2009 Hop Plantations

[NickB]

:icon_drool2:

 

[Gout]

Have been putting off harvesting for a week or 2 now as i knew it would take a long time.

2 hours later, 2kg of chinook and 375g of cascade.

I have already picked 250g of chinook which is now 45g dry and vac packed in the freezer. A conservative estimate is i should be able to pick another 2kg of chinook.

Cascade is on the 2 trays, the rest is chinook.

WOW, thats some hops!

mine - now 4 years old have never given me a single hop - they get burnt to death every year.... i have no idea how you guys manage such fine plants - maybe mine are duds ( gave one to a mate and he has not had any luck either)

 

[Pete2501]

Have been putting off harvesting for a week or 2 now as i knew it would take a long time.

2 hours later, 2kg of chinook and 375g of cascade.

I have already picked 250g of chinook which is now 45g dry and vac packed in the freezer. A conservative estimate is i should be able to pick another 2kg of chinook.

Cascade is on the 2 trays, the rest is chinook.

Epic dude!

I want to see the next harvest for sure.

 

[daemon]

Wow, now that's a massive harvest! I've got a brew cubed currently that I used a fair amount of my Cascade / Chinook in, here's a quick photo:

I only have a small freezer for my hops and one thing I have noticed is how much room the flowers take up! I need to get a vacuum sealer, just using ziplock bags currently. Does anyone compress the hops before packaging? I'm not thinking pellet type packed but thinking of compressing + vacuum sealing to save space.

 

[Bizier]

Nice sized cones you have there Dr S. (geez, that sounded suss).

 

[Wolfy]

Here are my first year hops. Gave them to my mom to grow (will take a photo of the poor POR that is in my backyard and you'll understand why I asked mom to grow the others).
This was at Christmas:

And today with lots more cones than I expected in the first year:

Growing them up to the 2nd level balcony sure makes it the easy way to pick them:

They probably need another week or two, but here are a few that were picked today:

(The dog ran through the fly-wire-door so the screen was donated to a better cause).

 

[Pete2501]

Here are my first year hops. Gave them to my mom to grow (will take a photo of the poor POR that is in my backyard and you'll understand why I asked mom to grow the others).
(The dog ran through the fly-wire-door so the screen was donated to a better cause).

Hahaha Wolfy, that's gold. Keep the posts coming.

 

[raven19]

Finally worked out how to take a decent hop plant piccie...

Take with a flash at night... (Chinook...)

 

[jyo]

Here is my entire harvest from my first year Cascade.

I just need to work out what I want to brew with these.... :wacko:

 

[AussieJosh]

Wolfy! Your hop plants look awsome! Where did you get them from?

 

[Wolfy]

@Pete2501, here's my poor-POR-in-a-pot, and a good reason why I let mum grow the rest of the hops:

@AussieJosh, they seem to be doing pretty well for 1st year plantings, and have certainly grown higher/produced more than any of us expected (next year will run string to the top of the house not just to the top balcony).

Most of the hops came from Ebay.
The three plants on the left and in the two close-up photos (Goldings and Nugget) came from 'crusty_04'.
The two plants in the middle (Mt Hood and Chinook) were from 'lochrockingbeats'.
The three smaller-non-flowering plants on the right (Cluster and Hellertauer) were swaps. The guy I got the Hellertauer from was swapping them because they never did well for him either, the Cluster were kept in the fridge longest and I suspect they were a little worse-for-wear when planted.
The poor-POR-in-a-pot was advertised on Ebay as a 'rhizome' by someone from Launching Place, Vic, but when it arrived it was obvious that it was a small plant with just a little root-ball grown from a cutting rather than a well developed rhizome. Hopefully growing it in a pot this year it will let it develop a rhizome for planting out next year.

 

[slacka]

I only have a small freezer for my hops and one thing I have noticed is how much room the flowers take up! I need to get a vacuum sealer, just using ziplock bags currently. Does anyone compress the hops before packaging? I'm not thinking pellet type packed but thinking of compressing + vacuum sealing to save space.

I'd suggest turning them into plugs using some PVC tubing from your local hardware store, a broken broom handle sawn down to size, and possibly using your bottle capper to get that last bit of compression.

 

[drsmurto]

Dried all the hops i pictured earlier.

375g cascade wet = 70g dry

2kg chinook wet = 350g dry.

Vac sealed the lot

Noticed quite a bit of lupilin left in the container i was weighing the hops in so i poured in some beer and then back into the pint glass.

Mmmmmm, lupilin :icon_drool2:

 

[Darkman]

@Pete2501, here's my poor-POR-in-a-pot, and a good reason why I let mum grow the rest of the hops:

@AussieJosh, they seem to be doing pretty well for 1st year plantings, and have certainly grown higher/produced more than any of us expected (next year will run string to the top of the house not just to the top balcony).

Most of the hops came from Ebay.
The three plants on the left and in the two close-up photos (Goldings and Nugget) came from 'crusty_04'.
The two plants in the middle (Mt Hood and Chinook) were from 'lochrockingbeats'.
The three smaller-non-flowering plants on the right (Cluster and Hellertauer) were swaps. The guy I got the Hellertauer from was swapping them because they never did well for him either, the Cluster were kept in the fridge longest and I suspect they were a little worse-for-wear when planted.
The poor-POR-in-a-pot was advertised on Ebay as a 'rhizome' by someone from Launching Place, Vic, but when it arrived it was obvious that it was a small plant with just a little root-ball grown from a cutting rather than a well developed rhizome. Hopefully growing it in a pot this year it will let it develop a rhizome for planting out next year.

Hey Wolfy,

Good to here your hops are doing well. By the way the Hallertauer was from me which is still not doing well in it's current position. I'll have to post some pics of this years crop. I think I may have swaped you for a chinook or a cluster which are both doing well...chinook is growing a lot better probably due to the sheltered position.

 

[Wolfy]

Good to here your hops are doing well. By the way the Hallertauer was from me which is still not doing well in it's current position. I'll have to post some pics of this years crop. I think I may have swaped you for a chinook or a cluster which are both doing well...chinook is growing a lot better probably due to the sheltered position.

Hey Darkman, I managed to lose last year's emails so had to go by memory as to who/what/where I got things from, but didn't know you were an AHB member.
Given that the Hallertauer is not doing so well for me either, I'm guessing that maybe that variety/strain/whatever simply does not like our climate ... or something.
I spoke to dad on the 'phone last night and he said that some of the smaller bines are just starting to develop flowers - which is good news, but they're still way behind the others - hopefully something better from them next year.

 

[bjay]

This one is Perle has only been in the ground 6 mths

Another of the same plant Perle

This one is Cascade also only six mths in ground

This is hallertau was planted and watered the same but didnt do as well maybe next year

 

[Big John]

Mine is a first year Hersbrucker.
Should be close to harvesting time.

It is a beautiful plan and grows very fast - 10 cm in a day!
I actually think that it'd look great on a balcony (as long as I can keep it out of the guttering)

I was also suprised at how easy it was to propogate - I now have 4 other little plants ready for next year.

 

[mxd]

mmm. they look great guys. as it gets close to planting time I will need to keep on eye out so I can try a POR and a couple of others.

 

[Darkman]

Hey Darkman, I managed to lose last year's emails so had to go by memory as to who/what/where I got things from, but didn't know you were an AHB member.
Given that the Hallertauer is not doing so well for me either, I'm guessing that maybe that variety/strain/whatever simply does not like our climate ... or something.
I spoke to dad on the 'phone last night and he said that some of the smaller bines are just starting to develop flowers - which is good news, but they're still way behind the others - hopefully something better from them next year.

Hey Wolfy,

I did manage to get the same Hallertauer variety for flower in it's first year but I had to move it to a new position when I built the extension on the back of the house. It hasn't done to well in it new position so I have to move it again this year.
Here are some picks of other varieties I swaped and bought last year. The photo is of my first year Chinook
[

 

[Darkman]

2nd year Cascade.