I've been growing hops in an
Earthtainer over the last couple of years and it has certainly been interesting. I chose Willamette and Golding varieties. The first year, the Willamette variety seemed to grow the best, but the opposite happened this year. I've lived in apartments (and now a condo) so the amount of vertical growing room and available sunlight for the hops has been fairly restricted. Because of that, they tend to grow in any direction they can, and I think their growth has been somewhat stunted. I included photos below of the yield and the plants after two years of growing (I did not get any yield the first year). The total weight of the hops was only 1/8 oz -- not enough for the types of beers I want to brew!
I think given better sunlight and vertical growth area, the hops would have done much better. Next year I'm going to see if I can put the Earthtainer at ground level next year and run a few lines of paracord down to it from the 2nd floor.
This was my first time growing hops, so I'm not entirely sure how it compares to growing in the ground. I was shocked at the beginning of the second growing season -- the hop vines had started growing a few inches out of the soil, even though we had a long, cold winter (-14F one day) and I hadn't even watered them yet! Hops are amazingly hardy as a plant.
Here is a time-lapse video I posted last year of the hops as they were growing. I had no idea they rotated to find things to latch onto!
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Anyway, the whole experience has been fun, although not the yield needed for homebrew and certainly not cost effective (the Earthtainer was pretty costly and time consuming to assemble). Maybe next year the yield will be better!
FYI - I did my first homebrew this August called
The Savior and it turned out great! It is a Cherry Russian Imperial Stout. I ended up using a lot of other hops from the homebrew store, as well as a lot of Chinooks that a friend grew here in Boulder. My hops were a small contribution but the end result was very tasty and worth every minute of the effort.