Hops??

[Old John]

Do any of the Homebrewers here grow your own Hop Vines?
What varieties have you tried.
How big a Trellis, do you need for each Vine.
I have a Friend who gave up on most of his.
He says "they spread like Noxious weeds".
Anyway, I ordered 4 rhisomes today of 4 Varieties,
Northern Brewer, Perle, Cascade and Willamette.
2 are for bittering, and 2 for aroma.

I told DSW Sharon, I'd build a big trellis with a bench in it,
for looking out across the Valley.
She liked that idea.

[Dwayne Barry]

I've not tried it yet so can't give any personal experience.

There is at least one book I've read that provides some information, The Homebrewer's Garden by Joe & Dennis Fisher. It covers growing hops, barley, flavoring herbs, etc.

[solidwoods]

I grow Cascade hops.
Commercially it is grown up a rope/string, 3'ish apart. They use telephone poles and make an elaborate overhead trellis.

So I'd space the rhizomes 3'ish apart, plan on 15' of main vine. Then go shopping 5 Gal. all grain recipes.
jim

[pookshollow]

My ex used to grow them up the pole that held my clothesline. By mid-summer, I couldn't use it because they'd tangled it completely. So make sure you plant them where they have room to spread or your wife won't be happy!

Oh, and they give you awful welts.

[ldc]

Yes and don't eat the leaves as salad, as it says somewhere on Wikipedia; that's where the expression "mad as hops" comes from. It can cause a documented mania. We grew them in the community garden and they grew about 15 ft tall the first year. Don't know which varieties they were; people used them successfully to make beer. ldc

[uyk7]

I've been thinking about growing hops but before I do, I would like to know what ingredients are needed to make beer, how to grow them at home, and how to make the beer. I am interested in making beer from scratch with all the ingredients coming from my garden. Any help available? Thanks.

.

[Dwayne Barry]

Originally Posted by uyk7

I've been thinking about growing hops but before I do, I would like to know what ingredients are needed to make beer, how to grow them at home, and how to make the beer. I am interested in making beer from scratch with all the ingredients coming from my garden. Any help available? Thanks.

.

I'd recommend How to Brew by John Palmer, perhaps gets a bit heavy into the chemistry at times but covers everything you need to know about brewing beer. I'd have to go back to make sure, but I'm pretty certain he covers information on malting your own grains which is what you would have to learn to do to make beer from home grown ingredients.

At a most fundamental level all you need to make beer is some sort of grain (barley is the typical one) and yeast. There are two species of yeast typically used, one of which makes ales, the other lagers. I'd think you'd want to buy these specific yeasts at first but then you can keep a colony growing so you don't have to purchase more. I'm not sure it would work to try to start your own yeast colony from "wild" yeast, probably end up with some foul beer but maybe not?

Hops are a bittering and flavoring ingredient but not essential to making beer.

[knoche]

I grow Cascade, Nugget, Willamette and Sterling here in Colorado.
The Cascade has all but choked out the rest.

I also recommend "The Homebrewers Garden", Fisher/Fisher
Also check out,
http://www.freshops.com/

A couple of warnings. Hops spread quite readily so you need to keep them contained.
The vines can be quite irritating on contact so trellised over a bench might not be the best idea... and certainly don't eat any part of the plant as already mentioned.
I suggest wearing gloves and a long shirt when working around them.

There are a number of brewing books and websites.

I also grow wheat and oats but barley is somewhat problematic to harvest on a small scale. I buy whole grain or malted barley to brew but will probably grow some barley next year.

Use good quality yeast! Even with pure strains it is easy to contaminate your brew and end up with something completely undrinkable. Don't even try wild yeast...

[Gailann Schrader]

Yep! They can be noxious in their growth. But lovely and fun! Good luck!!! I plan to plant more this Spring. I had some wild hops in the woods but they didn't have any hoppy scent and the goats ate them...

[WisJim]

I've grow a few varities, I think that Willamette is the one doing best for the last 15 years or so. There is a hop growing Yahoo! group that has been discussing hop poles etc lately.

[Alex]

Hi,

We planted one plant to cover our garden trellis -- then added another last year. They take a few years to get going in our area, but when they do, they go like crazy.


Three-year-old Hop at gate to garden trellis -- last August 2008. Our Deer fence is seven-feet high the top of the trellis is ten-feet, the Hops are another foot above the trellis, and they grew for a month or more after this picture was taken.


Detail at Hops -- it shots out tenderils and seems to want to go every where.

There was a Hops shortage in Vancouver last year and the price reached $60 a pound. Think I will clip a bag this fall and see what a home brew company says about it.

Enjoy,

Alex

[gone-a-milkin]

We grow hops for brewing too.

My DH took cattle panels (16') and bent them into arches for the bines to climb. Each arch supports 2 bines of the same variety. The bines of different varieties are not allowed to comingle otherwise you will never be able to tell them apart. Which amy or may not matter to you.

We grow Hallertau, Tettenang, Yakima Goldings, and Cascade (forgive my spelling). Those Cascades are the most hardy of the lot (though a bit too citrusy, IMO).

I just mow around and around the arches all summer long and sit on my porch w/ a homebrew in the evenings.. ahh, Summer...I miss Summer.

This was our Cascades the first year. Yep, that is a 16' orchard ladder and it was TOO HARD to pick them way up there. I dont recommend this method at all. But the cattle panels at least put them at a reachable height (too bad I cant seem to locate my pics...)

Picking hops is not my most favorite task, but it does beat buying them...$$$

Happy Brewing!

[Old John]

I appreciate the information.
I picked up some more on the Homebrewers Forums. Lots of good info there too.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/


I've been making beer since 1992. I usually only Brew 30 or 40 gallons of Beer of various kinds, & another 20 or 30 of Mead, in a year.
I thought about growing Hops before.
But I think this time, I'll try it. Four starts of 4 varieties ought to be more'n enough, maybe too much. We'll see.
Thanks, again,

[Kris in MI]

Thanks for starting this thread. What type of soil do you all have?

We have been homebrewing for about 8 years now, and tried to raise hops last year. Planted 4 rhisomes (if I remember right, a cascade, a Williamette, a chinook and a tettnang) we had gotten from a local guy who'd been growing successfully for a few years.

I don't know if it was our soil or where dh decided to plant them, but not one of them grew. We planted them on the south side of the house in full sun.

Going to try again this year (have cascade and mt hood on order), but want to be better prepared. Our soil is heavy clay and up until 7 years ago (when we bought it & built the house) had been intensively commercially farmed in beans & corn. My garden I have hauled composted horse manure to for 6 years now, and also supplement w/the litter from the hen house, rabbit manure, and ash from the wood burner. It is finally getting dark and loose. The soil around the house is still pretty hard and pale.

Should we try the hops in the garden? (would rather not, as we have 'perfect' trellis in the posts of our wraparound porch) Or use some of the garden soil to prepare a hop bed on what is currently clay?

[makeitmyself]

Go for it!

I make my own beer too and have been growing hops for three years. We're in the middle of a world-wide hop shortage right now, so you will save money if you grow your own. Once they start growing, the plants produce more and more each year.

This is my fav beer site.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/

I get all my supplies here. The forum is full of great people and great info.