Hop shortages seems to be some incentive for hop growing

Duhhh, I can't believe I forgot to give the link except in my sig block:

Sorry.

Bill Velek

You make me cry. I have THREE plants and what did I get this year? Maybe an ounce. My growing location, although the best choice given my options, is pathetic. I can't get enough overhead to allow the bines to grow up into the light.

Luckily I planted in large plastic pots which could in theory be moved, but I have nowhere to move them to. This coming year I think I'll put up some PVC pipe to about 30 feet and run stringers from that. Hopefully the bines will be able to climb high enough. But how the hell will I get them down for harvest? *Grumble*

Hearing about multi-pound harvests from single plants... I'm sad.

Scott

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Many growers devise a system for lowering the bines -- maybe a pulley or just toss the line over the top of the PVC pipe so that it is only looped over it and not firmly attached -- just anchored at each end by a stake in the ground. Then you cut the line at one end and pull from the other end to drag your bines down. Caution: you need to be sure that your PVC is stout enough to handle not only the weight of the bines but also the added stress that you'll be adding when trying to yank the bines down since it is likely that many will twine around the top, etc.

Well, I can't really hope to match Denny since he is living in a real hop growing region, and I'm right on the fringe, but my crop this year was very encouraging. Hope you find a solution.

Cheers.

Bill Velek - PERSONAL sites =

It doesn't surprise me. Most LHBS in the Twin Cities are selling 2006 hop crop and there is no forseeable time when this will change [ok, fall 2008]. I have had to order my aroma hops [these need to be fresh] online at the currently inflated prices [no offense to the vendor who is just passing on the buck].

I would consider growing hops, but they take an enormous amount of space and grow very tall. Even growing along a fence is rough ... and I have two dogs which I would prefer just stay away from hops [to avoid Malignant Hyperthermia ... even if they aren't likely to eat them unless they are soaked in wort]. Minnesota doesn't have the best climate for hops either.

Now 64 new members in one week with a new total of 474 members.

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That confuses me. I would have just assumed that they were selling last year's crop, or this year's if they've had time to harvest and process it. Are you saying that they normally run more than a year behind?

If you have a sunny wall on your house without windows, some growers run strings up the soffit or eave of the roof; then you need only cultivate a strip of land along the house just a couple or three feet wide.

Denny Conn has reported pretty impressive results with just a single plant on a fence.

I have one dog, and he started taking naps in the shade of my hops, but as far as I know he never chewed on any. But you are correct that hops are toxic to dogs if ingested; that's why I dig a shallow hole in my compost pile, dump the hops, fill in the hole, and then dump my spent grains from my mash on top.

Too damp?

Bill Velek - PERSONAL sites =

I'd be worried about the pee.....

No, it means that I called them [Midwest Supplies] and asked them. They said they are vaccuum/nitrogen sealed and remain fresh, but for whole hops, I still want 2007 for aroma hops. They told me specifically they are selling 2006 hops. If you check Northern Brewer's site, you will notice that almost all their hops are completely out of stock. They switched to a different hop vendor a couple years ago (I think they used to use ID Carlson and FresHops) and perhaps that vendor dried up. I did NOT call them and ask if they are selling 2007 harvest in store, but judging by the website and my talk with Midwest Supplies, I assume not.

:-( I have a south facing fence, but it is along a road where the city has mandated trees every 100 feet or so. They are growing large ... direct sun will only be available from about May to August and then only from about 10AM to about 6PM [in June] before the trees get in the way. Honestly, I would just try anyway along my chain link fence, but the dogs have access to it and I know that malignant hyperthermia is a real threat to dogs.

I have little doubt that my Golden Retriever and English Springer would smell them through the dirt and dig them up :-( I send my hops to the dump unfortunately ... but the spent grains get natural compost.

Sometimes too damp, sometimes too dry, almost always very humid [talking soil versus air respectively]. Further, it is far North with a continental climate, so the growing season ends as early as September 7th here (I was able to keep my peppers going to October 15th this year ... but they are in pots that I would haul inside).

You hope! I was wishing that for my own but SWMBO has been enabling ours to hang around indefinitely. Her room is a pig sty and reeks, and she won't lift a finger to help around the house. Not to mention that I can't stop the continuous outflow of $20 bills. I was sort of hoping that her room would become Dad's play room some day. :-(

Mark R

Cut off those $20 bills and it will be your play room in no time, not to mention you can rennovate it with the savings. :-)

I live in MN and find hops easy to grow. My problem is that the flowers are pollinated by wild bines. I'm interested in finding rhizomes for some of the new dwarf varieties. Anyone know of a good dwarf cascade-like hop?

I've had some interesting success with a variety called Glacier. While possessing enough Cascade like character, they still provide some uniqueness that makes pale ales rather interesting. In my last pale ale I used a Northern Brewer, Glacier, and finally a Cascade to produce a very nice ale.

Ken

Did you grow all of the hops yourself? From the few people that I have spoken too down at the LHBS(s) was that they had mixed results with home grown hops. Most were very "chlorophyl" was the best that I gathered. I take it that perhaps they used too much leaf material, but who knows. I think MN, with its continental extremes isn't ideal for hops is all. I would LOVE to try to grow them anyway, but unfortunately, the little available area that I have that could grow hops [horizontally] is legislated for peppers and chili ;-)

I've grown Cascades for a few years now and am now growing Fuggles (should kick in this coming summer). I would think that home grown hops have less leaf material than those you buy in the store (at least, mine do). However, I've noticed that the shade of green/brown (which is probably closely linked to chlorophyll) varies greatly depending on how you dry your hops. The hops you buy in the LHBS are darker brown/less green/paler green. Mine vary depending on drying method from bright green to medium brown-green, but never as brown (or pale) as you see in the LHBS.

I've dried in a dehydrator for a few years, and last year I dried in my attic. All methods remove just as much water as with the ones you see in the LHBS. I plan on paying closer attention to temperatures and methods in the future to see how it affects the color. But, to the point, I think that if you use these "greener" hops early in the boil, that green chlorophyll can be perceptible.

By the way, from now on I'll probably dry in the attic, since it worked so well last fall. I'll only use the dehydrator to experiment with different temperatures/times for drying.

I'm sure others can comment better about it, but I believe MN is fine for a number of varieties of hops.

--Jeff

snipped stuff, including drying hops in the attic

I dried mine in my hot car; spread the hops out to just a couple of inches deep and set some containers on ledge behind the back seat right under the window and the rest on the seats. Rotated their postions when I would think of it; at night I stirred the hops up to try to get the cones on the bottom up to the top. In a couple of days they were very dry, and it made the car smell great. I was concerned about exposure to the sun, but then saw some photos of commercial drying in rooms lit by the sun ... plus they're in the sun right up until time of harvest.

Hops grow better up north because daylight is longer in the summer, so Washington, Oregon, Idaho are the big hop growing states, with some in Wisconsin, etc. Hops were grown in the northeast until they were wiped out by disease (probably at a time before we developed many of the chemicals we now have). Some commercial hop farming is just starting to resume in the northeast. For more info, here are some relevent links: University of Vermont:

I hope that anyone who is interested in growing hops will check out my 'Grow-Hops' Yahoo group which is now up to 614 members --

Cheers.

Bill Velek - PERSONAL sites =