Found a brand new hobby!

[the teacher]

I had to tell this story... I live in Salem, Oregon and on my way through the countryside I discovered a new fall pasttime. While passing the miles of hop farms here, I noticed that during harvest they drop a lot of vines on the road. I stopped and through them in my pickup. After taking all of the hop buds off I weighed out 4 pounds of hops. Of course I have no idea which variety and I have to research how to dry and store them, but WOW! Anyone living in the Willamette valley area of Oregon should make this a new tradition. They were literally just lying along the road sometimes in the middle of the road. I'm doing the county a service really. What a great way to get free hops. Now if I could just make friends with one of the farmers I could really be in business. Sorry, had to brag.

 

[WOP31]

Nice score! I bet that will make for some interesting beers.

Cheers

 

[RichBrewer]

It would be interesting to use them for flavor and aroma just to see what you get.

 

[Kevin Dean]

Of course I have no idea which variety...

Anyone living in the Willamette valley area of Oregon...

They're Willamette hops...

 

[RichBrewer]

They're Willamette hops...

They only grow Willamette hops there???

 

[homebrewer_99]

That's funny...I was reading the Oregon newspaper and they're looking for a guy who stole several bines that were placed along side the road for pick-up...

 

[pjj2ba]

Road Kill Beer!!!:rockin:

Redneck IPA

Pickup Porter

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Road Kill Beer!!!:rockin:

Redneck IPA

Pickup Porter

I'm thinking "Mystery IIPA". Just toss an ounce of those suckers in every 15 minutes for 90 minutes and see what you end up with. :rockin:

 

[david_42]

I was at Hopmadness last weekend and saw many vines on the road. Unfortunately, my RV was running so badly I was afraid to stop. My neighbor has some very old vines (think pre-Prohibition or maybe just wild) along the edge of one of his fields. I play on getting over there & picking some.

 

[malkore]

I'm thinking "Mystery IIPA". Just toss an ounce of those suckers in every 15 minutes for 90 minutes and see what you end up with. :rockin:

ack, what if they are magnum hops?

 

[the teacher]

I was at Hopmadness last weekend...

You may have seen me driving by with the vines hanging out the back of my truck. I live in Keizer and the fields were just North of town. Couldn't go to hopmadness because of work. I guess hop-hunting was a decent alternative.

I've got a question for everyone. Do they have to be dried or just put directly in the freezer?

 

[Cookiebaggs]

You may have seen me driving by with the vines hanging out the back of my truck. I live in Keizer and the fields were just North of town. Couldn't go to hopmadness because of work. I guess hop-hunting was a decent alternative.

I've got a question for everyone. Do they have to be dried or just put directly in the freezer?

I dried mine for 2-3 days on a window screen set on sawhorses. Then I used a food saver to vacuum pack them before freezing. It worked well. From what I read, hops are dry enough when you drop a flower 18-24 inches onto a table and a little lupulin powder comes out.