Daft idea probs, but...

[Taff]

When I return to Blighty to live in Jan 2018, I will be living on a farm, my house is an old barn conversion. The a farm has as it's main crop, barley.

I have a sizable garden/allotment patch to use. I fancy growing hops and having a crack at a "farm's own" beer brew, using as many ingredients born and raised on the farm as poss. (Just for friends and, well, mainly just for me really.)

My place is in the furthest reaches of Cornwall, just before the land ends.

Is growing hops possible down there? Is my dream of a farm brew just not feasible?

All advice gratefully received.

 

[marlon]

Hops are quite easy to grow, but in Cornwall they'll probably do best in a sheltered place, maybe against a wall. They cope with 'wet n warm' well but don't like harsh winds. There are plenty of hop growers on this forum in tougher places - Scotland - Ireland ...! I think your hops will be OK.
There's loads of places that sell hop rhizomes in the winter months, but my favourite is :
http://www.essentiallyhops.co.uk

Your plan sounds great, but you'll need to think about malting your barley. I've never tried that, but someone on here will have the knowledge

Keep us posted when you get here.:thumb:

 

[johnnyboy1965]

You really need to check on what type of soil you have. Cornwall is renowned for having different types of soil in close proximity. ie...acid, alkaline, sandy, clay.
Hops are very easy to grow, but do like the correct Ph

 

[chewie]

If you plan on using freshly harvested barley you might want to read up on the malting process otherwise all you will end up with is porridge, there is nothing difficult about malting the barley yourself but it is a bit time consuming to go thru.

 

[simon12]

Nothing to add except make sure your growing the right type of barley ie low protein spring barley I think is what you want. Sounds like a great idea.

 

[Grizzly299]

Go for it I say!

 

[Taff]

Thanks gang. Obvs it's a long way off as of yet, but you're inspiring me to try, which is nice.

 

[IainM]

I think this is an awesome idea. If you do it make sure to let us know how it pans out.

 

[Deadhead]

I successfully grow hops in the Highlands of Scotland, so climatewise, Cornwall should provide even better luck.

Andy Hamilton's book Brewing Britain has a lot of information on the full DIY approach. There are probably others, but I've not read them.

 

[Honk]

I was also going to recommend the brewing Britain book which has a chapter on growing and malting your own barley / hops. It would be awesome to drink a home grown beer.

From memory I think it says you need an area about the size of your average garage to grow enough barley for a 23 litre brew, so it's doable for a lot of us. I wonder if i can persuade the wife to let me grow barley on the front lawn? Good luck with it.

 

[Taff]

Andy Hamilton's book Brewing Britain has a lot of information on the full DIY approach. T

Cheers guys, straight onto Amazon and bought the kindle version!!