After a strange hop growing season, I have finally got my crops in. I picked my Cascade last week and I vaccum packed them. It's amazing how a half a bucket of hops equals two ounces. If the majority of my vines had not died off in the late spring freeze, I would have easily had over a pound. Then another "string" died off mid summer.
Add it to my resume:
Brewer
BBQer
Wannabe Hop farmer
Then, tonight I finally harvested my first year Centennials which did great for the first year. I probably will only get one ounce out of them, but combined, I should get some good dry hopping for my favorite IPA recipe.[img][albumimg]226[/albumimg][/img][img][albumimg]228[/albumimg][/img]
Homegrown Hops
-
Kenny Lucas
- Brewmaster
- Posts: 230
- Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:30 pm
- Location: Alittletooclosetokentucky, IN
-
Jim W
- Brewmaster
- Posts: 209
- Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2007 8:07 pm
Kenny protect your hops with your life. Desperate brewers do desperate things.
"HOP SHORTAGE
------------
2007's supply of hops is unfortunately not expected to meet the
worldwide demand. The hop shortage is expected to last about 2-3
years. The good news: we contracted an adequate supply of hop pellets
for us to supply our customers for the 2008 calendar year.
The bad news: the 2007 crop is not yet ready for shipment, and the
2006 crop is nearly sold out. The situation looks pretty bad now (if
you look at our website, most varieties are unavailable). The 2007
crop is just beginning to ship, and we expect the situation will only
improve from this point forward.
Please bear with us, and try experimenting with some of the newer
varieties we have brought in, like Ahtanum, Boadicea, Lublin, Marynka,
Newport, Northdown, Premiant, Progress, Sladek, Sterling, and Vanguard!
It's time to get creative folks!"
"HOP SHORTAGE
------------
2007's supply of hops is unfortunately not expected to meet the
worldwide demand. The hop shortage is expected to last about 2-3
years. The good news: we contracted an adequate supply of hop pellets
for us to supply our customers for the 2008 calendar year.
The bad news: the 2007 crop is not yet ready for shipment, and the
2006 crop is nearly sold out. The situation looks pretty bad now (if
you look at our website, most varieties are unavailable). The 2007
crop is just beginning to ship, and we expect the situation will only
improve from this point forward.
Please bear with us, and try experimenting with some of the newer
varieties we have brought in, like Ahtanum, Boadicea, Lublin, Marynka,
Newport, Northdown, Premiant, Progress, Sladek, Sterling, and Vanguard!
It's time to get creative folks!"
-
sirgiovanni
- Brewmaster
- Posts: 1059
- Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 8:53 am
- Location: Evansville
-
Kenny Lucas
- Brewmaster
- Posts: 230
- Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:30 pm
- Location: Alittletooclosetokentucky, IN
The "trellis" actually came down with the hops during harvest.
I simply put two nails at the top of my roofline at the side of my barn spaced about three feet apart and about 15 feet in the air. I attached a piece of heavy twine at the ground and created a "v" to where I attached the other end to the nails at the roof. After the hops got a couple of feet long, I cut all the rest but the two and trained them clockwise around each twine. At one point in the middle of the summer they had made it all the way to the top and were working themselves back down. When it is time to harvest, climb on the roof and cut the twine. The vines fall to the ground for easy picking. This was the third year for my cascade crop.
My centennials (first year) were planted at the corner of my deck on my house and trained to travel up the deckpost on the corner. (about 12 feet)
Of course I did not cut the deck down to harvest, as it was a little more difficult to pick them.
As I also had mentioned, an early frost stunted one major vine and another died off about half way with some sort of black rot.
I simply put two nails at the top of my roofline at the side of my barn spaced about three feet apart and about 15 feet in the air. I attached a piece of heavy twine at the ground and created a "v" to where I attached the other end to the nails at the roof. After the hops got a couple of feet long, I cut all the rest but the two and trained them clockwise around each twine. At one point in the middle of the summer they had made it all the way to the top and were working themselves back down. When it is time to harvest, climb on the roof and cut the twine. The vines fall to the ground for easy picking. This was the third year for my cascade crop.
My centennials (first year) were planted at the corner of my deck on my house and trained to travel up the deckpost on the corner. (about 12 feet)
Of course I did not cut the deck down to harvest, as it was a little more difficult to pick them.
As I also had mentioned, an early frost stunted one major vine and another died off about half way with some sort of black rot.