Historical Hop Knowledge

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clingy

clingy

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OK, I'm a sucker for good history.

Hops, their cultivation, commerce and uses in various countries By Peter Lund Simmonds (1877) I have a hard copy but here is a link to the google book.



The cultivation of hops, and their preparation for market, as practiced in Sauk County, Wisconsin by D. B. and E. O. Rudd, 1868. This is a particular favorite of mine, partially because I live 1 county over from Sauk.

I'll find more.

By the way, pretty soon Madison will have The Hops Museum. Pretty exciting.
 
The name Meeker is very prominent around here. Hops were grown in the Puyallup Valley until a vast swarm of aphids took them out. They then moved to the Yakima Valley and have been there ever since.
 
atoughram said:
The name Meeker is very prominent around here. Hops were grown in the Puyallup Valley until a vast swarm of aphids took them out. They then moved to the Yakima Valley and have been there ever since.
Click to expand...

Meeker was known as "The Hop King" if I'm correct.
 
GVH_Dan said:
OK, I'm a sucker for good history.

Hops, their cultivation, commerce and uses in various countries By Peter Lund Simmonds (1877) I have a hard copy but here is a link to the google book.



The cultivation of hops, and their preparation for market, as practiced in Sauk County, Wisconsin by D. B. and E. O. Rudd, 1868. This is a particular favorite of mine, partially because I live 1 county over from Sauk.

I'll find more.

By the way, pretty soon Madison will have The Hops Museum. Pretty exciting.
Click to expand...
Nice! Where'd you come across a hard copy? Awesome
 
clingy said:
Nice! Where'd you come across a hard copy? Awesome
Click to expand...

I have a wife and three daughters. Every vacation we end up in some shopping district with overpriced crap. inevitably, I will find a used book store and when you have HOURS to spend reading every title, you eventually find something worth buying.

And even if you don't, by the time you leave you are best friends with the store owner who now knows your interests and contacts you a year later with some obscure book you probably wanted.
 
DJ-Farmers said:
Really Interesting. Thanks

Farmer's Magazine
https://books.google.com/books?id=rlAWAQAAIAAJ
on Page 435 but just a little paragraph
Click to expand...

This one is great. A hop grower complaining that no one is calculating the cost of production on their hop yard and thus loosing their shirts because they accept any price they are offered.

Seems like nothing has changed since 1835...
 
I think the hobby option disappeared about 10 or 20 acres ago. Or I should say about 2 bank loans ago.

Nah, I don't have that issue. Magazines like that are hard to come by because people would read them and then re-use them...usually as some form of TP. If it wasn't bound in hardcover or in a library, it probably doesn't exist anymore.
 
OK gang, here's one I haven't been able to find and its bugging me.

I have an old neighbor who's got a story on every subject. Great guy to have beer and a chat with but every story makes you go, "What? Really?" A couple of times he has told me that his grandfather grew hops in Souther WI. Most of what he tells me makes sense up until the drying part.

He claims 2 weeks before harvest his grandpa would lay a fine layer of horse manure down on the floor of a barn, cover it with a layer of straw, another layer of manure, straw, manure and then a thick layer of straw.

When harvest time came, he would water it down the night before. The hops would be layed on top of the straw with another layer of straw on top of that. It would then be watered down every few hours for the first day and then left after that. A week later, the hops would be picked out and baled for market.

I can find nothing on this. The only thing that makes sense here is the crap would compost and drive moisture out into the straw. Of course they would oxidize like crazy, so maybe if you wanted flavorless hops for their anti-bacterial properties only?

Anyone see this or run across any other crazy drying techniques?

On the same topic, I'm looking into "sweating" the hops. Some old world technique that I think I have figured out but very little literature on it.
 
GVH_Dan said:
OK gang, here's one I haven't been able to find and its bugging me.

I have an old neighbor who's got a story on every subject. Great guy to have beer and a chat with but every story makes you go, "What? Really?" A couple of times he has told me that his grandfather grew hops in Souther WI. Most of what he tells me makes sense up until the drying part.

He claims 2 weeks before harvest his grandpa would lay a fine layer of horse manure down on the floor of a barn, cover it with a layer of straw, another layer of manure, straw, manure and then a thick layer of straw.

When harvest time came, he would water it down the night before. The hops would be layed on top of the straw with another layer of straw on top of that. It would then be watered down every few hours for the first day and then left after that. A week later, the hops would be picked out and baled for market.

I can find nothing on this. The only thing that makes sense here is the crap would compost and drive moisture out into the straw. Of course they would oxidize like crazy, so maybe if you wanted flavorless hops for their anti-bacterial properties only?

Anyone see this or run across any other crazy drying techniques?

On the same topic, I'm looking into "sweating" the hops. Some old world technique that I think I have figured out but very little literature on it.
Click to expand...


I guess that the heat coming from the compost pile would get the hops to the correct drying temperature.

Here is some documentation on horse manure composting.

Old study results for right drying temperature for hops.

I hope that if they were really drying hops that way that is was not retaining the horse manure aroma. :cross:
 
GVH_Dan said:
OK gang, here's one I haven't been able to find and its bugging me.

I have an old neighbor who's got a story on every subject. Great guy to have beer and a chat with but every story makes you go, "What? Really?" A couple of times he has told me that his grandfather grew hops in Souther WI. Most of what he tells me makes sense up until the drying part.

He claims 2 weeks before harvest his grandpa would lay a fine layer of horse manure down on the floor of a barn, cover it with a layer of straw, another layer of manure, straw, manure and then a thick layer of straw.

When harvest time came, he would water it down the night before. The hops would be layed on top of the straw with another layer of straw on top of that. It would then be watered down every few hours for the first day and then left after that. A week later, the hops would be picked out and baled for market.

I can find nothing on this. The only thing that makes sense here is the crap would compost and drive moisture out into the straw. Of course they would oxidize like crazy, so maybe if you wanted flavorless hops for their anti-bacterial properties only?

Anyone see this or run across any other crazy drying techniques?

On the same topic, I'm looking into "sweating" the hops. Some old world technique that I think I have figured out but very little literature on it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, must be the heat from the manure. Probably a lot cheaper but the hop quality probably sucked (clearly). That takes the cake! That's really old world, like Middle Ages ha!

Reminds me of that scene from Austin Powers where he drinks the "coffee" - it's a bit nutty!
 
DarkCoder said:
I hope that if they were really drying hops that way that is was not retaining the horse manure aroma. :cross:
Click to expand...

Uh...I'm not so sure but that may be what they were going for.

If you read the old literature about "Noble" hops from Europe, they talk about "earthy" and "tobacco" flavors. Certainly letting them rot a bit would get rid of a lot of the sharp oils and then letting them soak up that "earthy" horse flavor. Maybe old beers tasted like Horse Apples...and they liked it that way.

Anyone want to try? I can get some hops this fall and my neighbor has horses. Maybe it will be the new sensation.
 
GVH_Dan said:
Uh...I'm not so sure but that may be what they were going for.

If you read the old literature about "Noble" hops from Europe, they talk about "earthy" and "tobacco" flavors. Certainly letting them rot a bit would get rid of a lot of the sharp oils and then letting them soak up that "earthy" horse flavor. Maybe old beers tasted like Horse Apples...and they liked it that way.

Anyone want to try? I can get some hops this fall and my neighbor has horses. Maybe it will be the new sensation.
Click to expand...

Throw in a slice of bacon and it will be the best seller! BACON HOPS!
 
The straw and manure trick has often been used to heat greenhouses and cold frames, but I've never heard of using it to dry hops! I know large piles of compost can quickly get up to 50 degrees Celsius, so I imagine that could work.
 

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