New hop varieties

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Mine are almost ready I think.
I lowered the trellis to get at the high Arcadian and a few have a tiny little bit of brown on them.
when I picked one it didn't feel papery and when I opened it up I smelled some hops but also fresh cut grass like the lower ones so I don't think they are ready yet. then it started raining so I didn't check heritage.
I'll do that today.

not 100% sure if the cut grass smell should gone on not.

Ok some are ready. The small ones with browning have bigger lupalin glands that are darker than the bigger still green cones . Small ones were inside the plant and didn’t see much sun. Will start picking today or tomorrow.
 
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NitrogenWidget said:
View attachment 642557 Mine are almost ready I think.

not 100% sure if the cut grass smell should gone on not.

The aroma is largely dependent on the strain, however you should be taking a small sample, and doing a dry to wet mass ratio to determine whether or not they are ready. Message GLH on FB and ask them the ratio for the Arcadian. They will answer.

I will say this: you should have a lot of heavy lupulin this time of year. If they are starting to brown, no more watering for 2-3 days, then harvest. Shock the plant, stress the cones, and your lupulin will start releasing essential oils
Click to expand...
 
Hello everyone! I’ve been stalking this thread for months now. I finally broke down and signed up for the forum so that I could join this conversation about these new hop varieties.

I moved to a house with a larger yard and decided to give a few of these new varieties a try. This spring I bought an Arcadian, a Hartwick and an Alpharoma plant from GLH. I also have a 5 year old Cascade that I transplanted from my old house. I live in metro Denver and we had a brutal May for new hop plants. I planted them around May 1st and then it snowed three times. They all survived but my yields are certainly reflecting the shortened season.

NitrogenWidget,
Your most recent post is what compelled me to jump in here. I also get a very strong fresh cut grass aroma from raw Arcadian. I harvested most of my Arcadian a week ago. Dried, vacuum sealed and put in the freezer. I didn’t get enough hops for even a small batch, so I decided tonight to use them for a dry hop test. I put them in a nylon bag then into a co2 purged 32oz growler and poured Dos X on them. Sealed and now in the fridge for tasting tomorrow. (For those who care, Dos X is the most neutral mass produced beer I could think of for a dry hop test. It’s also one I don’t mind drinking). I’m crossing my fingers that the fresh cut grass smell is not what comes through in the beer.

Hartwick has me the most excited. I should have enough hops for a 2.5 gallon test batch. The flowers that are closest to being ready have a decent amount of lupulin and resin and smell of bright citrus. I’d be shocked if this hop makes a bad pale ale/IPA. Will report back in a month or so once I brew with it.

Alpharoma is taking it’s sweet time. Growing lots of roots, I hope. Healthy plant, but the two main bines never got above 6’ tall. Foliage is very healthy so I’m not too worried. Looking forward to next year.

Hope to hear more feedback once you all start harvesting and making test batches!
 
Update on my Arcadian dry hop test. The flavor was, in a word: awful. The intense grassy flavor came through and it was not pleasant.

I have a few more hops still on the vine. I’m hoping I perhaps either picked them too early, or first year the plant was not capable of producing the advertised flavor profile. I’m gonna let these last few hops ripen past when I would normally pick them and see if there’s any difference.
 
I purchased 3 Arcadian and 3 Hartwick crowns from GLH this year along with another 6 Glacier, 6 Sorachi Ace, 3 Crystal and 3 Cascade. I got them in the ground very late, almost end of May. This is my first go at growing. The Hartwick did pretty well as far as I'm concerned. I harvested today. I ended up with about 6oz dried from the three plants. A couple hundred cones at least, maybe more like 400 between the 3 plants.

I wish I would have found this forum earlier in the year. Just ran across it in a search for Hartwick on Google. The rest of my plants did very mediocre. Half the Sorachis didn't make it but I think there was some nibbling going on by critters very early in the season. The glacier are very bushy but never really put up bines. I'm hoping they are rooting well. The Arcadian did decently but not many cones.

Hoping for some good growth next year and to add another dozen plants. Looking forward to participating more in the forum.
 
Kaz15 said:
Update on my Arcadian dry hop test. The flavor was, in a word: awful. The intense grassy flavor came through and it was not pleasant.

I have a few more hops still on the vine. I’m hoping I perhaps either picked them too early, or first year the plant was not capable of producing the advertised flavor profile. I’m gonna let these last few hops ripen past when I would normally pick them and see if there’s any difference.
Click to expand...

I lower the Arcadian every day and pick one to check them.
getting stronger hop smell.
the hartwhick are not ready yet.
flowers are starting to open up but still very little aroma.

going to grab a handful and start drying them tomorrow.
 
I have 1.5 oz of arcadian between two filters on the fan now.
I picked the ones turning brown as they have the most aroma and come off the bine easier. (still think they arn't 100% ready yet)
i'll dry hop some mic ultra with them to see how they taste.
 
NitrogenWidget said:
I have 1.5 oz of arcadian between two filters on the fan now.
I picked the ones turning brown as they have the most aroma and come off the bine easier. (still think they arn't 100% ready yet)
i'll dry hop some mic ultra with them to see how they taste.
Click to expand...
In hindsight, I think I probably should have used fewer hops for my dry hop test. Not sure what quantity you plan on using, but I think just a few cone for a 12 oz bottle would probably suffice.
Just my 2 cents.
 
gave 1.5oz the filter sandwhich treatment with the fan on med for about 14 hrs and weight was reduced to about half.
definite hop smell but need a lot more dry time.
 
Just picked 3.0 oz wet Hartwick. Drying them now. There’s probably another 3-5 wet oz still on the plant that are not quite ripe yet. Planning to brew a 2.5 gal test batch once the rest of the hops are ready. Stoked to finally give these a try!
 
arcadians dried out from 1.5 oz to .4oz. def hop smell and an orange/tangerine aroma.
going to grab a pounder of mic ultra or bud lite at the corner store and dry hop it in a mr beer 16oz to see what it tastes and smells like.
i'll try .1 oz.
because that is the smallest my scale will register.
 
Kaz15 said:
Just picked 3.0 oz wet Hartwick. Drying them now. There’s probably another 3-5 wet oz still on the plant that are not quite ripe yet. Planning to brew a 2.5 gal test batch once the rest of the hops are ready. Stoked to finally give these a try!
Click to expand...

How do you know they are ready?
what do they smell like to you?

my Hartwick have gotten bigger in the last week with the low one's browning do not smell like hops at all.
I'd lower the plants to get at the higher one's but i'm not sure I can pull them back up. i'm just using eye bolts and aircraft wire and the weight of the plants has me fearing something will snap and i'll have no choice but to pick them.
 
NitrogenWidget said:
How do you know they are ready?
what do they smell like to you?

my Hartwick have gotten bigger in the last week with the low one's browning do not smell like hops at all.
I'd lower the plants to get at the higher one's but i'm not sure I can pull them back up. i'm just using eye bolts and aircraft wire and the weight of the plants has me fearing something will snap and i'll have no choice but to pick them.
Click to expand...

I don’t know for sure. Just making my best guess based on the last 4 years of harvesting my cascade plant. Basing it on a combination of cone texture, aroma and browning at the tips.

My first couple of year growing Cascade, I would occasionally let them go too long. Trying to discover where that balance is with these new varieties. There’s a chance I was totally wrong about the Arcadian hops and I picked them too early, but I digress...

To me, in raw form, Hartwick smells strongly of citrus and grapefruit. Very appealing. The ones that I don’t think are ripe still have a slight grassy smell, are softer and aren’t browning at all yet. I’m guessing those will need another 5-7 days. We’ll see.
 
Well I picked a lb of the arcadian.
on two furnace filters now.
They have a slight onion smell until you crush them and tear them open then you just smell hops.
there is still at least another lb of arcadian on the bines.

the heritage, not sure if those are ready or not but there is at least 4lbs there.
They seem hollow when I squeeze some of them.
I will pick a few before it gets dark and just let them air dry on the top filter of the arcadian sandwhich.
 
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NitrogenWidget said:
arcadians dried out from 1.5 oz to .4oz. def hop smell and an orange/tangerine aroma.
going to grab a pounder of mic ultra or bud lite at the corner store and dry hop it in a mr beer 16oz to see what it tastes and smells like.
i'll try .1 oz.
because that is the smallest my scale will register.
Click to expand...

not sure I tasted orange or tangerine in the mic ultra but I tasted something and it was good.
better than a mic ultra at least.
I went with .2 oz of hops in 16oz of beer this time.
 
NitrogenWidget said:
The hops don’t seem very strong.
Could be I picked them too soon last week.
Click to expand...

I also think I may have picked mine too soon. I have a handful of hops still on my Arcadian plant. I plan to let them go as long as possible.

Glad to hear your test had good flavor.
 
Kaz15 said:
I also think I may have picked mine too soon. I have a handful of hops still on my Arcadian plant. I plan to let them go as long as possible.

Glad to hear your test had good flavor.
Click to expand...

Well the 2nd two day dryhop ultra had a faint orange flavor and aroma to it which is promising.
However some of my arcadians drying have an onion smell to them.
I think another day on the fan and they will be done then I’ll pick the rest and dry them.
Wondering if I missed the window?

The heritage I picked opened up as they are drying and smell like nothing.
 
allright allright allright.
my left hand is sticky from vacuum sealing 4 oz of Arcadian.
once I dried them out to the point they fell apart when I rubbed them between my hands leaving those precious oils the onion smell was gone and nothing but wonderful hop smell!

Got maybe another wet .lb on the bines which i'll pick tomorrow morning and get drying.
the heritage I picked and dried ended up with a very faint fruity type smell so they are not ready.

but here is something interesting.
My arcadian's are putting out new buds since the first harvest and my herritage has started throwing out a bunch of sidearms?

wut is going on here?
it's mid 70's and fall is coming.
 
NitrogenWidget said:
allright allright allright.
my left hand is sticky from vacuum sealing 4 oz of Arcadian.
once I dried them out to the point they fell apart when I rubbed them between my hands leaving those precious oils the onion smell was gone and nothing but wonderful hop smell!

Got maybe another wet .lb on the bines which i'll pick tomorrow morning and get drying.
the heritage I picked and dried ended up with a very faint fruity type smell so they are not ready.

but here is something interesting.
My arcadian's are putting out new buds since the first harvest and my herritage has started throwing out a bunch of sidearms?

wut is going on here?
it's mid 70's and fall is coming.
Click to expand...

I think that’s fairly normal hop behavior. My Arcadian also started putting out side arms low on the bine after I had harvest. I’ve seen the same thing on my 5 year cascade plant. It almost always gets bushy at the base of the plant in late fall, some times produces an additional oz or two if we have a warm fall.

My best guess is that the plant is producing extra foliage in order to produce energy to send back to the roots. And if it has energy to make more hop cones, even better.
 
Kaz15 said:
I think that’s fairly normal hop behavior. My Arcadian also started putting out side arms low on the bine after I had harvest. I’ve seen the same thing on my 5 year cascade plant. It almost always gets bushy at the base of the plant in late fall, some times produces an additional oz or two if we have a warm fall.

My best guess is that the plant is producing extra foliage in order to produce energy to send back to the roots. And if it has energy to make more hop cones, even better.
Click to expand...


cool.
I intend to leave the plants up after harvest but for my ease i've been lopping off the side-arms loaded with hops when I lower them.
And my hops are infested with aphids!
They were clear a few days ago when I picked the first batch.

I found a few hops turning black I assume from the aphids deposits.
I'll pick and burn those in my firepit.
I guess I'll have to lower the heritage and check those for readyness or spritze them with insecticidal soap if not ready.

the amount of aphids is astounding.
the bines are encrusted with them and whole leaf undersides covered.
Now I understand why bee's where swarming on my hops.

those will be dried outside.
 
NitrogenWidget said:
cool.
I intend to leave the plants up after harvest but for my ease i've been lopping off the side-arms loaded with hops when I lower them.
And my hops are infested with aphids!
They were clear a few days ago when I picked the first batch.

I found a few hops turning black I assume from the aphids deposits.
I'll pick and burn those in my firepit.
I guess I'll have to lower the heritage and check those for readyness or spritze them with insecticidal soap if not ready.

the amount of aphids is astounding.
the bines are encrusted with them and whole leaf undersides covered.
Now I understand why bee's where swarming on my hops.

those will be dried outside.
Click to expand...

Get some ladybugs.
 
NitrogenWidget said:
cool.
I intend to leave the plants up after harvest but for my ease i've been lopping off the side-arms loaded with hops when I lower them.
And my hops are infested with aphids!
They were clear a few days ago when I picked the first batch.

I found a few hops turning black I assume from the aphids deposits.
I'll pick and burn those in my firepit.
I guess I'll have to lower the heritage and check those for readyness or spritze them with insecticidal soap if not ready.

the amount of aphids is astounding.
the bines are encrusted with them and whole leaf undersides covered.
Now I understand why bee's where swarming on my hops.

those will be dried outside.
Click to expand...

At my old house, my cascade plant also had some massive aphid infestations. I had TONS of ladybugs, but they couldn’t keep up.

Nature was kind this year, and I haven’t seen a single aphid.

However, I read about this organic insecticide on Great Lakes Hops website.

PyGanic Gardening 8oz, Botanical Insecticide Pyrethrin Concentrate for Organic Gardening https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSWWEX1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_-P9GDb9KSH49Y

Full disclosure, I have not used this product. My plan was to buy it at first sign of bugs. But that didn’t happen this year. If you spring for it, let me know how it works!
 
I was using insecticidal soap to spray on the plants all yr and barely saw much of anything.
I think I will just spray down the heritage with the insecticidal soap tonight, get the non black spotted hops in my furnace filter sandwhich and fabricate some kind of box out of chicken wire to place on a dual turbine window fan i'm not using so I can grab all the herritage hops and dry in one shot sat.

going to need one or two of those dresser oasts for next yr when my hops increase on these plants and my other first yr plants start producing.
 
Out of curiosity, when you mention your “Heritage” hops, which variety do you mean? I don’t see a variety that fits that description on GLH’s website.
 
NitrogenWidget said:
I meant hartwick. LOL
Click to expand...
Got it. Lol.

I’m actually harvesting the rest of my Hartwick tomorrow morning. Those hops smell so good raw. I have high hopes for them. Brewing my 2.5 gal test batch with them this next Tuesday or Wednesday.
 
NitrogenWidget said:
My arcadian's are putting out new buds since the first harvest and my herritage has started throwing out a bunch of sidearms?

wut is going on here?
it's mid 70's and fall is coming.
Click to expand...

I was able to harvest my first year hops over a Month ago which I harvested in 2 stages to allow for more ripeness. I now have around a half pound of new cones I will be able to pick next week and more cones that are just starting to form.
 
Dave Sarber said:
I'd suggest a flamethrower!
Click to expand...

I was trying to shake them off the hops before I picked them and it was like blowing dust into the air.

IDK once I started drying the aphids came out of the hops like crazy. there are so many of them.
most of the hops have a sticky coating on them that makes them feel damp when I knew they had the paper feel.

I think i'll just be thankful for the 4oz of aphid free hops I got off the plants, throw these in my firepit and just not deal with them anymore.
hell, gotta throw out my furnace filters also because they are infested with aphids.

gonna concentrate on the other two plants this weekend before aphid get those.
 
Oh boy... that is rough. I have been there and I feel your pain. I hate to say it, but if the hops have a damp slimy “aphid” coating (and scent) to them, are probably not useable. My opinion: a small number of aphids won’t ruin an individual hop. However, once they become infested and slimy, like you’re describing, I don’t think it’s worth the risk to brew with. Best of luck in picking through to find the good ones.

The aphids will naturally fall off after harvest. I’ve read that this happens because the flow of plant liquids stops. They leave, searching for a better meal. In your case, this means dying in your filters. A few years ago, I had a yellow coating of aphids on my concrete basement floor. Nasty.

BTW, is that Hartwick a 1st year plant?? If so, that’s incredible.
 
yeah
Kaz15 said:
Oh boy... that is rough. I have been there and I feel your pain. I hate to say it, but if the hops have a damp slimy “aphid” coating (and scent) to them, are probably not useable. My opinion: a small number of aphids won’t ruin an individual hop. However, once they become infested and slimy, like you’re describing, I don’t think it’s worth the risk to brew with. Best of luck in picking through to find the good ones.

The aphids will naturally fall off after harvest. I’ve read that this happens because the flow of plant liquids stops. They leave, searching for a better meal. In your case, this means dying in your filters. A few years ago, I had a yellow coating of aphids on my concrete basement floor. Nasty.

BTW, is that Hartwick a 1st year plant?? If so, that’s incredible.
Click to expand...


hartwick -well GLH sent me a 2nd yr plants. but 1st yr for me and that is two plants on a wire I lowered to the ground. they are about 3ft apart but grew so large they sort of became one.
 
Picked the hartwick. Lowered them and hoses them off real good. Knocked most of the aphids off. Only a few leaves on the inside had a problem and maybe 50 hops with the sooty mildew. I got a lot of hops. I’d say based on the wonderful citrus smell, papery feel and the spring back most were ready with a few not quite on the lower arms so I think with upper gone they will see more sun.
59078398165__65BD087A-F8A5-44A6-A8E4-BED6343A8DC1.JPG


Also this is ridiculous. Took me and my two boys two hrs to pick all these.
Glad I had chicken wire and zip ties
images[1].jpg


I’ll just move them around every few hrs and cover with a sheet at night.
 

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