New Kentucky commercial hop farm

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1461696934.825700.jpg

This will take a lot of time, but in the next couple of years I'll have finished setting up a commercial hop farm in the field pictured above. I'll be sourcing the poles from discarded power poles. They're free. I'll be doing all of the labor myself in my free time, I wasn't doing much anyway. In a couple years the homebrewers in western Kentucky can use some locally sourced hops.

good for you dude. wish you the best of luck

what kinds of hops you thinking about growing? I'd be down to drive ~90min for a wet hopped beer

So far my prospective customers have only requested galena. I've been growing chinook for the past 4 years for personal use, so I'll probably expand that. Other than those, I haven't figured the other varietals out.

hmm...galena seems an odd choice if you are going the fresh/wet hop route. From what I remember, its basically a bittering hop through and though. It was once the largest grown hop in the US due to its bittering properties. Using fresh hops for bittering seems like a waste, but maybe they are more interested in using locally sourced material?

I dunno, I'd definitely jump at the chance for any good quality fresh stuff like chinook, or other assertive varietals that are grown around me

I use my currently grown galena in every aspect of brewing and it's a great all around hop.

Sounds like an awesome plan. If I were closer, I might come by and lend a hand.

dlaramie08 said:

View attachment 351952

This will take a lot of time, but in the next couple of years I'll have finished setting up a commercial hop farm in the field pictured above. I'll be sourcing the poles from discarded power poles. They're free. I'll be doing all of the labor myself in my free time, I wasn't doing much anyway. In a couple years the homebrewers in western Kentucky can use some locally sourced hops.

Click to expand...

Count me in as a buyer! I am just getting started in home brew and I will own a MicroBrew one day! I am over in Owensboro most of the time and then Madisonville. I was thinking about buying some land myself to do exactly what you are doing.



-Altrez

Whereabouts are you located? I have been experimenting with mt hood near paducah with success. I, too, have separated my mother crown into 100 starts and hope to have a 1/4 acre before long. I was also thinking of expanding to another variety as well. The brewers i have talked to are eager to get their hands on our hops.

I am in Robards, just south of Henderson. I have personally grown chinook, cascade, mt hood, galena, nugget, northern Brewer, and Columbus with success. I have failed with saaz and centennial. My hallertau rhizome came up this year from last year's small growth so we'll see about this year.

I'm taking it slow, as I'm trying to reduce start up cost as much as possible. Where did you source your cabling?

Awesome. I'd love to do something like this. Best of luck in your journey!

I havnt done anything commercial yet, i ordered one mt hood 8 yrs ago and train it up a nylon rope running diagonally to a nearby oak tree limb. It was just an experiment. I didnt think of the commercial aspect because there was not any microbreweries close by at the time. Now we got a few in paducah and i spoke with one owner who said he would buy from me so last month i cut rhizomes up. I got 100 starts and plan on another 150 before next spring. Im like u, doing it myself with no equipment. I havnt got far enough to think on cabing.

Well I'll share here when I find it.

Im eager to learn as much as i can. I recently discovered there is way more to it than simply giving the plant deep rich soil and water. I wasnt aware that you had tp trim rhizomes yearly. I am gonna start hunting hardware and cable, if anything pans out i will turn you on to the Intel. Have u made a large hasrvest, if so how did u pick. Where are u getting your plants/rhizomes. The cheapest i found was at great lake hops, ,100 for $350.

I've bought rhizomes for personal use from a few of the online store from the pnw. I harvest by hand. I only have about 15 plants currently so it's not too much to handle.

You only need to trim rhizomes if they are getting too large. For a farm that has been established for years, they may need to do it every year. For us, it'll be a while before we need to do that. I have trimmed some of my 4 year old plants as some of the shoots have shown up pretty far away from the crown.

I think I'd love to do a few acres or so. I'm not sure my grandpa would be pleased with me going into farming.

It is a gamble. Luckily this is only my third "job." I won't need to rely on it to eat and live.

Sounds familiar, im just trying to find something that pays.

My cousin is suppose to come over and plow me up a quarter acre to plant these 100 rhizomes on. I gotta get a couple loads of horse **** and compost to till in because my hill is mostly red gravel and clay. I hope i can get my poles and cable up in time.

I am planning a commercial operation as well. Pretty much have the same approach as you dlaramie. I own a farm in north/west central PA. I think it could be a decent way to make a go at farming aside from "normal farming" that we currently do. Everything costs so much these days and a small outfit like mine is hard to keep up. The big guys are the only ones succeeding around here.
I have standing larch poles just waiting to be cut for this hop yard, I already grow lots of stuff, we have free natural gas here so it seems I could use my existing grain dryers for drying the hops. Already have tractors and tillage equipment, fertilizer spreaders, and all the manure I would ever need. I'm just trying to figure out all the negative things to come.
Let's keep each other posted on our projects.

You'll want to be careful using heat to dry the hops. How hot does the grain dryer get?

The grain dryer does not have to have heat on. it can just have the blower running without the heat.

Cool. I've been hanging and drying naturally in the pole barn. Takes about 3-4 days. When there's a full harvest in there in a couple of years I'll have to use the big ass fan we have.

What is the current market for organically produced hops, has anyone got any input on that? What is the market value for a pound, i have heard $4-15 a pound.

Hey guys. Please check out this thread and register your farm once you are up and running...or nearly so:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=581480

dlaramie08 said:

Cool. I've been hanging and drying naturally in the pole barn. Takes about 3-4 days. When there's a full harvest in there in a couple of years I'll have to use the big ass fan we have.

Click to expand...

When you say "hanging and drying naturally", what do you mean? Are you cutting the bines and letting the cones dry on the bine?

They are sandwiched between screens in a frame that I made and hang up in the pole barn with no heat other than the summer sun heating up the pole barn. It gets pretty warm in there and I open the two windows to let out the humidity.

OK...once, some guy on here described leaving the hops on the bine to dry naturally. Ugh, bad idea. Yours is much better.

GVH_Dan said:

OK...once, some guy on here described leaving the hops on the bine to dry naturally. Ugh, bad idea. Yours is much better.

Click to expand...

Gotcha. I could have been a little more descriptive.

I brought in 3 loads of compost/manure to work into the hills to plant my mt hood rhizomes in but after that storm i will be lucky if i dont loose 2 1/2 of those loads down the ohio river. At least i didnt have the roots in the hills.

Yeah I bet. It lost a lot of energy by the time it made it here. Plenty of rain, though. Lots of water for the heavy nitrogen I put on my current hops.

The damage was minimum, i didnt loose much compost. I just hope it blows out because i want to get these roots in the ground while the planting signs are in. I always like to plant my perrenials when cancer is in. They seem to take hold better. So do u have an idea what the local market value is for a pound of hops?

I think it would depend on if you were selling to brewery or homebrewers. I haven't thought that far ahead though. You'll want to take your yearly costs into consideration when setting your price. I think pricing may be easier once you get a season or two under your belt. You'll know costs and have an idea of what the market may sustain. Just make sure not to low ball yourself. You can always come down, it's harder to go up.

A local brewmaster mentioned $10/lb contracted price. Like u said the amount of work involved makes it worth a lot to me and i need to get a few seasons in. I just dont want get a bunch of hours in, produce a crop then some one not want to pay a decent price.

If you want to get a feel for what your bottom price will be, check out Lupulin Exchange. Its basically a open market where you can buy or sell hops in whatever quantities you want (or can find). You can sort based on variety and price. Assuming you don't find any local buyers, this is the place to go.

Before you ask, yes there should be a premium for your hops because they are local but only if they are at least the same quality as the hops they can get from a large merchant and in a form that is useful (i.e. pellets for most).

Killer, thanks dan, that was exactly the intel i was looking for. The local brew master did say that the local hops are sought after. I just want to make sure its all worth the work, especially since i am not using any equipment, this is all a unmechanized set up. I feel like a renegade amish man.

Here's some folks you can contact to get an idea on how it's working out for them; http://www.kentucky.com/news/business/article44503551.html and they're on fb: https://www.facebook.com/kentuckyhopgrowersalliance/.

The university of kentucky experimented with a new tobacco housing technique. Thw outcome was a complete failure. Part of the material list included turnbuckles and anchors, and high tension wire. I recently scavenged a doz anchors and a half doz turnbuckles and that is only a fraction of what can be found. I dont know if you got tobacco farmers there who experimented with these structures but if you did, it could be a resource. I am gonna try to twist 4 strands of the wire together to make some cable. Anyhow, just thought i would share.

Is 3/16 galvanized aircraft cable sufficient, and if so is 18 cents/ft a good price?