2012 Hop Plantations

[Mr. No-Tip]

Embarrassing results considering my October showing:





I think my second year pots suffered some severe hydrophobia, or maybe I drilled too many drainage holes? I only topped them up, rather than redigging, and most of the water each time went straight through....resulting in one apparently dead Chinnook and a heap of coneless Cascade, Saaz, and Hersbrucker. At least I got some cones in the first year....nothing this time.

If only they were more like their cousins and you could use the leaves for cheap bitterness?

I will try one more year - do a full redig this winter and maybe plug some drainage holes. If I fail again, I might turn it in till i have some viable groun to put them in.

 

[Yob]

Hop Drying Racks for those who are interested...

I saw one of these the other day in a mates shed... cough.. and thought of us right away

h34r: B)

 

[punkin]

That's a beauty. I just use the flyscreen trays i made for putting grain in my smoker. Works really well.

 

[Yob]

aparently they are modular as well so you can detach layers that arent needed.

:icon_cheers:

 

[thylacine]

Embarrassing results considering my October showing:

hops2.jpg

HOPS1.JPG

I think my second year pots suffered some severe hydrophobia, or maybe I drilled too many drainage holes? I only topped them up, rather than redigging, and most of the water each time went straight through....resulting in one apparently dead Chinnook and a heap of coneless Cascade, Saaz, and Hersbrucker. At least I got some cones in the first year....nothing this time.

If only they were more like their cousins and you could use the leaves for cheap bitterness?

I will try one more year - do a full redig this winter and maybe plug some drainage holes. If I fail again, I might turn it in till i have some viable groun to put them in.

I am in north Canberra. Hops enjoy the ground here. eg pic of 4yr Chinook. I will be removing the entire Chinook around August and be giving it to Colin at the LHBS in Kambah. eg if you are looking for a Chinook replacement...

 

[kcurnow]

Hop Drying Racks for those who are interested...

I saw one of these the other day in a mates shed... cough.. and thought of us right away

h34r: B)

Just picked one of these up now so I will give it a go and see how it goes with my crop of Chinook that is almost ready for harvest.

 

[Yob]

:beerbang:

 

[hoppy2B]

Just picked one of these up now so I will give it a go and see how it goes with my crop of Chinook that is almost ready for harvest.

Don't you have an old screen door? Thought everyone had one of those.

I picked 2400grams of Victoria yesterday arvo and put it on my screen door in the shed this morning and when I checked it tonight it was almost dry. Been sort of mid thirties today, so doesn't take long to dry.

 

[kcurnow]

I do have an old screen door, however it's still attached to the house so drying hops on it is not really very practical. Also I doubt my wife would appreciate me pulling bits of the house apart to use for drying hops

 

[drsmurto]

Picked 3kg of chinook on the weekend, now drying on a fly wire screen. I normally allow them to dry for 6-7 days to ensure they are thoroughly dry. On average chinook has lost 78-83% of its weight during the drying process in the past 4 seasons (yes, i keep a record of wet and dry yields).

Will be picking the victoria tonight and drying it on an old screen door i picked up from a local brewer.

@Hoppy2B - is this your first crop of Victoria? How many plants do you have? What did they smell like? I am interested in getting more brewers opinions on Victoria as very few people seemed to have brewed with it.

 

[Danwood]

477g from my 1st year Cascade picked tonight before the rain set in.

Probably another 300g left on the bines...happy with that !

 

[billygoat]

Picked the hops from my first year Cascade that I got from Wakkatoo, got 2.1 Kg wet which I am really happy with. Will pick my two, second year Goldings in the next few days, Expect to get 2 to 3 Kg of wet hops.

 

[hoppy2B]

Picked 3kg of chinook on the weekend, now drying on a fly wire screen. I normally allow them to dry for 6-7 days to ensure they are thoroughly dry. On average chinook has lost 78-83% of its weight during the drying process in the past 4 seasons (yes, i keep a record of wet and dry yields).

Will be picking the victoria tonight and drying it on an old screen door i picked up from a local brewer.

@Hoppy2B - is this your first crop of Victoria? How many plants do you have? What did they smell like? I am interested in getting more brewers opinions on Victoria as very few people seemed to have brewed with it.

Hey Doc,
Yeah this is my first crop of the Victoria, I picked 1.9 kilo wet last Wednesday 20/2/2013 and packed it wet into the freezer. I picked 2.4 kilo 2 days later on the Friday and dried that inside a shed on a screen door and I'm sure it was done in 2 days. Went from 2.4 kilo down to 650 grams. Certainly felt very dry. My experience has been that if I leave hops longer than that they loose all their aroma. I know you still get aroma if you rub them but its not really the same.
I think I still have about a third left on those 2 plants and also some on the third smaller plant which I started as a cutting in spring this season.
The aroma of wet Victoria is freakin amazing, sweet peach. I did a wet batch of 300 grams Vic and 300 grams dwarf. Won't know how that turned out for a few weeks. Still planning to do a batch of wet Vic on its own over the coming days as the remaining crop becomes ripe. Will have to get back to you on that one.

 

[Aussiedrifter]

Hey Doc,
Yeah this is my first crop of the Victoria, I picked 1.9 kilo wet last Wednesday 20/2/2013 and packed it wet into the freezer. I picked 2.4 kilo 2 days later on the Friday and dried that inside a shed on a screen door and I'm sure it was done in 2 days. Went from 2.4 kilo down to 650 grams. Certainly felt very dry. My experience has been that if I leave hops longer than that they loose all their aroma. I know you still get aroma if you rub them but its not really the same.
I think I still have about a third left on those 2 plants and also some on the third smaller plant which I started as a cutting in spring this season.
The aroma of wet Victoria is freakin amazing, sweet peach. I did a wet batch of 300 grams Vic and 300 grams dwarf. Won't know how that turned out for a few weeks. Still planning to do a batch of wet Vic on its own over the coming days as the remaining crop becomes ripe. Will have to get back to you on that one.

I agree, if you start seeing lupulin falling to the ground then you have gone to far. A couple days is all you need. I didn't weigh my wet cascade this year but it was about 3kg dry and 5 20l buckets full wet. I still have Saaz to pick but they came on a bit late this season.

 

[Danwood]

Picked the hops from my first year Cascade that I got from Wakkatoo, got 2.1 Kg wet which I am really happy with. Will pick my two, second year Goldings in the next few days, Expect to get 2 to 3 Kg of wet hops.

My Cascade was from Wakkatoo too. 2.1kg is a good haul !

I only let mine grow to about 2m due to available space, and anticipate 700g ish all up.

They're definitely from good stock, I think !

 

[hoppy2B]

I agree, if you start seeing lupulin falling to the ground then you have gone to far. A couple days is all you need. I didn't weigh my wet cascade this year but it was about 3kg dry and 5 20l buckets full wet. I still have Saaz to pick but they came on a bit late this season.

3kg dry is a nice yeild. :super: Would love to know how many plants that came from. Do you have any pics of how you grow them?

 

[Danielscott26]

I dont think mine are too far away from picking but its my first year growing them and i dont want to pick them too early. What should i be looking for? the tips of the leaves turning brown or more? When i squeeze them now they feel dry but it doesent look like theres allot of lupulin inside them.
Any advice guys?

 

[drsmurto]

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/65777-2012-hop-plantations/?p=1001659]Link[/url]

Take a hop, tear it in half and have a look at the innards. The link above is what mine looked like a week or so ago.

It's hard to see how much lupilin there is by looking at the outside (as an aside the Victoria is so full of lupilin it appears to be coming out the top of the hop cone???) so get in there. Post a pic in this thread and you'll find plenty of us happy to offer advice/opinions!

I dont think mine are too far away from picking but its my first year growing them and i dont want to pick them too early. What should i be looking for? the tips of the leaves turning brown or more? When i squeeze them now they feel dry but it doesent look like theres allot of lupulin inside them.
Any advice guys?

 

[Aussiedrifter]

3kg dry is a nice yeild. :super: Would love to know how many plants that came from. Do you have any pics of how you grow them?

It all came from one 2nd year plant

 

[Danielscott26]

thanks doc il take a pic of one and post it tonight.

Link

Take a hop, tear it in half and have a look at the innards. The link above is what mine looked like a week or so ago.

It's hard to see how much lupilin there is by looking at the outside (as an aside the Victoria is so full of lupilin it appears to be coming out the top of the hop cone???) so get in there. Post a pic in this thread and you'll find plenty of us happy to offer advice/opinions!