2010 Hop Plantations

[raven19]

As for what would be 'best' for Melbourne, I don't think there is a good answer. Growth, maturity and harvest rates seem to be very variable amongst growers even in the same town; there are probably more variables at play than just location. Go for what you think you'd like to use in beer you like making.

The varying weather from year to year also seems to affect my varieties differently.

Chinook loved the cooler summer this year, the POR pretty much died after 2 hot days - last year both of these plants went bananas when we had longer hot periods.

 

[goatus]

My POR plant is looking almost ready to harvest with amazing big hop flowers all over it. My Cascade is lagging well behind, took ages to take off, but has now got burrs on it, looks like ill at least get a bit of dry/wet hopping off it. Very impressed for my first year.

How does everyone determine a rough AA content figure? Im not too fussed with the cascade as ill just use it late and dry. I was thinking making a hop tea with my POR flowers and just comparing it to comercial POR flowers by taste to determine a rough comparison to bitterness. Is there a more scientific way?

 

[Malted]

Chinook loved the cooler summer this year,

So have I!

Interesting observations Raven, thanks for sharing.

 

[Malted]

I was thinking making a hop tea with my POR flowers and just comparing it to comercial POR flowers by taste to determine a rough comparison to bitterness. Is there a more scientific way?

A little better than this could be:

Estimating Hop Bitterness Info cut and pasted from this page LINK By Patrick D'Luzansky 1997

The old standard method to estimate alpha-acid percentage is to make an educated guess and then modify the guess as you gain brewing experience with your hops. Because homegrown hops are fresher and have suffered less handling, they are more bitter than commercial hops. Estimating their alpha as 50 percent higher than the average alpha for the same commercial cultivar is a pretty good guess. Knowing the exact alpha of your hops is less critical if you use them only for flavor and aroma additions.

We can improve on this guess with a taste-testing technique I call "ratiometric titration." The approach here is to compare a same-cultivar hop of known alpha content with our unknown alpha hop. We compare the ratio of quantities of sugar needed to overcome the bitterness and infer that this ratio will equal the ratio of alphas. Thus, if it takes five teaspoons of sugar to offset the bitterness of our homegrown hops and three teaspoons to null the commercial hops, then our hops are five-thirds as strong, and our alpha-acid content is five-thirds the commercial alpha. If the commercial alpha is 6 percent, then our alpha is 5/3 times 6, or 10 percent.

I make up two hop tea samples - one from our unknown alpha fresh hops, and the second from commercial whole leaf hops of the same cultivar with known alpha. Stir one-quarter ounce hops plus one teaspoon sugar into two cups of boiling water (the sugar is needed because the hop resins are nearly insoluble in plain water.) Next, reduce the heat and simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes. Now add enough boiled water to each sample to bring their volumes back to two cups. Let the teas settle and cool to room temperature. Next, decant and filter the teas through a coffee filter to remove sediment.

Now comes the tasting part. It's best to do the tasting in the morning when your taste buds are freshest. Measure a quarter cup of each of the hops teas. Now taste a few drops of the unknown alpha tea and rinse off your tongue. The tea will taste bitter, of course. Next, add one-quarter teaspoon sugar and taste. It will taste a little less bitter. Continue titrating the tea with the sugar in quarter-teaspoon increments (and doing a tongue rinsing between each tasting) while tasting for the point when the predominantly bitter taste finally gives way to a sweet taste (with bitter overtones). This is when the bitter loses its bite. Record the amount of sugar it took to reach this turning point. Now repeat the titration with the known alpha tea. The ratio of the titrated sugar for the unknown hops to the sugar required for the known hops is our estimate of the ratio of the alphas of the respective hops.

 

[raven19]

Is there a more scientific way?

Laboratory tests if you want it accurately! But that is costly.

But even if you picked all your flowers from one plant there will be variety as some might be just past their prime, others a tad early others ok, etc...

I tend to use the lower end of the range for the given Hop Type and use them primarily as late hops.

 

[Blue Dawg]

Started to harvest Cascade last week with 1kg wet so far.

Brewed a pale with wet flowers bittering and a hop tea at day 3..

The POR is a little behind and should be ready in a week so. I hope it pulls its finger out as the house will be up for sale at the end of the month and they they need to move on.

 

[Tony]

My first year POR is going great

I got 42g dried (was about 250g wet) off it last week and there is 20 times more to come

cheers

 

[Housecat]

well, I got my first harvest off of my Cascade baby. A whopping 48grams...... wet :blink:

they are probably a bit young still but I couldn't wait!


some of the beautiful Lupulin (spelling?)


There is still more on the plant but it only looks like I'll get about 150 - 200 g off of it though. :unsure:

looks like I'll be using them as dry hops this year!!

HC

 

[Malted]

My first year POR is going great

I got 42g dried (was about 250g wet) off it last week and there is 20 times more to come

cheers

Very impressive looking harvest for a first year rhizome Tony! Since there has been discussion of such, where did you get your zome and how big was it?

 

[Malted]

well, I got my first harvest off of my Cascade baby. A whopping 48grams...... wet :blink:

they are probably a bit young still but I couldn't wait!
some of the beautiful Lupulin (spelling?)
There is still more on the plant but it only looks like I'll get about 150 - 200 g off of it though. :unsure:

looks like I'll be using them as dry hops this year!!

HC

All the more power to ya son. Don't wanna cast dispersions but hell yeah they certainly do look a bit young. So you're the young bull that wants to run down and brew them all huh?

 

[NickB]

Got my first harvest from my second year Chinook a fortnight ago - a massive 12g dried. Will be back up to pick the next lot over the coming weekends, and hoping for a lot more than that....

Cheers

 

[Housecat]

All the more power to ya son. Don't wanna cast dispersions but hell yeah they certainly do look a bit young. So you're the young bull that wants to run down and brew them all huh?

Unfortunately, cos I'm going interstate for work, I fear they would be too old if I left them for when I return

Maybe I'll have to train my wife on how to pick them??

HC

 

[Elbow]

I've got a Chinook and a Hersbrucker Hallertau which were both planted in early spring 2009. Last year got nothing from either, but this year they have both flowered to varying degrees. The Chinook is just a single bine with at a guess around 30 hop cones. They are pretty big and when I pulled a tiny petal off, it definitely had the wondeful aroma.
The Hersbrucker on the other hand has only sprouted it's flowers (over a hundred or so) in the last 3 weeks. Although they are also nice and big, they smelled pretty grassy with no noticable hop aroma at all. I'll post some photos of both later.

Should I pick the chinook and leave the Hersbrucker for a while longer?

 

[beersatan]

Last year was a major disappointment - my 2yo cascade was cooked by consecutive 40ish days just as it budded which resulted in only 6 reasonable flowers - the first year before it actually gave me enough for one 19L batch which I still rate in my top 5.
This year I have a bumper crop!! :icon_drool2:
I just yanked off 532g of wet flowers and it looks like I'll get 3 or 4 more pickings of the same size.

Apart from wanting the remaining cones to mature a bit more, the thing that stopped me was while "yanking off" the wind blew a stray bine onto me and it feels like a bloody jellyfish sting.

I wore gloves but will be wearing a burka next time I start picking. Or at least a shirt!! :icon_cheers:

 

[raven19]

My arms were also nice and red following picking my crop. Those hop plants have some bite!

I have noticed the lowest metre of my chinook has some serious spines on the bine now too. Approach with caution!

 

[felten]

Take a nice fresh hop cone and put it between your lip and gum like you would with dipping tobacco, give it a go

 

[proudscum]

First year Goldings have just yielded 160gr which is about 1/2 the berries.
Cant wait to pick my POR which have been in for years,looks like another
3 weeks till they are ready.Not having the garage in the way any more has helped bump up the coming yield.

 

[Tony]

Very impressive looking harvest for a first year rhizome Tony! Since there has been discussion of such, where did you get your zome and how big was it?

It was given to me by Kelbygreen. I was given a large amoount of malt and i swaped a bag or 2 for the root.

It was growing out of the bag in his fridge at 4 deg. The root was about 4 inches long and had a fer shoots heading out of the bag from its time in the fridge.

I put it in the ground in mid october and look at it now..... just 4 months later. I dug down deep and put in lots of top notch soil, potting mix, compost, blood n bone, mulched it and fed it up 2 or 3 times a week with liquid fert...... lots of nitrogen early and then switched to seasol as it wanted to flower to stop plant groath and premote flowering. Just like i do with my chillis.

Seemed to work

I think Kelby regrets giving it to me now

 

[Malted]

View attachment 44170
I wore gloves but will be wearing a burka next time I start picking. Or at least a shirt!! :icon_cheers:

He he he, so it'll be a 'bogan brew' will it? Ah well, the hard lessons we learn huh!
I get nasty sorts of sratches just training them (with a shirt on); I would not try and harvest them without a shirt.

PS you appear to have lopsided chest hair. Dam emoticons are not responding right now! I wanted the laugh my ass off in a good natured, shit stirring kinda smile.

 

[jyo]

Well, harvested my 2 year old Hersbrucker today. 55 grams wet...I'm not taking a photo, it's embarrassing! My 2nd year Cascade has not produced ANY cones...
I don't know if any others have this experience in Perth but my hops seem to boom along with strong, healthy growth from Spetember Oct, NoV and then develop a decent amount of burrs. Then when Summer hits they get completely fried from the sun and wind. Those of you who live or have lived in Perth, particularly at the foothills, will know about the shocking, almost daily Easterly winds that we get. The winds 'bruise' the cones and dry the shit out of them, ending up with about half that are dwarfed. This is my experience anyway.
I fertilise with cow shit, blood and bone, seasol, another organic liquid fertiliser, so nutrient deficiencies is not the problem.
I was wondering about others in the Perth region and their experiences.

Cheers, John.