Hop plants/rhizomes - growing report

[Keith 66]

My wild hops from the old farm (suspect they are goldings) went berserk this year I had masses of them there were weeks of sun then the rain came & the gales, they got mildew & that was that, lost the poxy lot. Ah well theres always next year.

 

[SamBrewster]

140g dry, pumped out as much air as I could:

Need to design a beer now

 

[531Man]

Hi all, this year will be my first brewing attempt with Fresh Green Hops.
I spotted them on my exercise bike ride along nearby country lanes growing in a hedgerow at a farm entrance, so asked the owner politely last week if it was OK to have them for homebrew purposes.
He generously said it was fine and then spent 1/4 hour pointing out the piles either side of his trackway and berating 'fly-tipping' by the culprits.
We said our farewells and then he let drop that the farm had been a commercial hop garden back in the day!
I returned to harvest/collect today and only fell over entwined with my ladder steps the once.
I live in Kent, and from their heady aroma, I suspect they are Goldings. There are 1338g (wet) of them!
I had not returned to homebrewing last year, but I'm sure there were more then. In a way seeing them is what prompted me to recommence after nearly 40 years. (started at BREWSOC Bristol University 1970's) . Lock down completed the resumption.
Above are a couple of photos to record my hop haul and me stripping them. Oh and a few of the vintage internal screw top bottles I use for my beer, as I just like to.
I have ex-Bulmers quart internal screw bottles as well from those student brewing days.

 

[Sandimas]

My wild hops from the old farm (suspect they are goldings) went berserk this year I had masses of them there were weeks of sun then the rain came & the gales, they got mildew & that was that, lost the poxy lot.

Good point about mildew, my next batch are drying on solid trays but I go out and turn them every few hours as I left them in previous years and they went off. An earlier photo of a frame with mesh seems the way to go, might knock a few up for next year,

 

[531Man]

It's an interesting idea about drying hops out of UV light because they might go funny. However to balance that hop cones need a lot of sun to mature properly and if your hop plant is in a sunny position, it could well see 12 hours of sun a day even at this time of year, and even when its cloudy some UV gets through. So perhaps someone who actually knows about these things could put us straight, rather than folks speculate. Otherwise it might end up as a homebrew myth, of which there are many.

Hi there, Northern_Brewer has the answer right about "that UV causes isohumulones to convert to the lightstruck "skunked" smell/flavour."
Relatively few home brewers grow and dry their own hops, which may be why you haven't seen much about the UV effect, but search around and you will find chapter and verse in brewing technical information sources.
And I'm not speaking of the "crystals at midnight" type of sources.
Why it doesn't happen in sunshine on the bine is because it IS on the bine still, so the plant keeps the oils unskunked. It's alive. Take the hops off the bine and you remove the source of metabolic energy that maintains the things fresh.
That's why hops are commercially picked and immediately transported to be kiln dried out of sunlight. It is all to do with preserving those special oils and flavours we love so much!
And the same thing can happen in the bottle, which is as has been said, why beer bottles are dark. Beer is best kept in the cool and dark mostly for the hop content.
Some sunlight is tolerated, but too much and deterioration will occur.
Yours in brewing and lovely fresh hopping,
Robin.

 

[terrym]

Hi there, Northern_Brewer has the answer right about "that UV causes isohumulones to convert to the lightstruck "skunked" smell/flavour."
Relatively few home brewers grow and dry their own hops, which may be why you haven't seen much about the UV effect, but search around and you will find chapter and verse in brewing technical information sources.
And I'm not speaking of the "crystals at midnight" type of sources.
Why it doesn't happen in sunshine on the bine is because it IS on the bine still, so the plant keeps the oils unskunked. It's alive. Take the hops off the bine and you remove the source of metabolic energy that maintains the things fresh.
That's why hops are commercially picked and immediately transported to be kiln dried out of sunlight. It is all to do with preserving those special oils and flavours we love so much!
And the same thing can happen in the bottle, which is as has been said, why beer bottles are dark. Beer is best kept in the cool and dark mostly for the hop content.
Some sunlight is tolerated, but too much and deterioration will occur.
Yours in brewing and lovely fresh hopping,
Robin.

That does seem to be a reasoned approach.
Practically it doesn't affect me because I artificially dry my hops out of light, but others may need to take heed.

 

[Sandimas]

Part 2 of the hop harvest, Cascade, again off one plant. Some of the cones are massive compared to the Styrian Goldings, this is my 5th year of growing and I've never seen them this big.

 

[531Man]

Part 2 of the hop harvest, Cascade, again off one plant. Some of the cones are massive compared to the Styrian Goldings, this is my 5th year of growing and I've never seen them this big.

View attachment 32370View attachment 32371

Amazing hops!
Do they have all the same characteristics of aroma and oil?

 

[Sandimas]

Do they have all the same characteristics of aroma and oil?

Hard to tell, I'm hoping to use them in a brew fairly soon. I just used the last of lasy year's Cascade, which weren't anywhere near as big. I'm drying these inside to see if it makes a difference.

 

[Honk]

It's taken 4 years for my EKG to get established but finally got a decent crop which I picked yesterday. I've Seen mixed reviews on freezing fresh green hops but that is what I've done with these.

 

[Cwrw666]

I froze all my hops fresh for a couple of years. Just chuck em in the wort frozen. Worked ok but I prefer the flavour of dried hops.

 

[AXW123]

Just dried the last of my hops. Got 2kg wet and 450g dried from 2 rhizomes planted in April. Centennial and Cascade I think but one of the labels disappeared. Ended up mixing them together because my husband couldn’t really tell where one plant finished and the other started and I have just had my knee replaced so climbing up a ladder wasn’t an option. I am so chuffed. Now to make a brew with them when I can stand up for long enough!

 

[chrissyr63]

Just harvested mine - 500g of a mixture of Fuggles and Brewers Gold (grew across each other so couldn't separate - have to work out new way to grow next year).

Hope to get 100g once I've dried them - have to look for best way to do this.
Then a brew.

 

[jMac]

Loving all the picking reports - it’s feels like there’s a lot more of us growing hops this year than previously.

I’m hoping to have an allotment early next year and intend to grow 3 or 4 new hops there to supplement the single Goldings I have in my garden. I’m thinking another Goldings, a Fuggles or similar, maybe a Cascade and then something more obscure (I’m open to suggestions!).

Can’t wait to see what you brew with your crops. My Goldings will probably all go in simple but celebratory single hopped English pale.

 

[531Man]

Part 2 of the hop harvest, Cascade, again off one plant. Some of the cones are massive compared to the Styrian Goldings, this is my 5th year of growing and I've never seen them this big.

View attachment 32370View attachment 32371

Must be the year, my local in Wye, Kent has what looks to be identical conformation and sized hops growing over the shrubs outside its rear garden entrance ( if you'll excuse the phrase ).

 

[chrissyr63]

So my 500g has dried to about 110g what to do next?
Was thinking of adapting a Greg Hughes single hop recipe (4.7kg pale and 235g carapils) but use a known hop for bittering (probably magnum to 30 ibu).
Assuming my hops are about 5% just split 20/20/50g for last 15/5/0 of the boil then last 20 as dry hop.
Hopefully the mix of Fuggles and Brewers Gold will give a nice English ale taste.

 

[user 18729]

View attachment 32261View attachment 32262

Harvested my Goldings and Challenger today. The Challenger filled my brew bucket to just over 15 litres! Not sure what that’ll weigh when dry but very pleased with that. In contrast, the Goldings produced a fraction of that

Ended up with 275g of Challenger and 30g Calais Goldings after drying them

 

[531Man]

Hi all, this year will be my first brewing attempt with Fresh Green Hops.
I spotted them on my exercise bike ride along nearby country lanes growing in a hedgerow at a farm entrance.
I live in Kent, and from their heady aroma, I suspect they are Goldings. There are 1338g (wet) of them!

Update : On a later bike ride, I noticed some hops I had missed around the bottom of a telegraph pole and associated hedgerow, so went on a re-harvest trip.
Amazingly this resulted in exactly 62g, so making the total a nice round 1400g (wet) which nicely makes 14 bags of 100g in the freezer.
Even air removed, that fills an entire drawer/basket in our freezer, so is an additional reason why commercially hops are dried not frozen.
They would take up a whole lot of room!

 

[Sandimas]

I managed to get one final (3rd) pick off the Styrian Goldings. I'd left these on the bine as they were smaller but I thought I may as well pick them as we cut it to ground ready for the winter. Despite being 2 weeks later than the last pick and starting to brown, I reckon this was the best of the bunch, they seemed to have more aroma. Photo is after drying BTW. Perhaps I picked the others too soon?

Anyway, here are the totals off two plants with 5 years of growing:

• Styrian Goldings: 8 bags of hops vacuum-packed totaling 687g
• Cascade: 6 bags of hops vacuum-packed totaling 550g

Very happy with that!

 

[DocAnna]

This is a brilliant thread, and is making me wonder if I can persuade my father to grow some hops - since it's a bit cold and wet up here for such things and he has emigrated to deepest South England. @darrellm that is a genuinely beautiful looking harvest of hops :)

Anna