt there's anything anyone could do that would encourage their appearance.

They're considered a defect for obvious reasons and are likely a nuisance for the pro's. I thought they were kinda neat until I started picking out all the leaves...

Cheers!

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I planted one Cascade rhizome this year that had a short, existing sprout with a couple of leaves on it, just to see how it would do. I have a small raised bed garden, 6x12, with an arch trellis in the back. The bines took off eventually and I got a few cones. I will definitely plant more next Spring...maybe some Nugget. I local friend saw me put something on Facebook about a brew I was doing and said she has a son that brews and they have several organic Cascade bines that are four years old and going crazy. She said I could come over and pick a bunch! Maybe next Spring she'll let me get some rhizome pieces too!(I'll have to read up on that before I try it, though. I don't want to damage her plants!

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Friend invited me over to pick son's Cascade hops...he's move away for a job and won't be able to get back to them I left a couple beers for him when he visits his mom. I brought a big movie theater popcorn bucket...should have brought a 5 gallon pail! I had no idea there would be so many! They were 4 year bines and LOADED! I wound up with 13 ounces...I vacuum sealed and stuck in the freezer some pint jars that each hold two ounces and I have about 5 ounces I'm going to dry.

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First thing tomorrow, take those jars out of the freezer, hope the cones aren't already mush, before you dry them properly and then vac-freeze them. Wet hops absolutely do not freeze well...

Cheers!
 
First thing tomorrow, take those jars out of the freezer, hope the cones aren't already mush, before you dry them properly and then vac-freeze them. Wet hops absolutely do not freeze well...

Cheers!

I was under the impression it's fine as long as you throw the frozen hop mush directly into the boil and not let it thaw...

That being said I'd reconsider freezing a glass jar for long term storage. Also, I'd still go to the effort to dry hops in the future. It makes using them easier and I think they store better/longer.

However, I think I've read that it's bad to freeze, thaw and refreeze. So I'd let these be and change methods on the future. Just my $.02.
 
Hop harvest day, I went up because the magnums were feeling right, found the centennial ready too. Centennial my top producer so far.

(Look at the bounty of willamette from a second year plant! Bah.)
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The biggest problem was my cascades. I had a ton of them, I got about half ounce dried from picking a few weeks back. Everything else looked like it was needing more time. This is what was left on plant after picking today...half the crop already browned and falling apart...ARGH!!
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I was under the impression it's fine as long as you throw the frozen hop mush directly into the boil and not let it thaw...

That being said I'd reconsider freezing a glass jar for long term storage. Also, I'd still go to the effort to dry hops in the future. It makes using them easier and I think they store better/longer.

However, I think I've read that it's bad to freeze, thaw and refreeze. So I'd let these be and change methods on the future. Just my $.02.

I'd like to reinforce the idea that putting them directly in the freezer is fine.

I'm not sure where this idea of them turning to mush comes from. That certainly can't happen below freezing point. Not sure why you'd thaw them first before brewing either.

I have actually done this before, last year. If you'd like to see documented proof please start here: http://hopstarter.blogspot.com/2013/09/brewing-pt1.html. No mush was observed at any point in the proceedings and this was quite easily the best beer I've made to date, particularly if measured by compliments from other people.

As far as I can tell the reason commercial growers don't freeze their product is because it's just not even close to being feasible. The quantities they deal with mean they need to have a product that is stable at ambient temperature, same is true for commercial brewers.

If you are neither a commercial hop grower nor brewer and have space in your freezer then I would highly recommend freezing over drying. Drying means they can be kept for longer at room temperature, but you will lose a whole host of V.O.C.s (Volatile Organic Compounds aka flavour and aroma) that would otherwise go into your beer.

If your cones go straight into the freezer after picking and then straight into your beer during the boil you will get to appreciate all this extra flavour that is lost during drying.

Also, just as a small tip, I prefer to put them in ziploc freezer bags and then roll them as flat as possible, a bit like a sleeping bag. This expels as much air as possible and means they take up less space.

You can see all of this and more on my blog.

Hope this helps.
 
Because you can buy wet-frozen hops from.....nobody. Hmmm.

Considering all the energy and effort it takes to properly prepare hops for storage, you'd think if the pro's could just freeze the wet harvest they'd be all over that like white on rice.

The forum is riddled with the results of people having frozen wet hops and what they found when they went to use them. It isn't a pretty sight, and surely the quality of the hops used for anything can't be anywhere remotely close to ideal.

But...do what you like...

Cheers!
 
Because you can buy wet-frozen hops from.....nobody. Hmmm.

Considering all the energy and effort it takes to properly prepare hops for storage, you'd think if the pro's could just freeze the wet harvest they'd be all over that like white on rice.

The forum is riddled with the results of people having frozen wet hops and what they found when they went to use them. It isn't a pretty sight, and surely the quality of the hops used for anything can't be anywhere remotely close to ideal.

But...do what you like...

Cheers!

Did you miss the part where I talked about commercial operations versus home operations? Also, did you even look at my blog post documenting a successful use of frozen hops?

Ultimately there's more than one way of doing things and people should do what ever works for them.
 
No horse in this race, but the freeze vs the pros....if they froze the hops then they would have to keep them frozen all the way to your home fridge. The costs of that would be prohibative to the price of a dried hop leaf or pellet. So just the bald, "Because you can buy wet-frozen hops from.....nobody. Hmmm." really doesn't mean it isn't a good way.

More likely it just isn't a profitable way..... <shrug> That being said I have only just picked my first ever real harvest (2nd yr plants) so maybe when I get more next year I'll compare some dried/vacuum sealed vs some frozen.
 
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