Post your method of choosing when to harvest....not HOW to harvest.

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BootsyFlanootsy

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I'm still learning how to judge the proper time to harvest and thought it'd be a nice idea to have a thread for people to share their experiences/ suggestions/ thoughts on the topic. I know everyone says to wait till the cones go "papery", but maybe some people can share their methods of gauging how far from harvest the cones are by certain stages of the growth etc. Good idea? Y/N?
 
It's so tempting to harvest when they're huge and green, but you really need to wait until you've got a little browning on the edges and they crunch and quickly "rebound" when you squeeze them.

I've just taken out the ladder and scoured bines every few days once I've found a cone or two that was ready.
 
Will the hop "fragrance" be detectable from cones still on the bine? If so, does it increase as the hop approaches the best harvest time? Trying to determine if there is a smell test to guide me so I don't harvest too early.
 
I'm into my 4th year of hop growing and I know that I've harvested too soon in the first few years. It's so tempting and you don't want them to rot on the vine. Yes, wait until they are papery. It's hard to imagine what that means if you've never been told, see, here, this is what a papery cone feels like. Get a napkin, like a fast food napkin, and roll it into a tight ball. Squeeze it between two fingers. Here that sound? That's it.

Now put a few drops of water on it and let it soak through. Squeeze again. That's a cone that's not ready yet.

You can also feel the moisture level to an extent. They don't feel cool to the touch when they're ready to pick.

Another way is by how easily they pop off the vine. When they are ready, they come off easier but this one is hard to know without experience.

Take one of the longer cones off the vine and try folding it in half top to bottom. The center bract will break before you can make it into a 90 degree bend if they are ready.

The aroma test is hard because they start smelling well before they are ready. One thing I may admit to is that if you rub them between your hands to spread the resin out, the "ready" smell is more hoppy than grassy. Still, in both cases it will smell different than what you get when you open a bag of pellet hops.
 
Well, I'm no expert on hops as this is my first harvest year. However I can tell you what I've seen with my plants.

My centennial was the first to produce cones. They started to get big so I opened one up. The lupulin was visible but light yellow, the cones were green, and the smell was slightly grassy/very lemony.

That was about 3 weeks ago. Today I climbed up and picked the most mature-looking cone from the very top of the plant, which were the first to set. It was just started to brown a little on the edges, and was pretty much the only browning one I could find.

The color was much lighter green than the younger cones. The lupulin was starting to look orange-ish instead of yellow. It smelled WAAAY better than the younger ones. I think it was mature enough to harvest.

However, since it was the only one apparently this ripe, I'm leaving the plant alone for a little longer to let the younger cones catch up a little. Right now, unless I see some serious browning at the top, I'm planning on harvesting Labor Day weekend (two more weeks) and making a wet-hop ale with them then.

I have to say though, having not known the difference between under-ripe and ripe before today, the difference was extremely obvious. If you're not sure, wait.
 
It's tough to try to explain something tactile, but Bobby M has done a good job explaining it. This might help too. I took these last year to show a buddy their relative "readyness".

It's a short video showing the hop squeeze. I think a balled up piece of tissue paper is the best descriptor. Mine never smelled like a pouch of pellets which I expected for some reason. But they were, in fact, ready and perfect.



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Follow your local hop merchant on Twitter and harvest a couple of days after they do! I live in NW Ireland, and I'm planning on harvesting a fortnight after the Kent growers, as that's how late our season kind-of is, on average. That way, I get an expert opinion on when to harvest.
 
I like to smell them and take a look at the color of the resin. I do not go so much on the squeeze test. In the morning all the hops are full of moisture. Afternoon, they kind of dry out a little. Northern states may not have this issue. BTW I am new to this, so don't take my word for it. I do squeeze test, but just to confirm. I do pick them when they sun hits them for awhile. I notice they dry faster.
 
there are a lot of videos on youtube that give you examples of what a ripe hop cone looks like.

here's one:

plenty of other ones
 
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After playing around with hops since the late 80's I've heard and seen lots of 'answers' to this question and most of them seem to try to sum up the subject in less words than are required. The 'crinkled paper' sound is a good indicator, but there's probably as many types of paper out there as their are hop growers. The 'browning on the edge' of the petals/bracts can be misleading as there are other factors such as diseases and stress related causes to create brown tips that may or may not correspond to ripeness and I've never actually been able to 'flick' a cone off of the vine.

One method that requires a little effort is explained here: http://www.oregonhops.org/culture3.html. Most of us don't have 'yards' big enough to make this process work but there it is. I feel that they suggest taking the sample at the 16 foot point is because all the hops on the plants don't ripen at exactly the same time. When I take my poles down, the hops at the very top seem to be the most ripe and become progressively less ripe the closer you get to the bottom. That 16 foot mark is most likely where the shade begins and gives a good median point to sample from.

One commercial hop farmer I spoke with at the Oregon Brewer's Festival a few years ago mentioned that he followed that method and most of the other industry folks I've spoken with have suggested other methods. The one I seem to favor was explained to me by a guy I had the fortune to meet back in the early 90's at the research center down in Corvallis, OR. Dr. Al told me to take the hop, lengthwise, and hold it between the thumbs and index fingers of both hands and try to rip the bracts away from the central strig, pulling with outward force. In an under ripe cone, the bracts(petals) will tend to rip apart or tear the strig rather than breaking away from the strig cleanly. There's no easy way to learn other than going through a few harvests and taking good notes. One of the simplest ways to learn is to pull a cone or two off and examine them, rub and sniff included, as they are progressing to maturity. Over a week or two, you'll notice the lupulin beginning to darken (different varieties develop different shades from yellow to almost orange). Once the hoppy aroma becomes more intense along with the bracts beginning to break away from the strig it's your call. If left too long, you'll be able to begin to smell the change ~ you're too late! I'm not a good 'smell' descriptor but they go from a nice hoppy aroma toward something of a 'Body Odor' kind of aroma (onions and garlic have been mentioned).

Sorry to be a "blowbag" but I finished up a stint on a jury today in a really FiretrUCKed up case. Enjoyed a few ales and let off a little steam. Take it as you may!
 
Sorry man, I didn't watch the video. I'll check it out. Hop On!!
 
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