Hop cultivation
From Home Brewing Wiki
Some home brewers combine their brewing and gardening hobbies by practicing home hop cultivation, growing some or all of the hops for their beer in their own backyards.
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[edit] Hop Cultivation for Beginners
To get started in hop cultivation, you need only a few things: a hop rhizome, a trellis, and a sunny spot to plant the hops in. Hops will grow in a fairly wide range and are native to most parts of the world, but they prefer full sun and they need something for the bines to climb on. Hops are rarely started from seed; most home cultivators start theirs from rhizome cuttings.
[edit] Planting Hops
[edit] Rhizome Growing and Care Instructions
Your hops will arrive in some mulch. Keep them in the package in the refrigerator until ready to plant, but you should get them in the ground as soon as possible. Hops like a southern exposure, but eastern or western will work, the plants just won’t grow as well. Prepare your soil with mulch and slow release fertilizer to at least one foot in depth. It should have good drainage. If it doesn’t, prepare an 18” “mound” of good soil instead of planting directly in the ground. Plant the rhizome horizontally in a shallow trench about one inch below the surface or vertically with the bud (looks like a bulge) side up. Water well, but don’t drown them. A drip irrigation system is best. Once the vines are about 12” long, you’ll need to train them clockwise up a twine about 12-18 feet high. The twine is staked to the ground and the upper end is attached to trellis which can be supported in a variety of methods - poles, the side of your house etc. Remember that the vine part of the plant dies each year and will need to be removed before you plan on training them on a permanent structure like a chain link fence. Vines should be planted 3-4 feet apart. Harvest your hop cones when they change from a leathery feel to a papery feel. Dry them thoroughly before use and storage. Dry them in a thin layer on a screen in a warm, breeze-free space, or use a food dehydrator. They are dry when the strig (the stem inside the cone) snaps when bent.
[edit] What to plant
Most home hop growers prefer to grow mostly, or only, aroma hop varieties. This is for two reasons. First, most hop growers do not produce enough hops to account for all of their hop usage, and prefer to use their home hops where they will make the most impact on the finished beer, for their flavor and aroma. Also, and more importantly, because hop alpha acid rates vary from year to year based on growing conditions, it is difficult if not impossible to accurately predict the bittering potential of home-grown hops without laboratory analysis.
While almost any hop variety can be grown at home given the right conditions, a few are popular with home cultivators because of their ease of growth, hardiness, and high yield. Cascade is especially notable, since it is one of the few hop varieties that, given good or even moderate growing conditions, can yield a substantial harvest in its first season.
[edit] The hop rhizome
Most hops are started from rhizomes, sections of what is often considered a root but is actually more like an underground stem. Freshops is the primary source of rhizomes for home cultivation, but other home brewing companies sometimes have them for sale as well.
If you know someone who grows hops near you, you can also ask them to save you a rhizome during their next root pruning, described below.
[edit] Building a trellis
[edit] Harvesting Hops
Because most hops are produced out of reach from the ground, it is safest to lower the vines in order to pick the hops. The harvest date varies with variety and location but will become evident as you gain experience as a hop grower. At maturity, the hop aroma is at its strongest and is measured by crushing a cone and smelling it. The yellow lupulin glands in the cone become much more evident and plump looking when magnified.
The cone will develop a drier, papery feel and in some varieties a lighter color as it matures. Some browning of the lower bracts is a good sign of ripeness. Squeeze the cones as they develop and you will notice they become more light and resilient rather than green and hard. The actual picking is self-explanatory and this is where you want the flower cones, not the leaves. I don't know why raw hop cones are occasionally called leaf hops, when the idea is to not pick the leaves.
[edit] Wintering and pruning hops
The hop plant is a perennial in most climate zones. However, a little end-of-season care and some judicious root-pruning will help your hopyard come back stronger from year to year.
[edit] Preparing hops for the winter
Beginning at the first frost, the hop bine will begin to naturally die back to the ground. Only the rhizome survives over the winter. Until the first frost, you should leave your hops standing, as they are still storing energy in the rhizome for the winter. However, with a healthy plant, you may want to cut some bines early to use as wreath cores or for other decorative purposes, since once the bines die they will quickly become brown and brittle.
After the first frost, preparing the bines for winter is straightforward:
- Cut the bines down to the ground and compost or discard them. Be careful where you place them, however; almost any large, live section of stem will sprout in the spring.
- Add fertilizer or manure to each hill. The hop bine's explosive growth can exhaust the nutrients of the surrounding soil.
- Cover each hill with a generous portion of mulch to protect the roots over the winter, especially in colder climates.
[edit] Root pruning and propogation
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[edit] Processing Hops
Drying can be done in a good dehydrator, custom made hop dryer, well vented oven, or they can be air dried. If you use heat, the temperature should not exceed 140 degrees F. Cooler temperatures take longer but a higher quality hop is obtained. Under dry weather conditions, I suggest taking a screen off of your house and setting it up in a wind protected area, elevated on each end. Spread the hops as shallow as possible and fluff daily so moist inner cones are brought to the outside of the pile. If weather is dry and the pile is not too thick they will dry in about three days.
A high moisture content in the cones will adversely affect storability and recipe formulation. The hops are dry when the inner stem of the cone (strig) is brittle and breaks rather than bends. The strig takes much longer to dry than the bracts, so be patient. Pack the hops in an air tight container and store in a freezer until used.
Categories: Beer | Beer ingredients | Hops | DIY
