Buying hops (to grow) in the UK

[BradleyW]

Morning everyone hope you're all having a good Sunday.
I'd like to buy my step-dad a couple of hop plants for his birthday but I'm not sure where to get them from in the UK. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Cheers

 

[user 18729]

Morning everyone hope you're all having a good Sunday.
I'd like to buy my step-dad a couple of hop plants for his birthday but I'm not sure where to get them from in the UK. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Cheers

Rhizomes need to be planted in the winter/early spring but some nurseries will probably sell potted plants if you have a quick google

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Usual suspects are :

APlus
Essentially (only do rhizomes)
Willingham (used to do cuttings as well as rhizomes, looks like they only do rhizomes at the moment)

As Hopsteep said, the normal way to buy hops is as bare rhizomes whilst they are dormant during the winter (from November up until early March, typically). During the summer you may be able to buy them in pots but it's more expensive and fewer suppliers do them that way (and it looks like eg Willingham have stopped doing them during the virus).

Bear in mind that hops are big thugs of plants - normal ones grow up to 20', dwarf ones (of which First Gold/Primadonna is the only one easily available to homegrowers) are about half that.

Also bear in mind that many of the sexy modern varieties like Citra are patented and not available to homegrowers.

 

[terrym]

Growing hops is really a fun thing, but can take up a lot of time particularly at hop harvesting time when you have to dry the hops, although you can brew using green hops. You also have to store the hops and that may require investment in vac packing or similar. However I store my hops in poly bags in my beer fridge, because otherwise they would take up too much space in the freezer since they are leaf not pellets (obviously)
Anyway long thread on hop growing here
Hop plants/rhizomes - growing report
There are others so use the forum search engine.
In short you buy a certified rhizome (rootstock) and plant it in the dormant season as others have said. It must be one that carries female not male flowers. Growing from seed is not advised. First shoots should appear in March/April time dependant upon where you are in the UK
There are mainly two sorts of hops, regular hops that can ultimately grow to 7/8 metres, and a small group of dwarf hops including Prima Donna (or First Gold) which grow to about 3 metres. In both cases you select about three strong shoots and then allow them to grow up strong cord or over something since they are strong climbers . You can grow them in large pots but in the ground is better. I have 2 Prima Donna in large pots.
A rhizome will take 3 years to come to full capacity. In the first year don't expect much
And when you have harvested the hop cones (flowers) at just the right time, in August/September time in a window of about one week, you will then have to thoroughly dry them for storage (unless you use some to make a green hop beer)
To buy try these people, there are others I'm sure
Essentially Hops
Finally you have no real knowledge of what the %AA is from your crop, other than by rough comparison with commercial varieties, so they are only ideally used as flavour or aroma hops. That said I guessed my%AA and appear to have got it about right so use them as abittering hop in the single hop beer I do with them.

 

[Lesinge]

Growing hops is really a fun thing, but can take up a lot of time particularly at hop harvesting time when you have to dry the hops, although you can brew using green hops. You also have to store the hops and that may require investment in vac packing or similar. However I store my hops in poly bags in my beer fridge, because otherwise they would take up too much space in the freezer since they are leaf not pellets (obviously)
Anyway long thread on hop growing here
Hop plants/rhizomes - growing report
There are others so use the forum search engine.
In short you buy a certified rhizome (rootstock) and plant it in the dormant season as others have said. It must be one that carries female not male flowers. Growing from seed is not advised. First shoots should appear in March/April time dependant upon where you are in the UK
There are mainly two sorts of hops, regular hops that can ultimately grow to 7/8 metres, and a small group of dwarf hops including Prima Donna (or First Gold) which grow to about 3 metres. In both cases you select about three strong shoots and then allow them to grow up strong cord or over something since they are strong climbers . You can grow them in large pots but in the ground is better. I have 2 Prima Donna in large pots.
A rhizome will take 3 years to come to full capacity. In the first year don't expect much
And when you have harvested the hop cones (flowers) at just the right time, in August/September time in a window of about one week, you will then have to thoroughly dry them for storage (unless you use some to make a green hop beer)
To buy try these people, there are others I'm sure
Essentially Hops
Finally you have no real knowledge of what the %AA is from your crop, other than by rough comparison with commercial varieties, so they are only ideally used as flavour or aroma hops. That said I guessed my%AA and appear to have got it about right so use them as abittering hop in the single hop beer I do with them.

Certainly recommend the Prima Donna (or First Gold) which unfortunately I killed during a drought last year. Before that I had harvested, dried and made a beer from the hops and it was great. This year I am going more "professional" and have both Fuggles and Challenger in a growing area with strings going up to a tree which they are currently moving up on. My wife bought them last year from essentially I think and I planted them in winter - you might struggle to get them at this time of year.

 

[BradleyW]

Yeah I figured it may be tricky, was hoping there'd be the odd pot available