Hops trellis!

[brewmcq]

I'm stoked.. about to hit the lumber yard to get what I need for my trellis.... the hops bed has been in place for a couple of weeks and today the rain has let up enough for me to get the rest of it built.

Awesomeness. My hops babies are exploding out of control in their pots.. really need to get them outside. I'll post updated pix as I get them..

 

[HoboBrewery]

my friend planted 2 strains of 3 year hop plants a month ago or so. I went by the other day for brew day and he showed me that the hops have gone crazy. he's got cascades and fuggles growing. they're definitely over 2 feet long now and are obviously corkscrewing up the string he's tied to a fence so they'll climb the fence.

what do you have growing? is this your first hop growing endeavor? i can't wait to dry hop everything i brew.

 

[brewmcq]

I have 5 that we're going to try out.. first timers here.. fuggles, cascades, centennials, nuggets and northern brewer.

Here's some sneak peeks at what's going to (maybe) go up. Whose friggin idea was it to build a 17' trellis? Oy.

I always have to post pix of my dog, Abby.

First time using the camera timer! Once I got that first "test post" in and walked away from it, Abby went apesh*t barking at it... hilarious.

 

[brewmcq]

And because I'm an idiot, I forgot that I have only a 12' ladder...

I cut 2' off the height, so now the top of the "long rails" (where the hops rope connects to) will be 14' off the ground (instead of 16'), which should work with the tallest ladder at the local WalMart... besides, I don't think 2' less of height is gonna upset the hops too much.

And with some help from the mighty guns of my kickass g/f, we got the sides up... the rails will go up prolly Wednesday morning.. maybe Tuesday night after work.

(The last two are because *someone* [not mentioning names] wanted to be artsy-fartsy...)

 

[BeerEagle]

Very pretty piece of work.

I just threw some hop string over the telephone lines that run over my back yard. I wonder if British Telecom will object?

 

[brewmcq]

LOL @ BeerEagle.. I won't tell them if you won't. ;-)

 

[jonmohno]

Almost looks like you could run ropes to your trees if you really need too? Later on.

 

[trigger]

whoa, you're design gave me bootcamp flashbacks. If you're hops don't grow it's still going to be a sweet way to train some little mini-Marines.

 

[jonmohno]

It made me think of high dives and diving in a pool of hops when harvested.ha!

 

[brewmcq]

@johnmo.. we contemplated that, but opted to put them in the middle of the yard where they will get a lot more sun... and a pool of hops would be awesome.

@trigger.. semper fuggle! ;-)

 

[brewmcq]

In case anyone is curious, I said f**k this thing. As pictured above, it was simply too tall for me to get the cross rails on, and even when I shortened it again, the screws I'd put in dutifully stripped out, so I can't reuse lumber I already have.

So I said f**k it. Only 2 of the 5 plants survived anyways.

 

[RustyMusket]

dang that sucks