OVHA Chat

Anyone have a good source for Hop rhizome? I've got a few grape arbors in my back yard that I'm considering growing hops on this coming spring. I've found a few places online that sell them, but I was curious if anyone has any history with a good source.

Thats one of the ones I looked at, and one of the best I think, I was wondering if anyone has personal experience with any place?

I think this is where I got some before and my only problem was letting 50' of vine root everywhere.

I'm ordering more this spring.

Any idea what your planning to grow? If the shortage this year sticks around and a few of us are growing our own we might be able to swap some. I was thinking 4-6 cascade and 4-6 Nugget, but mostly because they seem to be recommended for first timers.

I was thinking cascade and fuggle.

I bit the bullet and went ahead and ordered 6 Cascade and 6 Willamette. Decided against the nugget since alpha acids are hard to measure, I'll just use the Cascade and Willamette for taste and aroma.

I ended up ordering from http://www.thymegarden.com/ since you can pre-order, plus they had good things to say about them on the brewboard.

I usually have Magnum and Vanguard on hand.. I only have about a half oz of each right now...

i remember there was a hop seller.. Larry's Hops or something like that .. a buddy of mine used to order from them.

Just ordered hop rhizomes. 2 Northern Brewer, 2 Fuggles, 1 Magnum, and 1 Cascade. Time to be a "farmer"!! Ordered from The Thyme Garden Herb Co.

The ones I ordered last year were from http://www.freshops.com I got 4 Cascades. I think I might add in a Magnum or two this year and relocate the whole crop the the south face of my garage.

Over 2000 beer enthusiasts submitted a homebrew to our 2007 LongShot Contest for a chance to be brewed and distributed by Samuel Adams. The competition was intense and we tasted a lot of really great beers (a tough job but somebody had to do it). In the end three beers were victorious and you can taste two of them starting next month!

Introducing...Weizenbock and Grape Pale Ale



These brews will be available in a 6-pack - 3 bottles each - starting in February.

The third winner was a Double IPA brewed by Mike McDole of California. When chosen as a winner, we anxiously anticipated its inclusion in the LongShot 6-pack. However, we are in the midst of a worldwide hops shortage this year and many of the seven varieties of hops in Mike's recipe are literally sold out. We couldn't find enough of several of these hops on the market at any price to brew his beer. While we presented Mike with a plan to brew his beer substituting in different hops this ultimately that would have been a very different beer. So we were delighted that Mike decided to wait until next year to have his beer brewed and included in the LongShot package. We've already started the hunt for hops for next season. Based on the sample brew that we've tasted, this is a beer worth waiting for!

If you want to have your beer brewed and distributed, keep an eye out for information on our 2008 LongShot Competition in February's newsletter! And to give you an idea of the 2007 finalists' excitement at the GABF check this out.[quote][/quote]

Just as an idea to gage bittering potential is to brew a batch and split it. Basic concept being: only thing to vary is the bittering hops. Boil 1 with the commercial alpha acid (this being the standard known), and another with the homegrown. If you were ambitious, you could split the batch into multiple gallon/half-gallon sizes and vary the amounts of the homegrown hops to judge which amount equaled the standard.

john mills wrote:Just as an idea to gage bittering potential is to brew a batch and split it. Basic concept being: only thing to vary is the bittering hops. Boil 1 with the commercial alpha acid (this being the standard known), and another with the homegrown. If you were ambitious, you could split the batch into multiple gallon/half-gallon sizes and vary the amounts of the homegrown hops to judge which amount equaled the standard.

Along the same lines you could make a cup of hop tea with a commercial hop and your own. It would be easier than brewing a whole gallon and should yield similar results.

Well I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
I just put my order in with Thyme garden for 2 Cascade, 2 Centennial, 2 Chinook, and 2 Willamette rhizomes. It seems all the other vendors are still waiting for the big freeze to be over before taking orders.
My plans were to plant the Cascade, and Centennial around my octagon shaped deck. I told my wife that with lines to run up, the vines will make a roof giving her the gazebo she wants. I showed her the picture from the Thyme garden website. My questions to the experienced local hop growers: Think this will work? How large have your vines grown? I have a retaining wall along my driveway that grades from 2ft tall to about 6 ft tall by about 50 ft long. How many plants will it take to cover this concrete monstrocity?

I found this yahoo group that is devoted to hop growing. There have been some interesting posts. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grow-Hops/ such as home titration test to determing quantity of acids in home grown hops.