Have you seen a Real Hop Farm and Harvest?

I haven't toured a Hop Farm before, so this video caught my attention. Nice coverage in less than 10 minutes by James and Andy at Basic Brewing (Video)

TBL, BB2, and Growing Hops in the Mainstream Media

Did you see this article in the Philadelphia Daily News back in the spring? Joe Sixpack spotlighted homegrown hops that Adam and his son and I harvested last fall along with a quote from me in his weekly article that he'd written to spotlight DIY hops as the growing season was beginning. Now, with the harvest upon us and brewers beginning to use fresh hops, I thought I'd throw this back out there again for your consumption. Speaking of which, go grab something to consume, come back, and read the article from Joe's archives. Want more links? Start with Adam's collection of hops growing resources and links over at Beer Bits2. It's not too early to start planning for next year's crop!

Fresh Hopping at the General Lafayette

Heard from Chris last night. The beer's ready to be loaded up into the bright tanks. It looks as if the DIY hop project has succeeded this year and we can look forward to trying some of their new "Belgian-style pale" brew as early as next week. If it's the only reason you're heading to the pub, you may wish to call first to check its availability. Here's a bit of the notes from Chris back in July.

---

We at the General Lafayette Inn & Brewery have been growing and harvesting our own Hallertau hops since 1999. This year's combination of intermittent rain and dry, sunny days have contributed to large, abundant hop cone growth. We will be employing them to brew a Belgian-style pale ale some time this week. We do not know their alpha acid content, but they appear (smell, taste) quite mild. So, we will only use them as an aroma addition in our kettle, late in the boil process. Look for our fresh-hop Belgian Pale Ale in mid- to late-August. Cheers, Christopher W Leonard, Brewmaster/Proprietor

Hop Sacs are Filling Up

This may sound a lot like last year, but what the heck? The growing process is so much fun to observe.

More Hop Growing Resources

To Adam's ever-growing slew of hop growing links at Beer Bits 2, I've come across a couple more podcasts lately that should prove quite valuable. Depending upon your location, there's still a small window of time to get some rhizomes into the ground for first year growth. Basic Brewing Radio's episode 4/24/08 - two episodes ago, James first made us all aware of Douglas over at Home Brew Perspectives. This current episode features Chris Colby of Brew Your Own magazine discussing steps for getting started with growing hops at home. Home Brewing Perspectives - after working out some audio kinks in the first episode, Douglas & Mike the Hop Guy have moved on to bring very detailed and interesting "perspectives" on growing hops as well as a very enlightening interview in their third episode with a non-drinking Mormon from Utah. A must-listen.

Honey, I'll be back in an hour

Ah, those famous last words. One hour 'til the hops would be harvested, then maybe I could get on with some brewing later in the afternoon. Or so I told my wife before heading out to the backyard. Little did I know what we were getting ourselves into.

One bee sting between the toes, scratched arms, sandpaper hands, one bottle of New Glarus Raspberry Tart, one bottle of Rogue 10,000, two glasses of homebrew, one firepit, lots of music, and 4 1/2 hours later we were rewarded with 5.5 pounds of fresh hops. That should work itself into just a few batches of homebrew, eh?!


It was a fun day shared with Adam and his kids who stopped by occasionally to help and ask "are you done yet?" Check out more great pictures over at his site.

Now, off to dreams of a 20-mile run and My Old Kentucky Home.

Oh Sweet Lupulin

The girls are hard at work churning out the yellow resin! It's a beautiful thing...stay tuned for more.

Growing Hops: What's this?

Thanks to Bryan for some awesome closeup shots :-)

Growing Hops: Recovering and New Growth

These are from about a week ago. Bryan has some really awesome closeups too. I'll post them soon. Looks like the left side is recovering from my daughters accidental pruning. Also, see the new growth in the bottom picture? :-)

Growing Hops: Pictures from a Sunny Weekend

Cascade Hops

Growing Hops at Home in 2007, Three Feet Tall Chinook!

At this time last year the rhizomes were still in the fridge waiting to be planted. Where are they now? After they died back last year we pruned them to the ground knowing they would grow back this year. We didn't cover them with mulch or straw for the winter as some people do. After a bit of cold weather a late snow and a warming trend the race was on. Almost a month ago we sighted the first sprouts.

Now the tallest bines are standing three feet tall! It was June 13th before any of them were that tall last year and the Chinook wasn't among them. This year the bines are thicker, new shoots appear every day and some are already growing five inches a day. Folks we still have FIVE months to go. This is the reason we decided not to force growth into a few of the bines by pruning all but a few of them back. We would much rather have many shoots that are shorter. Hopefully that won't decrease the hops harvest yield.

This is the second year for these plants. We will be telling an entirely different story than last year with more growth and hopefully more hops cones. Be sure to check out last year's story, we've made it easy to follow our hops as they progressed through spring, summer and into the fall.

Sprouting hops sighted!

At first it seemed like just another warm spring day. The grass is greener and the maple buds are opening.








I decided to take a look under the dead leaves. Hmmm...what's this? Could it be?!




Hole smokes! The Cascade hops rhizomes are sprouting! Whoohoo! Actually, it looks like some of the other varieties planted in other locations are too :-) If you click on the picture you can see the bines sprouting.

Don't forget to vote. Two clicks can tell us what you think about growing your own hops. The poll is located over there on the right.

NOTE: Yes Marck, this is the beginning of an endless barrage of hops posts. ;-) If you want to read last years recount again here is the 2006 collection.

Poll: Growing your own hops?

NOTE: We added "I don't want to grow hops." as an answer. You may change your vote if you like. Remember this is highly scientific. We'll be getting the deconfrabulator out to verify the results later. ;-) If you can't tell, we have HOPS FEVER over here at The Brew Lounge. So we wanna know. Do you have it too? How many of you are interested in growing your own hops. Perhaps you already grow your own. Maybe you didn't even know you could. We want to know!

Poll Question: Are you interested in growing your own hops?

The poll is over there on the right near the top of the page. See it? Ok. See you next Friday when we review the results. If you have more to say, say it by posting a comment.

Growing Hops: Harvest - Time To Meet Your Maker

- What happened next? - Read about Brewing an IPA with Fresh Hops - The Yeast Starter - So where are we in the "Grow Your Own Hops" journey? Well its harvest time! We smelled them, tasted them, threw them in some beer and well just stood there amazed. I just picked up the ingredients for the IPA these will be added to :-) Here's a recap. I grew four types of hops Willamette, Chinook, Cascade and Centennial. The cascade was the only one that produced this year. We were very happy to get anything at all. Check out the journey -> Growing Hops

Harvested by hand and headed for a homebrew!

5 oz of fresh Cascade hops.

- What happened next? - Read about Brewing an IPA with Fresh Hops - The Yeast Starter -

Growing Hops: Where's the Lupulin Hiding?

We know it's in there somewhere!

Growing Hops: Hop Cones Appear

As you can see all the plants are doing well. Looks like some Japanese beetles are feasting on the leaves. I'll need to do something about that. And there they are...the hops cones. Ahhhhh....very nice. I didn't even notice them at first. Bryan's wife had to point them out to me. I guess I've been busy. At any rate it is wonderful to see them. I was worried I wouldn't get any this year.

Growing Hops: Time Lapse 8 hours in 30 Seconds

I thought I would try this again a little slower with music and hosted from YouTube.

Growing Hops: Timelapse Video

I'm hoping to shoot another where I can get a better shot of the bine getting longer :-)

If you do not see the video above, click here.

You can also right click the link and save it to your computer and play it.

This time lapse was taken with my Canon Powershot SD110 on a tripod. I used the remote capture sofware that comes with the camera, a usb cable connected to the camera and my laptop. There were over 480 jpg images taken once per minute over an eight hour period. I used the free software VirtualDub to splice all the images together into a small avi file and resize the pictures. Then I used another free application, VideoLan, to encode it as an .m4v file.

Growing Hops: Status & New Tour

Here is what happened next -> Day 57 Timelapse Video

First, you can read the entire Growing Hops thread now that I have linked them all together for you. Open this one first to start the tour from rhizomes to bines :-) Now on with the latest installment! Last night after work I measured the Cascade bine at over 90 inches. Its growth has slowed a bit over the last few days due to the lack of sun. Of course with the several inches of rain we received (sheesh), I'm sure that will change over the next few days. It will as long as we get some sun. Check out the growth chart below to see the growth trend of the largest Cascade hops plant over the last fifty days or so. BTW You can see in the picture that the arbor is in place. It needs some TLC, but, we're getting there slowly but surely. I attached the Cascade hops bines to the arbor temporarily just so they would have somewhere to grow. I also noticed new shoots coming off the bine laterally where each set of leaves are attached. That is soo cool. They will certainly take over this arbor by the end of the summer! I can't wait! I also included a picture of some of the other hops plants. They should really take off over the next few days. All except the one little one that keeps getting broken off. I'm just hoping that it will make it to next year. And as I'm sure some of you know, hops love sunlight. I think we're proving that again. The two Cascade plants are really going crazy out there away from the trees. The others are in the shadows and receiving less direct sunlight. Yeah I know, they were planted later than the Cascade, but, the sun just doesn't shine over there long enough during the day for them to keep pace. So remember that, if you choose to grow hops. You know, I've been thinking about trying a timelapse video ever since I started growing these. What do you think? Should I take one? How cool would that be to see a video of hops growing?! Drop me a comment to let me know. I'm pretty sure I found the right software. My camera doesn't have a timelapse feature built in so I'll need to use software on the laptop to control my camera. UPDATE: I eventually did shoot a time lapse video.

Growing Hops: Progress Report

Here is what happened next --> Progress Report

One of the cascade hops plants is 80 inches today. The other is catching up. All eight plants are looking good. The smallest is still only about an inch or so, but it looks healthy. Still haven't determined what it is that is eating holes in the leaves. Anybody have an idea? What am I doing? Bryan and I are going to try to get the arbor in place this weekend. Right now I'm relaxing on a Friday night with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and getting ready to go to my daughter's piano recital. I love the weekend!

Here is what happened next --> Progress Report