Hops harvesting is done for us!

I didn't harvest all of my varieties, but a friend picked as much hallertauer as he wanted and I picked the cascade, chinook, and centennial. I didn't get much goldings, or Zeuss, or northern brewer, as they are young so I let them grow.

We finally today put the last of the dried hops in the freezer. Our tally was 2.5 pounds dried chinook, 2.7 pounds dried centennial, and 3.5 pounds of cascades.

Here's a photo of Bob, after we harvested some of the chinook (the first one to be ripe), standing in front of the cascades plant:


I made a hopbursted pale ale on Thursday, using only this years homegrown hops. I hope it tastes as good as it smelled, as it was heavenly!

First off, let me just say.... J-E-A-L-O-U-S!!!!

(after wiping up my drool)

I've got a question. Do you whack your bines back to ground level every year or do you leave them decorating your trellises? I whack back to ground every year but had wondered about them rebudding from existing bines in following years.

stpug said:

First off, let me just say.... J-E-A-L-O-U-S!!!!

(after wiping up my drool)

I've got a question. Do you whack your bines back to ground level every year or do you leave them decorating your trellises? I whack back to ground every year but had wondered about them rebudding from existing bines in following years.

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I know, he's HOT considering he's going to be 60 years old soon. I'll tell him of your drooling- he'll be flattered.

I'll eventually cut them down, more or less. They will not rebud from the existing bines, but they'll send up new bines from the soil.

We have hops everywhere- up the green house, across a fence, up a telephone pole, etc- and even if I don't cut them all down and properly mulch, they do fine. They'll die back all the way to the (frozen) ground and start up fresh in the spring. It's probably not a good way to care for hops, but they seem to grow like weeds and are quite invasive (coming up under the deck Bob is standing on, among other places) and we've never had to do anything to encourage them!

Yooper said:

I know, he's HOT considering he's going to be 60 years old soon. I'll tell him of your drooling- he'll be flattered.

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Doesn't look a day over 21 :cross:

Yooper said:

I'll eventually cut them down, more or less. They will not rebud from the existing bines, but they'll send up new bines from the soil.

We have hops everywhere- up the green house, across a fence, up a telephone pole, etc- and even if I don't cut them all down and properly mulch, they do fine. They'll die back all the way to the (frozen) ground and start up fresh in the spring. It's probably not a good way to care for hops, but they seem to grow like weeds and are quite invasive (coming up under the deck Bob is standing on, among other places) and we've never had to do anything to encourage them!

Click to expand...

I grow mine up rope reaching to the top of my flag pole which is about 25 feet long (seriously though..... seriously ), but I've always cut them back to ground every year. I've just always noticed the items around your yard that are heavily adorned with hops and always EXTREMELY lush; so lush I wasn't sure if you left them up and they rebudded year after year.

Do you somehow clean out the bines from what I assume is lattice in some parts of your yard? I've considered planting on a chainlink fence but worried the only way I'd be able to remove the bines would be by torching them.

stpug said:

Doesn't look a day over 21 :cross:



I grow mine up rope reaching to the top of my flag pole which is about 25 feet long (seriously though..... seriously ), but I've always cut them back to ground every year. I've just always noticed the items around your yard that are heavily adorned with hops and always EXTREMELY lush; so lush I wasn't sure if you left them up and they rebudded year after year.

Do you somehow clean out the bines from what I assume is lattice in some parts of your yard? I've considered planting on a chainlink fence but worried the only way I'd be able to remove the bines would be by torching them.

Click to expand...

Yes, I sort of half-ass pull them out once the turn brown, but I don't work too hard at it.