So my other hobby is plants...

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pjewell

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I really enjoy the garden. I grow tomatoes, peppers, corn, egg plant, and all the wonderful bounty that exists on Earth.

One thing that is missing is hops. So I researched for a bit and its best to start hops by a rhizome (root) because it takes several seasons to start producing.

I am new to brewing as well. So my question to you is, what are a few hop varieties that you cannot live without or what are a few that are well rounded that can go into many different beers?
 
It really depends on the beer you make.

A lot of people like the citrusy flavor of Cascades. If your taste is more English style beers, you might consider Fuggles, Goldings, etc....

I planted my hops in large pots. It really only takes about two seasons for them to get going. And with some hops and the right conditions, you can get a good amount first year.

So plant the hops that will fit the type of beers you make.
 
I agree with McBrew's main point about planting hops that will fit with the styles that you make most often so that you can really utilize your own hops in your brewery. Since you're new to homebrewing and probably haven't quite figured out what your favorite styles are yet, my recommendation is to plant three or four varieties that work with different styles:

1. American hop (Cascade, Centennial, etc)
2. Noble hop (Hallertauer, Tettnang, Saaz)
3. British hop (Golding, Fuggle)
4. High alpha (Nugget, Magnum, etc)

By planting a few different varieties of hops, you're not limited in using your homegrown hops to explore brewing different beer styles as you get deeper into homebrewing. You'll be able to brew classic American and British ales, German lagers, and even Belgian brews, too.

Personally, I planted Cascade, Willamette (American hop, but a British character to it), and Nugget last spring, which I can use in the bitters, pales, browns, porters, stouts I tend to brew most often. I've started getting into German lagers this winter (since it's been cold enough for me to ghetto lager) and am considering planting one variety of Noble hop this year to help fill that niche in my brewery.
 
frolickingmonkey said:
1. American hop (Cascade, Centennial, etc)
2. Noble hop (Hallertauer, Tettnang, Saaz)
3. British hop (Golding, Fuggle)
4. High alpha (Nugget, Magnum, etc)

By planting a few different varieties of hops, you're not limited in using your homegrown hops to explore brewing different beer styles as you get deeper into homebrewing. You'll be able to brew classic American and British ales, German lagers, and even Belgian brews, too.

Personally, I planted Cascade, Willamette (American hop, but a British character to it), and Nugget last spring, which I can use in the bitters, pales, browns, porters, stouts I tend to brew most often. I've started getting into German lagers this winter (since it's been cold enough for me to ghetto lager) and am considering planting one variety of Noble hop this year to help fill that niche in my brewery.
Click to expand...



I read about magnum and they sound great because of their storage and general character. Willamette is great. So aromatic.
 
frolickingmonkey said:
I agree with McBrew's main point about planting hops that will fit with the styles that you make most often so that you can really utilize your own hops in your brewery. Since you're new to homebrewing and probably haven't quite figured out what your favorite styles are yet, my recommendation is to plant three or four varieties that work with different styles:

1. American hop (Cascade, Centennial, etc)
2. Noble hop (Hallertauer, Tettnang, Saaz)
3. British hop (Golding, Fuggle)
4. High alpha (Nugget, Magnum, etc)

By planting a few different varieties of hops, you're not limited in using your homegrown hops to explore brewing different beer styles as you get deeper into homebrewing. You'll be able to brew classic American and British ales, German lagers, and even Belgian brews, too.

Personally, I planted Cascade, Willamette (American hop, but a British character to it), and Nugget last spring, which I can use in the bitters, pales, browns, porters, stouts I tend to brew most often. I've started getting into German lagers this winter (since it's been cold enough for me to ghetto lager) and am considering planting one variety of Noble hop this year to help fill that niche in my brewery.
Click to expand...

I hear that Willamette is very tricky (difficult) to grow... could you share your experience growing this hop and maybe any tips to help grow Willamette?
 
Cascade and Centennial have similar oil profiles.

One consideration for hop growing is how damp your area is during the summer. Some hops are vulnerable to molds and mildews. hopcultivars
 
I planted a bunch of strains in front of my house then had to move away for a while. Unfortunately the only one to grow turns out to be only a male plant, no buds. It looks beautiful climbing up my porch though. Plant multiple Rhizomes for this possibility.

One thing to consider is your alpha acid content may vary to the point you can't predict its contribution to the bitterness of your brew. You can have it tested to determine the alpha acid of a seasons crop but it will cost quite a bit from what i remember. If you are particular about the bitterness you are shooting for you may be better buying bittering hops with a known AA, then using yours for flavor and aroma. Or you can just experiment making batches until you get it right.
 
"So my question to you is, what are a few hop varieties that you cannot live without or what are a few that are well rounded that can go into many different beers?"

Since you are a gardener you know your zone and what will and won't grow in your area. This will also determine what you are able to grow. I can grow most of what they grow in OR & WA state where I live. Montanaandy
 
Photopilot said:
I planted a bunch of strains in front of my house then had to move away for a while. Unfortunately the only one to grow turns out to be only a male plant, no buds.
Click to expand...

How did you get a male plant from the rhizome of a female plant? My Botany textbook states that the rhizome cuttings should give you a clone of the mother plant. Certainly a hops grower did not sell you rhizomes off of a male plant?
 
I looked up dioecious plants, the male plant may have been from stress, not a 'male' rhysome.
(or else the bine just never sprouted laterally)

I agree, I'd go with what can grow well in your climate, and will contribute to the finishing hops profile.
 
Hillbilly_Bill said:
How did you get a male plant from the rhizome of a female plant? My Botany textbook states that the rhizome cuttings should give you a clone of the mother plant. Certainly a hops grower did not sell you rhizomes off of a male plant?
Click to expand...

Okay I could be wrong there. I just know there are know buds coming from my hops. It grows like crazy and looks beautiful but no useful output, just small little flowers. I still don't live in that house but at least get to visit it more now. I trimmed back all but 3 strands of the plant 2 years ago hoping that would make something happen, but no such luck. It would be nice to have some hops to use, even though I do not remember which ones I planted. There are two more posts supporting the deck that I can plant for future vines.

The house is in NW Wyoming so it is cold there, it may affect the hops budding potential.
 
Hillbilly_Bill said:
How did you get a male plant from the rhizome of a female plant? My Botany textbook states that the rhizome cuttings should give you a clone of the mother plant. Certainly a hops grower did not sell you rhizomes off of a male plant?
Click to expand...

It code be a really confused plant. Some plants when fertilization occurs get one too many chromosomes. For example, female (XX) and male (XY) mostly produce offspring with XX and XY. But sometimes XXY XYX or XXXY occurs. This can produce sterile plants or hermaphrodite. This can happen in humans too.

It could be stressed which would cause it to hermaphrodite as well. Soil conditions can make this happen or even just being too hot. Its a survival technique that forces the plants to produce both male and female gametes to ensure the species will survive. Flowers can be smaller and produce seeds. Also low oil production.

Over breeding hops can cause this to happen as well. So many different crosses cause the plant to have less hybrid vigor.




Oh I live in zone 9, I am near subtropical in climate. Anyone for see problems based on my zone?
 
Yeah, hops are quite capable of turning male. Every year we have a few members see this happen. However, the plant is only reacting to stress and will revert most of the time.

Tetraploid hops are common, but generally weak and low yield. Tetraploid Fuggles is female parent of the triploid cultivars Columbia and Willamette. Triploid cultivars, on the other hand, are often high-yield. Mt. Hood, Liberty, Crystal and Ultra are a few others.
 
david_42 said:
Yeah, hops are quite capable of turning male. Every year we have a few members see this happen. However, the plant is only reacting to stress and will revert most of the time.

Tetraploid hops are common, but generally weak and low yield. Tetraploid Fuggles is female parent of the triploid cultivars Columbia and Willamette. Triploid cultivars, on the other hand, are often high-yield. Mt. Hood, Liberty, Crystal and Ultra are a few others.
Click to expand...

Ding ding ding! Tetraploid. Was the word I was looking for! XXY is tetraploid and Polyploid is XXXY.


Genetics is a wild subject!
 
Hillbilly_Bill said:
I hear that Willamette is very tricky (difficult) to grow... could you share your experience growing this hop and maybe any tips to help grow Willamette?
Click to expand...

Well, I'm fortunate enough to live in the northwest corner of Washington state, and not far from what was once a very prolific hop growing area in lower mainland B.C. I'm USDA zone 7B, so hops go pretty nuts here. Mild, wet winters, wet spring, and warm-hot summers (sometimes wet early on), usually dry from the end of June right up to the end of September. My soil here is heavy clay, but the "hop yard" has been amended with organic matter, and there are swales on either side of the hop yard that help significantly with drainage matters. My Willamettes have only been in the ground for a year, but I will say that they were the slowest starters last Spring, but ended up as the tallest, and most productive of my first year hops.

I don't have any Willamette specific tips, but here's what I've gleaned from a friend who has been very successfully growing hops in this climate for years:
- because of the wet springs and chance of mildews, air circulation is important. Make sure you plant your hops where they will get full sun, and a good breeze through them, so that they dry more quickly after a rain.
- trim up the leaves on the bines to 3-4' to help, again, with airflow, as well as keeping creepy crawlies from venturing up the bines looking for stuff to chew on.
- at the end of the season, burn the bines back to the ground and burn the area around the base of the plant. Some mildews will hangout in the soil and come back the following year, so by burning the plant and the ground around it, this should help eradicate any problems

Hope that's helpful. :mug:
 
pjewell said:
It code be a really confused plant. Some plants when fertilization occurs get one too many chromosomes. For example, female (XX) and male (XY) mostly produce offspring with XX and XY. But sometimes XXY XYX or XXXY occurs. This can produce sterile plants or hermaphrodite. This can happen in humans too.

It could be stressed which would cause it to hermaphrodite as well. Soil conditions can make this happen or even just being too hot. Its a survival technique that forces the plants to produce both male and female gametes to ensure the species will survive. Flowers can be smaller and produce seeds. Also low oil production.

Over breeding hops can cause this to happen as well. So many different crosses cause the plant to have less hybrid vigor.




Oh I live in zone 9, I am near subtropical in climate. Anyone for see problems based on my zone?
Click to expand...

I am very familiar with hermaphrodism and triploid (and quadraploid) genotypes. I have been growing plants for many years and it has been my experience that you can influence the sex determinates of a plant grown from seed. Hours of light during germination, temperature, and even pH of the soil can be factors... stress can also be a factor, but the sex of a plant grown from a cutting or a rhizome is predetermined. I did not major in Botany, I majored in Chemistry and was a high school teacher for a while, but I will be the first to admit that I am not a botany expert. If the sex of a plant grown from a rhizome is not a clone of the mother/father plant then it is news to me. I find this quite interesting and I will be watching my rhizomes to see if there are any abnormalities. I have certainly had hermaphroditic plants in my greenhouse before... they are a pain when you are trying to keep a strain/species pure. I would not even consider throwing a hermaphroditic plant in my compost pile... to the burn barrel it goes.
Interesting... good luck on your future rhizomes...
Bill

:mug:
 
frolickingmonkey said:
Well, I'm fortunate enough to live in the northwest corner of Washington state, and not far from what was once a very prolific hop growing area in lower mainland B.C. I'm USDA zone 7B, so hops go pretty nuts here. Mild, wet winters, wet spring, and warm-hot summers (sometimes wet early on), usually dry from the end of June right up to the end of September. My soil here is heavy clay, but the "hop yard" has been amended with organic matter, and there are swales on either side of the hop yard that help significantly with drainage matters. My Willamettes have only been in the ground for a year, but I will say that they were the slowest starters last Spring, but ended up as the tallest, and most productive of my first year hops.

I don't have any Willamette specific tips, but here's what I've gleaned from a friend who has been very successfully growing hops in this climate for years:
- because of the wet springs and chance of mildews, air circulation is important. Make sure you plant your hops where they will get full sun, and a good breeze through them, so that they dry more quickly after a rain.
- trim up the leaves on the bines to 3-4' to help, again, with airflow, as well as keeping creepy crawlies from venturing up the bines looking for stuff to chew on.
- at the end of the season, burn the bines back to the ground and burn the area around the base of the plant. Some mildews will hangout in the soil and come back the following year, so by burning the plant and the ground around it, this should help eradicate any problems

Hope that's helpful. :mug:
Click to expand...

Your weather and your planting area sound a lot like mine, although I live in zone 6. My hillside faces southwest and my soil is clay mixed with organix matter that washed down the hill. Of course I have enhanced it some, but I doubt I get quite as many hours of sunlight as you do. I will probably try one bine of Willamette and see how it does. Thanks for the reply...
Bill
 
I would go with a noble, American and English (by style).
I'd go with only American cultivars , that fit these styles, for example - Vanguard as a noble hop. These should produce a greater amount of cones, or so I'm told...
 
Hillbilly_Bill said:
I hear that Willamette is very tricky (difficult) to grow... could you share your experience growing this hop and maybe any tips to help grow Willamette?
Click to expand...

I don't know whether or not its hard to grow (apparently its hard to keep it from getting stolen from your yard in my neighborhood), but its $6/lb, so its probably not worth it unless its a weed.
 
I've been growing 10 different hops for about 8 years now and I must say Nuggets and Cascades are the most prolific. I harvested 3/4 lbs of Nuggets (dried weight) and 1/2 lb of Cascades. Most of your Noble varieties don't produce a significant quantity. It does depend upon your climate. So ask yourself what you want your hops for, for looks or to use?
 
brewmasterjjfad said:
I've been growing 10 different hops for about 8 years now and I must say Nuggets and Cascades are the most prolific. I harvested 3/4 lbs of Nuggets (dried weight) and 1/2 lb of Cascades. Most of your Noble varieties don't produce a significant quantity. It does depend upon your climate. So ask yourself what you want your hops for, for looks or to use?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. So you would suggest Nugget and Cascade? What else would you favor?
 
Hop choice depends on whether or not you want a decent yield. I have had some luck with Sterling. Selection for me is easy...Will it produce an abundant yield of hops that I can use for beer? Other than Cascades or Nuggets I might suggest Chinook and Centennial. Good luck...feel free to contact me in regards to growing questions.
 

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