2016 Hop Growing Thread

[homebeerbrewer]

They turn brown, dry up and fall off.

Or, send the wife (and kids?) on vacation, and stay home to harvest.

Or, you can wait until next year to harvest, as long as the wife schedules your vacation earlier.

 

[Rypcord]

They turn brown, dry up and fall off.

Hopefully then I'll be able to get someone to harvest them then!

Speaking of harvesting, and using hops.

Does anyone know how to make hop tea or hop soap?

 

[WilliamSlayer]

William,

Looking good

how are your cones setting? I was wondering becauce we are in the same area. My cones are beginning to dry lots of lupin when you break one open. I think it will be harvest time soon.

do yu know what date you cUt the bull shoots off? I was April 15, cut them down to the ground.

Pictures of 5 plants second year. My plan is to make a field to glass beer. I have harvested about 50 pounds of barley 2 weeks back.

I will pull some test cones this week and let you know! Got some that look amazing, but most look to be still growing.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

So the wife setup vacation to be 8.15 until 8.27, now I need to try and find someone to harvest cones for me I'm betting since that's most likely going to be harvest time.

What happens to hops on the vine if their not harvested (or not harvested in time)?

The gods of the brewing forums go very quiet......

And each one of us sheds a single tear.....

;-)

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Had a few cones get ripe early but that's no surprise considering they set in the first to second week of June!
Total off the bine today is 3.5oz wet Cascade. All of the other bines that set burrs 3-4 weeks ago are doing great.
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[SteveHeff]

Look at the sweet golden nectar. Beautiful.

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Look at the sweet golden nectar. Beautiful.

The smell is off the charts! Like no other hop I've smelled before. Very floral, nice citrus note and a little dank smelling. This is my first year growing so I really don't know what to look for but if they all end up like this first small harvest I'll be very happy.
Can't wait for my Centennial to ripen so I can compare the two!

 

[The_Greenist]

So right now I have all first year plants. Three cascades and one nuggets. Two of my cascades have good burrs and nothing on my nugget. The one cascade with no burns got topped and is stunted. Do I add high phosphorus and potassium now to encourage cones this late in the year? Or do I add more nitrogen to help build roots since they are only first year?

 

[lzrdkng14]

I'm thinking it's time to harvest some of these cascade cones
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Should I clip the side arms? Or just pluck the individual cones?

Centennial not quite there yet
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Zeus starting to develop
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[heLLbent]

Haven't been around for a few years. Just wanted to share a pic of the hops I planted at my folks farm in 2006. This pic was taken in 2014. Willamette in the back and on the left (shade side), Cascade, and then Columbus on the other side.

 

[pshankstar]

I started growing some hops this spring (first year), Chinook and Centennials (three of each). Its been great to watch them grow, although two of the Chinooks were killed early on by some critters. I'm not counting on getting any hops this year but I noticed this (picture below) what appears to be some tiny burs starting to form on my Chinook! Would you all agree?

 

[lzrdkng14]

I started growing some hops this spring (first year), Chinook and Centennials (three of each). Its been great to watch them grow, although two of the Chinooks were killed early on by some critters. I'm not counting on getting any hops this year but I noticed this (picture below) what appears to be some tiny burs starting to form on my Chinook! Would you all agree?



View attachment 364081

Definitely burrs. Nice!

 

[BrandonMH]

I forget, how do you know when they are ripe for the picking? When the spring back when you squeeze them? I am camping now, but checked them earlier today.

 

[RockyMountainCraftBrewing]

This is a pic of my Cascade which is 2nd year of growing.The trellis elevates via a pulley and it is 15 feet high.Lots of burrs starting to bush out.The other plant is a Centennial which died off suddenly and then started a new bine.

I plan on harvesting when the cones are wet to make a wet hopped IPA.

RMCB

 

[Calder]

Should I dry hop with fresh picked hops?

Picked 17 ozs wet (4 ozs dry) on 7/3. Air dried on a screen for a day and put in freezer. Brewed 2 weeks ago with them.

Today I picked another 17 ozs wet, and have them on a screen in my garage.

Plan to rack the beer I brewed with the 'harvest' hops tomorrow to secondary (to collect the yeast). I was planning to dry hop with a couple of ozs of pellets. Now I have more fresh hops, should I use them?

These are second year hops. I've been wary about using them as dry hops due to possibility of bugs ....... but I guess the same applies to commercial hops - who knows what is on them. A day drying should be enough for any bugs to jump ship - all look fine, and I have no reason to think there is anything wrong with the hops.

Another plus for these is that they are being air dried at 80 F, rather than the 140 F the commercial farmers use. maybe I will get some new flavors as they retain the more volatile oils.

 

[ThatVideoKid]

Should I dry hop with fresh picked hops?



Picked 17 ozs wet (4 ozs dry) on 7/3. Air dried on a screen for a day and put in freezer. Brewed 2 weeks ago with them.



Today I picked another 17 ozs wet, and have them on a screen in my garage.



Plan to rack the beer I brewed with the 'harvest' hops tomorrow to secondary (to collect the yeast). I was planning to dry hop with a couple of ozs of pellets. Now I have more fresh hops, should I use them?



These are second year hops. I've been wary about using them as dry hops due to possibility of bugs ....... but I guess the same applies to commercial hops - who knows what is on them. A day drying should be enough for any bugs to jump ship - all look fine, and I have no reason to think there is anything wrong with the hops.



Another plus for these is that they are being air dried at 80 F, rather than the 140 F the commercial farmers use. maybe I will get some new flavors as they retain the more volatile oils.

Go for if. Why not?

 

[thaymond]

Should I dry hop with fresh picked hops?

Picked 17 ozs wet (4 ozs dry) on 7/3. Air dried on a screen for a day and put in freezer. Brewed 2 weeks ago with them.

Today I picked another 17 ozs wet, and have them on a screen in my garage.

Plan to rack the beer I brewed with the 'harvest' hops tomorrow to secondary (to collect the yeast). I was planning to dry hop with a couple of ozs of pellets. Now I have more fresh hops, should I use them?

These are second year hops. I've been wary about using them as dry hops due to possibility of bugs ....... but I guess the same applies to commercial hops - who knows what is on them. A day drying should be enough for any bugs to jump ship - all look fine, and I have no reason to think there is anything wrong with the hops.

Another plus for these is that they are being air dried at 80 F, rather than the 140 F the commercial farmers use. maybe I will get some new flavors as they retain the more volatile oils.

I dry hop with mine frequently, and haven't had an issue with bacteria or spoilage. I dry hop in a keg, so I'll use a bag to keep everything out of the pour. I'll also air dry without heat, and I get good results! Best of luck!

 

[losefreeze]

After massive hail storm killed off 3 of my 5 first years I just picked up 2 cascades and 1 nugget to get some late season growth. Hope they take and are ready to grow like crazy next year.

 

[Kozwald]

Has anyone in the mid-west started to harvest?? I live in Michigan and my Centennial plant seems ready to harvest. The cones are nice, big and papery. Going to start trimming tonight.

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Has anyone in the mid-west started to harvest?? I live in Michigan and my Centennial plant seems ready to harvest. The cones are nice, big and papery. Going to start trimming tonight.

I'm in Missouri and harvested a little bit (3.5oz) of the cones on one of my Cascade plants last week. They were a early flush of burrs that came in early June. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1470064214.971275.jpg
The other cones are still developing nicely as well as a bunch of burrs on both Cascade and my Centennial plants. Nothing is quite ready yet though. Still very moist feeling and green.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Has anyone in the mid-west started to harvest?? I live in Michigan and my Centennial plant seems ready to harvest. The cones are nice, big and papery. Going to start trimming tonight.

Wow, that's interesting. Around here (about 80 miles south of Rockford) we don't usually pick until late August or early September. I'm just getting some nice sidearms now with some burrs developing, but I'm no where close to picking.

 

[Kozwald]

HarborTownBrewing. Here are a couple of pictures of my Chinook and Centennial. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the cones are already spreading apart. My Cascade plant still has another couple of weeks.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

That's looking reaaally nice Koz!

 

[bboykin87]

Magnum on the left which didn't start growing until about 2-3 weeks after the Cascade on the right. Have a few burrs at the top of the Cascade. Both are first year plants. I'm so excited and anxious!

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[The_Greenist]

I decided just to fertilize the two plants that were not showing burrs, the stunted cascade and the nugget.

It worked and they are now burring nicely.

Two cascades are over 10ft and one has a burr on its very tip.

Better then I expected for the first year.

 

[DurtyChemist]

No cones for me this year. Not sure what happened other than I fertilized with plant food a month ago.

 

[BrandonMH]

So, harvest when the cones are spreading apart? I have a few cones doing that already.

 

[TandemTails]

Just harvested my first year cascade. Got 7.25oz wet. Currently using the air filter/box fan drying technique now.

My neomexicanus are starting to turn from burrs into hops now so hopefully in another month i'll be harvesting a good amount of those

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Planted my rhizomes late and didn't expect much, so it's a pleasant surprise to see burrs growing.

 

[jleiii]

As anyone in the east knows, we've been have some really hot weather so far this summer, but my hops seem to be loving it. In the last 2 weeks they have sprouted another set of side shoots all the way almost to the dirt, and even they are getting side shoots. New burs are popping out everywhere on them, including down low on the bines. I've never had cones below the 6 foot point before, nor shoots this low. They are crazy growing, maybe as much as a foot a day. Most of the cones on top are nearly ready, and some are probably ready now. I did recently give them a good drink of the best fertilizer with a high K value that I could get locally, so that could be part of it.
Last year's crop was a bust, lots of cones and virtually no aroma, but things are looking up this year. My sniffer is on the fritz, but my wife confirms they are quite aromatic. But then, she hates beer so I'm a little pessimistic. Even my sons friends that were by over the weekend said they smelled really good, but there was not a single craft beer in sight that night, other than mine!

Is anyone else seeing crazy side shoot activity?