Any Hop Growers?

harebare said:

No, that was my yeild from all the plants. I had two growing locations and half did better than the other half (although I think it was more the height of the string rather than sun, water or soil). The bed where the string topped out at about 12 ft had the best yeild. The bed with 7 foot strings did less well. I planted all this spring so I expect a heavier harvest next year.

10.5 oz (I went back and counted bags) is A LOT of hops. My dried hops weigh less than an ounce per pail. I had a hell of a time compacting, sealing and fitting them all in my freezer with room left for food.

I'm growing Cascade. Perhaps yours are not completely dried? Mine really are far less dense than say a pile of goose down.

- Hare

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Well, I didn't have any way to test them for moisture content, but they seemed pretty dry to me.  I think maybe what I should do is weigh the hops before drying them and then that might guide me a bit, although their beginning moisture content can vary a lot, too.  Regardless of dry volume, the fact of the matter is that most mature hops plants will produce about 2 pounds of dried hop cones per plant.  In commercial production, IIRC, there are usually about 900 plants per acre, producing somewhere in the range of 1,400 to 2,000 pounds per acre of dried hops (depending upon variety) -- in the U.S.  However, statistics for Australia have shown that they produce closer to 2,400 pounds per acre, but I don't know what their growing methods are or how many plants they have per acre.

As for Cascade and height, I know of one brewer (Denny Conn who posts in various brewing forums) who has said, IIRC, that he harvests about 2.5 dried pounds per plant from Cascade that he grows on a chainlink fence -- I can't recall the height, but my impression/memory is that it is along the lines of a standard 4' to 4.5' tall fence, but I don't know how long it is.  He could be growing bines 20' in both directions.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

Proper drying is important to shelf life and flavor. (Improperly dried hops add a grassy flavor and in some cases, a green tint, to the beer.)

A food dehydrator is best as it works very quickly. I dry mine on window screens in a rather hot dry garage with several fans pointed at them. The cones are dry when the central stem is brittle and breaks rather than bends.  My dried hops are then placed in heavy plastic bags, pressed to removed as much air as possible and then frozen until used.

I found that my crop that was grown in mostly full sun and trained to grow on twine about 18' tall developed large yellow glands. The plants in partial (25% of the day) shade and on 10' strings developed smaller glands and matured 2 weeks later than the others. I'll be moving all my plants to full sun and extending the strings to the top of the garage wall where they are planed (about 20').

I dry hoped one batch with these hops and the flavor is great. I did have a bit of trouble re-clearing the ale after. I think I'll use my fresh hops in the brew pot from now on.

- Hare

- Hare

First year hop plants very small.  I planted cascade rizome this year (spring)  and they have not grown very tall at all (3-4 feet).  SOmeone said that they will grow better the second year.  Has anyone else had this problem before?