Growing Hops UK

[Robbo851]

So I am thinking about growing Hops in my garden to add to some extract brews or for pimping beer kits. does anyone have any experience in this?

If so are you able to answer these questions?

• What varieties are easy to grow in the UK particularly East Anglia? (fruity floral tastes would work with light IPAs and Pales)
• any special growing requirements? read that you grow them on wires like runner beans
• would you soak them in no rinse sterilizer or vodka?
• any particular variety's that look nicer than others.
• anything else to note about them

I use hops in dry hopping or hop teas not in the boil so would be looking for varieties to suit this purpose only.

 

[Leon103]

Not a grower but someone who is will pop in now.
Cascade would work well.
You grow them up a structure, cable, building etc.
No need sterilise them as you will be boiling them.
I believe they all look the same

 

[terrym]

Big thread on this here.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/hop-plants-rhizomes-growing-report.69518/
I grew two new First Gold (Prima Donna) plants from rhizomes in pots last year and got a small crop.
My input.
1. If you are going to go ahead now's the time to do it . There are two or three online suppliers. I bought my rhizomes from a forum member.
2. If you are tight for space go for a dwarf variety like Prima Donna which grow to about 3 m, otherwise they will take up a lot of space. You can grow them in pots but in the ground is probably better.
3. Quite a lot of varieties to choose from.
4. Many members in England and Wales growing them up and down the country, and maybe Scotland too. Location may only affect when the plants shoot and the hop cones are ready due to ambient temperature.
5. Best in a sunny location if my experience is anything to go by.
6. It takes 3 years or so for the plant to give you a good crop. I had a small harvest from mine, one plant did better than the other.
7. You will not know the exact bittering potential from your hops, only the type generic range. So your hops are best used for late aroma hops or dry hopping unless you want to just go with it.
8. When you have a good harvest you need to be able to dry them. I used the low setting on my oven , but I only had a small amount of hops so this years crop will be more challenging. Others use more sophisticated methods of drying.
9. You will then need to store them, so might need to think about that. Some members vac pack.
10. Otherwise they seem quite easy to grow if you have some gardening skills. There are pests that attack them but ladybirds seem to like them so that helps. And the only other big ?? is when to pick the cones, but there's plenty on Youtube to help you with that. Basically its when they have just dried out and become papery to the feel, rather than green and springy.
Hope this helps

 

[Robbo851]

Big thread on this here.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/hop-plants-rhizomes-growing-report.69518/
I grew two new First Gold (Prima Donna) plants from rhizomes in pots last year and got a small crop.
My input.
1. If you are going to go ahead now's the time to do it . There are two or three online suppliers. I bought my rhizomes from a forum member.
2. If you are tight for space go for a dwarf variety like Prima Donna which grow to about 3 m, otherwise they will take up a lot of space. You can grow them in pots but in the ground is probably better.
3. Quite a lot of varieties to choose from.
4. Many members in England and Wales growing them up and down the country, and maybe Scotland too. Location may only affect when the plants shoot and the hop cones are ready due to ambient temperature.
5. Best in a sunny location if my experience is anything to go by.
6. It takes 3 years or so for the plant to give you a good crop. I had a small harvest from mine, one plant did better than the other.
7. You will not know the exact bittering potential from your hops, only the type generic range. So your hops are best used for late aroma hops or dry hopping unless you want to just go with it.
8. When you have a good harvest you need to be able to dry them. I used the low setting on my oven , but I only had a small amount of hops so this years crop will be more challenging. Others use more sophisticated methods of drying.
9. You will then need to store them, so might need to think about that. Some members vac pack.
10. Otherwise they seem quite easy to grow if you have some gardening skills. There are pests that attack them but ladybirds seem to like them so that helps. And the only other big ?? is when to pick the cones, but there's plenty on Youtube to help you with that. Basically its when they have just dried out and become papery to the feel, rather than green and springy.
Hope this helps

well that is a pretty comprehensive answer thank you very much.

assuming I would get a small crop from planting two plants could I pick them, oven dry them then immediately dry hop them ? and therefore no need to store? it wouldn't be looking to use them in all my beers just a one off really just to say made with home grown hops.

 

[terrym]

well that is a pretty comprehensive answer thank you very much.

assuming I would get a small crop from planting two plants could I pick them, oven dry them then immediately dry hop them ? and therefore no need to store? it wouldn't be looking to use them in all my beers just a one off really just to say made with home grown hops.

I think you have to have a certain level of commitment to going ahead with this as the rhizomes themselves cost about £10 each delivered, unless you know someone who is having a clear-out, and it can also be a little time consuming. So purely on a financial position my first year gave me about £2 worth of hops for an outlay of about £20 quite apart from cost of twine, John Innes etc etc. But is it a bit of fun I suppose.
Anyway I got about 250g of cones from my two plants which dried out to about 50-60g of hops. As I said one plant did better than the other.
If you dried them out you could use them in one brew I suppose.
However subsequent years should be more productive, so you are then into drying and storing.
I was a little reticent to use my hops as a dry hop since I was cautious about them being sterile so I had mine in boiling water as a hop tea and late addition as a precaution. Others might be a bit more gung ho.
And if you have been accustomed to using hop pellets, using whole hops is a lot more fiddly.

 

[Robbo851]

I think you have to have a certain level of commitment to going ahead with this as the rhizomes themselves cost about £10 each delivered, unless you know someone who is having a clear-out, and it can also be a little time consuming. So purely on a financial position my first year gave me about £2 worth of hops for an outlay of about £20 quite apart from cost of twine, John Innes etc etc. But is it a bit of fun I suppose.
Anyway I got about 250g of cones from my two plants which dried out to about 50-60g of hops. As I said one plant did better than the other.
If you dried them out you could use them in one brew I suppose.
However subsequent years should be more productive, so you are then into drying and storing.
I was a little reticent to use my hops as a dry hop since I was cautious about them being sterile so I had mine in boiling water as a hop tea and late addition as a precaution. Others might be a bit more gung ho.
And if you have been accustomed to using hop pellets, using whole hops is a lot more fiddly.

another comprehensive answer thank you, - I enjoy gardening and it will add some height to an area of my garden that needs it - its not about value for me it getting the novelty of being home grown beer or in part at least and its a plant so it adds interest in my garden not just in my beer. I have used whole hops before hops before and its not been an issue - I just add it as a hop tea or could put it in a muslin bag like i do when its pellets - thanks im gonna get some.

 

[stz]

Personally I'll stick to T90's, but I know a guy who dry hops quite successfully with leaf while being quite paranoid (from my perspective) about sanitation. He puts them into a blender and adds boiling water slowly until it forms a homogenised green slurry which he adds directly to fermenter. I had my reservations about it, cooking off delicate aroma, getting bits everywhere, waste of time etc, but his beers speak for themselves so I can't say his method isn't successful.

 

[terrym]

Personally I'll stick to T90's, but I know a guy who dry hops quite successfully with leaf while being quite paranoid (from my perspective) about sanitation. He puts them into a blender and adds boiling water slowly until it forms a homogenised green slurry which he adds directly to fermenter. I had my reservations about it, cooking off delicate aroma, getting bits everywhere, waste of time etc, but his beers speak for themselves so I can't say his method isn't successful.

Like that.
Worth a try

 

[DavieC]

I think hops are antibacterial, so if thats case maybe they're fine to just throw in the fv for a dry hop,or literally straight off the plant and into the fv,no need to dry them if they have just been picked? I used some out of my garden last year but only dared make a hop tea sugar mix for priming at bottling, It was my first beer kit brew so wasn't really that confident.Might just lob some freshly picked ones in this year if I can time it right,Ive no idea which variety my hop is though but I get masses ,they smell fantastic when they're ripe.

 

[An Ankoù]

So I am thinking about growing Hops in my garden to add to some extract brews or for pimping beer kits. does anyone have any experience in this?

If so are you able to answer these questions?
Kent is the hop-growing centre of England and East Anglia isn't a million miles away. So try Goldings.
No, you don't soak them in vodka or steriliser. You use them straight away or dry them. Drying them requires some technical ability, which I've read about, but never done. I put three hop roots in last year and had a crop from two of them. Green hopping is entirely different to aroma or dry hopping. I put my entire crop ( about 200 g) of centennial straight into a brew (ie 15 minutes from bine to brew) at flame out. The beer can only be described as "perfumed". Just drinking it now.

• What varieties are easy to grow in the UK particularly East Anglia? (fruity floral tastes would work with light IPAs and Pales)
• any special growing requirements? read that you grow them on wires like runner beans
• would you soak them in no rinse sterilizer or vodka?
• any particular variety's that look nicer than others.
• anything else to note about them

I use hops in dry hopping or hop teas not in the boil so would be looking for varieties to suit this purpose only.