Picking 2013 hops in Tulsa, OK (pictures heavy)

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xeerohour

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Location
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I know it's early July, but I was able to pick over 11oz of hops yesterday. Oklahoma weather, man. Oklahoma weather.

There's more to get, but 11oz was about all I could handle with my small dehydrator.

As a bit of background, this is my second year raising hops. Technically the hops are growing over at my parent's house, as my dad has a large garden with the space for it. I owe him quite a bit for helping me out like this.

I have a handful of rhizomes covering three types: Columbus, Centennial, and Cascade, from left to right. Unfortunately they've blended together quite a bit, so I just call what I pick my own version of 3-C's hop blend.

Attached are the first five pics, the hops on the trellis as well as my view from up high.

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Once I had picked my fill, I brought them home to dry them. Yesterday I mostly picked from the right hand side, which meant I got predominantly Cascades. I think there's also some Centennial mixed in.

I am a lucky man, in that my wife supports my hobby. As a surprise gift earlier this year, she picked me up a small food dehydrator, which looks to me like it will handle up to around a pound of wet hops.

I filled 3 trays with the 11oz I picked, and set the dehydrator to its lowest setting, 95 degrees.

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Just a few minutes ago, which is about 26 hours from when I turned the dehydrator on, I retrieved my dried hops. I then vacuum sealed them and froze them. You can see the 3 trays below, with fully dried hops on them.

My 11+ ounces is now under 3 ounces, including the weight of the bag. I've read previously that it's about a 4-5 : 1 weight ratio of wet to dry, so that fits pretty well.

Even so, it was a bit of a struggle to fit all of it into the zip-loc bag initially. It may only be 3 ounces, but there was a lot of air in the cones themselves.

I'm pretty confident these turned out well, based on nothing other than the delicious aroma I got when I squeezed the air out of the bag. Oh man, I can't wait to use these in a nice pale ale, or even some sort of crisp lager. I'm so thrilled to be working with my own homegrown ingredients - I DEFINITELY owe my dad for all the work he put in watering these things over the past two years.

I have no earthly idea what kind of alpha acid these have, and I'm not sure I really care. Being Cascades, I'm sure it's in the 5-8% range, and since I'll use these for late additions, it won't really matter.

Regardless - I'm excited. I got a very small harvest last year, and I wound up using them all as "wet" hops directly into a batch that unfortunately did not turn out very well. I've been careful this year to make sure I try to pick them at the right time, and the extra effort going into drying and vacuum sealing them will hopefully keep them viable for quite some time.

Hopefully this is just the first harvest of several this year, and hopefully there will be some great beer in my future.

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That's pretty rad. Congrats on the first harvest of the year. I'm growing hops for the first time this year and just like you, I'm growing mine at my in-laws house. I have a townhouse with nowhere to put hops but my MIL has a huge garden and invited me to plant there this season. I'm excited to see what I get...
 
That's awesome! I live in Sapulpa and I'm getting ready for my first harvest this weekend after one full year of growth. Unfortunately I don't have a dehydrator yet so will be drying using a screen method.
 
That's awesome! I live in Sapulpa and I'm getting ready for my first harvest this weekend after one full year of growth. Unfortunately I don't have a dehydrator yet so will be drying using a screen method.

That should work just fine - there's a ton of good reports that I've seen using that method.

Good luck!
 
definitely been a good growing season up until this point. my garden is going nuts. the only rhizome that did anything for me this year is saaz and its slowly coning up. still a few weeks. those look great man. cheers from T-Town!
 
Every year I do a harvest ale when I first pick with fresh, non-dried hops. You should try this with your next pickings...tastes and smells devine! Cheers!
 
Have you guys tried dry hopping with fresh hops? I attempted to do that last year and it was a mistake - I left them in too long, and it came out with a very strong vegetal flavor and aroma. Wound up dumping that batch.
 
Round 2!

Went back this morning hoping I could get all the Columbus.

Man, was I wrong. Those things are loaded. I only wound up getting a few feet wide worth of the trellis - maybe the left 5 feet, of about 25 feet.

Huge harvest this morning - I had to stop when my shopping bag got full. Weighed it at the house - over 24 ounces!

I definitely picked these a bit more 'wet' than I did the Cascades. The Cascades last week were entirely papery, and these were more papery just on the outside. But, they were starting to brown, and smelled right. This is where I lose a bit of confidence - I have no idea if I picked these too early, or picked the Cascade too late, or what.

*shrugs

On to the pics!

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That is awesome! I'm having trouble figuring out which hops are which in my garden(forgetting where I planted each). I have three rhizomes - Cascade, Chinook, & Nugget. One is in full bloom, another is blooming slowly with smaller hops, and the third is just now budding. Any thoughts on which is which?
 
Got another batch this morning - starting to get more Centennials, I'm not sure why they took so much longer than the other 2 to start producing.

I'm going to brew a beer to showcase them tomorrow:
4lb Wheat
4lb 2-row
8oz Amber Malt
1oz hop mix @ 30min
2oz hop mix @ 5min
1 pack safale S-05

I'll let you know in a couple weeks what kind of contribution I get.

I used some in my last batch, but the german yeast overpowered them, and I don't get anything other than some smooth bitterness.
 
Got another batch this morning - starting to get more Centennials, I'm not sure why they took so much longer than the other 2 to start producing.

I'm going to brew a beer to showcase them tomorrow:
4lb Wheat
4lb 2-row
8oz Amber Malt
1oz hop mix @ 30min
2oz hop mix @ 5min
1 pack safale S-05

I'll let you know in a couple weeks what kind of contribution I get.

I used some in my last batch, but the german yeast overpowered them, and I don't get anything other than some smooth bitterness.

great pictures! My centennials (2nd year) are also very slow. My columbus and cascade have burrs and cones, but nothing on the centennials. Dont know if this is normal, but your experience has made me feel a little better!
 
I'm starting to have some issues with this years harvest.

I've gotten in the habit of heading over to my folk's house every weekend, and picking hops for about an hour. However, with the three varieties intermingled, and with varying weather conditions, I'm having a whale of a time making sure I only pick hops that are "ready".

I'm discovering my cascades are a bit finicky - if I pick them too soon, I'm getting a vegetal aroma from them, and if I pick them too late they are giving me a cheesy aroma. In addition, it seems like a second round of hops is on the vine, and those are nowhere near ready.

I've mentioned the centennials before, how they are ready much later, and I'm just starting to get into harvesting them. However, they're a bit of a trick as well. As large as some of these centennial cones are, I need to pick them before they completely dry, or they get "cheesy" as well (as they brown). However, I'm getting a STRONG vegetable/vegetal aroma out of them once they are dried in the dehydrator - even though they all smelled great as I picked them.

I'm aware that Oklahoma is not exactly prime hop growing country, so you could say I've brought some of this on myself. With that said, I know I'm capable of getting high quality hops, because some of what I've picked and dried has been absolutely amazing. The problem is, I'm having such a hard time with the fact that hops that are right next to each other on the trellis may be at completely different stages of being ready.

The thing that really bothers me is this vegetal smell - I have to believe that some of the hops I picked were too young, but I honestly don't know which ones. Since I'm picking and drying these in batches, and they are all getting mixed together, I'm worried that these "vegetal" hops that are mixed in will ruin the rest of these great hops I picked. Their smell is definitely overpowering.

I'm definitely still learning. Getting a bit frustrated, though.
 
xeerohour said:
Got another batch this morning - starting to get more Centennials, I'm not sure why they took so much longer than the other 2 to start producing.

I'm going to brew a beer to showcase them tomorrow:
4lb Wheat
4lb 2-row
8oz Amber Malt
1oz hop mix @ 30min
2oz hop mix @ 5min
1 pack safale S-05

I'll let you know in a couple weeks what kind of contribution I get.

I used some in my last batch, but the german yeast overpowered them, and I don't get anything other than some smooth bitterness.

Been tagging along on this thread. Being new to brewing, the growing hops thing is pretty interesting to me. Anyway, I'm curious to know how the beer turns out. Keep us updated as much as possible. With some pix of ur brew too
 
Been tagging along on this thread. Being new to brewing, the growing hops thing is pretty interesting to me. Anyway, I'm curious to know how the beer turns out. Keep us updated as much as possible. With some pix of ur brew too

The beer will turn out hoppy, of course! Seriously though it will turn out well but there are some "issues" with home grown that you do indeed run into.

First off, you don't really have a good handle on your AA's so using them for bittering is a bit of a crapshoot. I grow Columbus, among others, but typically only use them for flavor and aroma additions due to not knowing their bittering potential.

Second issue I have run into is that hops pick up aroma and flavor components from their environment; the air and soil they are in. This can change the final flavor of your beer. So what I typically do with homegrown hops is brew harvest ales and beers that are specifically designed for my hops, versus using, say, a clone recipe.

Third issue is quality control. As you may have read above, timing the picking of your hops does indeed effect the quality and usability of the hops. Only time and experience teach you what to expect with each variety you grow.

Hop varieties for the home grower or limited; your not going to get your hands on Citra, Galaxy, or Simcoe. But if you like the three C's, or Mt. Hood, or Nuggest, or Sterling, then you can grow them and use them in your brewing.

Other issues, like pests and molds, do happen as well.

For me at least, growing hops is a fun thing I do to add to my brewing pleasure. I don't do it to save money or to make a unique beer, I do it for fun. I like breaking out a beer for a friend, having them praise it, and telling them that I grew the hops.
 
So, wound up pulling a sample of my backyard wheat ale this evening while I kegged it.

It's still a bit yeasty, and flat, but I think it'll be a solid beer. 1.047 dropped to 1.007 for 5% ABV, but it tastes very smooth and light. A very clean bitterness that's not out of proportion, not a ton of hop flavor but some lemony notes (I expect to get more once the yeast drops out entirely), very light and tart overall.

I think it's going to be a good beer, but definitely an odd one. It tastes somewhere in between a Boulevard Wheat and Sierra Nevada Pale ale.

I'll get a better tasting on it in about a week, when it's carbed and clear.
 
Quick update on the beer itself. I think I overdid it on the amber malt, and underdid it on the hops. It's not nearly as much of a showcase for the hops as I had hoped it would be.

It's a fine beer - 5%, full of flavor, clean, beautiful head, nice biscuit aroma and finish. It's just not the showcase for the hops I had hoped. I'm thinking I may throw an ounce or two of dry hops in the keg, see if that gets me closer to what I wanted.

Then again, I may drink it just like this, and come up with another recipe to showcase the hops. :mug:

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