bigrich

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Last year while shopping at lowes in July. They had hops plants marked down to $3, I figured I'd be stupid not to buy them, all the tag said was "hops plant". I got them planted so late they never had a chance to bud.. Now it is the 2nd year, and i continued fertilizing them through the winter(besides when the ground was frozen.. So now in their 2nd year they are growing very nicely, damn near a foot at this early stage. Problem is i have no idea in what strand they could be, i live in Indiana, could anyone help me figure out what plants they could be?

bierhaus15

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Since you'd got them from Lowes, I'd bet they are some form of ornamental variety which isn't really of much use in brewing. There are a lot of non-brewing types out there - Humulus lupulus 'Aureus', Humulus lupulus 'Bianca', Humulus japonica and so on...

Edit: Even if they are ornamentals, keep em. They look great in the yard and attract butterflies.

Retrofit

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Sunbeam is often sold as an ornamental hop. From what I've read it's a "shorty" growing 20ish or less. I've read that it's not a favored brewing hop but this is where it gets I interesting. I know a guy that used sunbeam strictly for dry hopping because it wasn't a great brewing hop and he loved it. He said it was lemony. I almost got some based on how much he liked it.

Having said that there is almost no way to determine what you have unless you set up a lateral tasting of hops and are confident you have a good pallet or the only true way via testing.

I would call them a heirloom hop native to the region and impress the various brewers that try your beers.

bigrich

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Thank you for the replies.. I will take care of them as I have been in hopes of good harvest, even if they are not ideal for brewing, I plan on buying some cascade hops and these will act as my training plants.. They are actually the first plants I have ever grown, and look fantastic right now, perhaps I'm a natural.. Thanks again for your input

daniels

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Ive got 18 of these last year because they offered them to me for a buck a plant. i tracked them down to the the original grower and all they kept saying is they are humulus lupulus i told them i was looking for which variety they told me they have no idea. ive put mine on a fience to cut out my neighbors view of me. and so i dont have to look at his sorry azz