2007 Hop Plantations

[mr_walker]

It's my first year at growing hops, and I picked up a tiny POR rhizome at the LHBS. Didn't get it in the ground until about mid September which was way too late.

Anyway, with a good spot in the sun, and plenty of "worm juice" from my worm farm it's done OK I think. The cones really started taking shape about two weeks ago. Should get enough for a couple of brews.

If it's grown this much this year ... I need to think about building a bigger frame for it next year. Scary.

Cheers,

Walker

 

[bindi]

Just finished packing away my 2nd crop of Chinook after drying them, 135g of dry hops and they smell great the first crop was 122g, not bad for SEQld.
A 3rd crop is just starting and it's jumped the fence and growing up the neighbours trees.

Edit: Spelling typo

 

[Screwtop]

First year growing hops and so far I've got 100g of Hersbrucker ready to go in the dehydrator.

For those who use a dehydrator How long do you dry them for?

Thw instructions say 6-12 hours for flowers which seems quite a broad figure :unsure:

Cheers
BB

They are so dead easy to dry I doubt anyone would need a dehydrator. I have a steel shed and I just leave them spread out on top of the freezer fo three days, temps are usually around 28 - 32.

Just finished packing away my 2nd crop of Chinook after drying them, 135g of dry hops and they smell great the first crop was 122g, not bad for SEQld.
A 3rd crop is just starting and it's jumped the fence and growing up the neighbours trees.

Have a third crop on my Wurty also Bindi, must be all of the rain, only one crop last year.

Screwy

 

[Steve]

It's my first year at growing hops, and I picked up a tiny POR rhizome at the LHBS. Didn't get it in the ground until about mid September which was way too late.

Anyway, with a good spot in the sun, and plenty of "worm juice" from my worm farm it's done OK I think. The cones really started taking shape about two weeks ago. Should get enough for a couple of brews.

If it's grown this much this year ... I need to think about building a bigger frame for it next year. Scary.

Cheers,

Walker

MrWalker - nice look plant for its first year and being planted in September! Where abouts are you?
Cheers
Steve

Edit....welcome to AHB too! Cheers!

 

[mr_walker]

MrWalker - nice look plant for its first year and being planted in September! Where abouts are you?
Cheers
Steve

Edit....welcome to AHB too! Cheers!

I'm in Canberra, and thanks for the welcome. Looking forward to putting on my first brew with home grown hops! Not sure what I'll put them in ...

Cheers,

Walker

 

[redbeard]

Are these ready to be picked ? as i couldnt see any yellow spots at the base & the leaves are sortof papery. Perhaps another week ?



sorry for crappy ph camera quality

 

[Steve]

I'm in Canberra, and thanks for the welcome. Looking forward to putting on my first brew with home grown hops! Not sure what I'll put them in ...

Cheers,

Walker

I've made a couple of nice all grain kent old brown ales using my own home grown POR....you get it from Col?
Cheers
Steve

 

[braufrau]

I can see I'm going to have to add aheap more compost around my hops next year!
Mine aren't going to have anything like 100g on them.

 

[capretta]

For those who use a dehydrator How long do you dry them for?


Cheers
BB

never used one myself, just an old flyscreen and frame from a window in a dry airy spot. never sun though cause i was worried about pre skunking them! ( im pretty sure that skunking only affects isomerised {ie boiled} hops though! )

you could probably give them the full 12 hours or whatever, cant see any dramas with being too dry.. h34r:

 

[BoilerBoy]

Thanks all,

Everything seemed to go ok.
Hopefully with a 2nd and 3rd picking I may have enough for a single hop batch

Cheers
BB

 

[mr_walker]

I've made a couple of nice all grain kent old brown ales using my own home grown POR....you get it from Col?
Cheers
Steve

Yeah - best $5 I ever spent

I'm not at the all grain stage yet, but I've been doing partial mashes with some specialty grains. I see a lot of people bag out the POR as an aroma hop - is it really that bad?

Thanks for the suggestion Steve.

 

[Lukes]

Woke on Sunday to find my hop plant had grown a big strange can like golden hop. :huh:

Has anyone else had these mutant cones grow on the cluster plants?


What about our growers in QLD

with all that recent rain or maybe it's that cold south winter thing?






The old man liked the look of it and suggested I pick it early as it will be sweeter and dryer than the smaller ones.



But to me it was a little light looking but I don't think it's going to get any more body or bitterness.

 

[capretta]

lol! look after that plant cause if it keeps growing aluminium hops like that you can just pour that icky nectar out and sell the cans at the scrappy for $1000 a ton!

 

[lochrockingbeers]

Interesting triple hop cone on one of my chinook vines. First time I'd noticed this but I usually harvest the cones quickly without much thought. It was the only one I could see this morning on any of the vines.

I also sectioned some chinook and columbus cones down the centre and looked at them under the microscope. Photos below. They don't quite do the lupulin glands justice as the microscope camera doesn't have great depth of field so it's hard to focus on objects that aren't completely flat. At higher magnifications you could clearly see the bright yellow lupulin gland sitting precariously on a fine hair/trichome.

 

[capretta]

nice.. plant ear wax!

 

[randyrob]

mmm..... surely they must be for the picking by now <_<

 

[Guest Lurker]

View attachment 17848

mmm..... surely they must be for the picking by now <_<

Nope another few weeks by the look.

 

[capretta]

wait till they dry out a bit! they look too fresh..

 

[Gerard_M]

[quote post='270086']

resized[/quote]

These pics were taken 4 weeks before we left Sydney. They had just about doubled in size, very nice & bushy with lots of flowers, probably ready for picking this week. I wonder if the new tennant is a brewer?

Cheers
Gerard

 

[T.D.]

GM, I am still tempted to sneak in for a midnight hop harvest - wouldn't mind a bit of Chinook...

How tragic, I still remember seeing all those flowers coming on, and knowing they wouldn't be ready before you left! Would have been a bloody good harvest!

Here are a couple of pics of some of my hops from this year. I'll be doing a brew with them in the next week or two...
The goldings flowers were no kidding close on the size of golf balls! Never seen flowers so big!