2012 Hop Plantations

[hoppy2B]

Awe... not the Kingswood. :unsure:

 

[cpsmusic]

Hi Guys,

Thought I'd post a couple of pics of my first attempt at growing hops (Goldings).

The plant has produced a pretty good crop. The flowers are starting to become really aromatic so I think they're close to being ready although they're still a bit too green to pick (I think!).

 

[hoppy2B]

I picked my Golding today. Only yielded 220 grams wet after last years 3kg in the first season due to the fact I didn't water it enough because my tanks were a bit low. Had a massive crop on it with really big bunches coming on which burnt off in the hot weather.
On a happier note, I collected another 2 kg of wet Victoria taking my total to 6.3kg wet off 2 first year plants so far. There is another couple of kilos on it still to be picked. I should end up with about 2 kilo of dry weigh in Victoria from my 2 first year plants. Awesome!

 

[Yob]

Not heaps but Im pleased with what the Victoria gave me. We must have gone through about 1/4 of this on the weekend in fresh hopped glasses :lol:






Cant wait for next year with the planned drip feed system going in.

:icon_chickcheers:

 

[HBHB]

There's going to be scrub turkey on the table at easter if these B@stards nasty birds dig up any more hop plants....... Hops stuffed and roasted scrub Turkey has a nice ring to it.
h34r:
Martin

 

[lukiferj]

Not heaps but Im pleased with what the Victoria gave me. We must have gone through about 1/4 of this on the weekend in fresh hopped glasses :lol:

Keen for your feedback on these hops Yob. Will be looking to pick up a rhizome or two of this come winter time.

 

[drsmurto]

650g of Chinook and 1.010 kg of Victoria (dry weight) vac packed and in the freezer. Very happy with the yield, I was a bit late picking the Chinook and discovered a lot of brown cones that I left on the bine.

@lukeferj - I've been brewing with the Victoria for a few years now, it's my favourite hop. Peach and mango with some citrus but the citrus is restrained. I refer to the flavour/aroma as loquats. A rye version of my golden ale with Victoria instead of Amarillo is one of my house beers, will be on tap permanently now given the yield of Victoria this year. I'll be selling the rhizomes again later in the year.

 

[lukiferj]

Thanks DrSmurto. Have seen a few of your posts raving about the hops. Sounds delicious. I wasn't ready last season to try growing my own but will be ready this year. Will be keeping an eye out for the rhizomes later in the year.

 

[CosmicBertie]

A rye version of my golden ale with Victoria instead of Amarillo is one of my house beers, will be on tap permanently now given the yield of Victoria this year. I'll be selling the rhizomes again later in the year.

So would you put the AA% roughly the same as Amarillo then? IE you just swapped the hop weight for weight?

 

[drsmurto]

So would you put the AA% roughly the same as Amarillo then? IE you just swapped the hop weight for weight?

No. I add the late additions in first and then adjust the 60 min bittering addition to get a total IBU of ~30. The AA of Amarillo is lower than Victoria.

I use 10% (I think.... it may be 11%. It's on my computer at home) as the AA value for Victoria; this will be different when grown elsewhere. The easiest way to avoid the effects of this is to use a known bittering hop. I've brewed with my homegrown hops enough now over the past few years to get a pretty good feel for where the AA% is. It doesn't seem to change that much each year but this may (again) not be the case for others. For comparison, I use 9% for my homegrown Chinook.

The recipe for the batch currently on tap was;
55% TF GP
20% Wey Rye
20% Wey Vienna
5% Wey Carabohemian
Victoria @ 60 to 28 IBU
1.5g/L Victoria @ 15
2g/L Victoria @ 0
67C mash
OG 1.045
WY1272

 

[jc64]

Just grabbed some chinook cones off my plants, pulled a kilo off with 3/4 quarters left to harvest , then i'll start on the cascade.

I've heard that freezing wet hops can be better than drying and then storing. I've put 400 grams in bags and frozen them but i'm thinking of drying the others in the food dehydrator to compare. Has anyone else had experience freezing wet hops? How did they come across in the beer?

Cheers.

 

[Yob]

It's a good idea to dry them in a somewhat darkened room for 3 days (min) to allow the chlorofil (sp?) to leave them,

As far as I know, wet hops should be used wet or dried for use, Punkin tried it a little while ago with unfavorable results.

 

[jc64]

Just went back through the thread to see Punkin's results. I'll freeze these hop's all wet and use them in the boil kettle, if I was to dry hop a beer with my hop's I would dry them first.

Searching a few threads from the US seem's to indicate that results are good with freezing straight from the bine. I've got a food dehydrator I can use to dry half of my hop's that I pick but would like to experiment with wet hop's as well and as I have a young family my brew day's are all about timing which the hop plants don't seem to understand :unsure:.

 

[jc64]

I'm using a sunbeam dehydrator model DT5600, it has three heat settings. I have it on the lowest setting, does this sound ok? or is anyone using this model with good results at a higher setting?

Cheers.

 

[Malted]

It's a good idea to dry them in a somewhat darkened room for 3 days (min) to allow the chlorofil (sp?) to leave them,

As far as I know, wet hops should be used wet or dried for use, Punkin tried it a little while ago with unfavorable results.

It depends I reckon on your ambient conditions and the moisture content upon harvest. For instance in my shed, 3 days air drying would make my hops so crispy dry that they are brittle and break apart too readily when trying to package or brew with them. A little bit of moisture left in them is beneficial IMO as they will hold together better when brewing or packaging.
If I want to compress them into plugs, two days is generally too long drying them as when compressed the cones do not stay as a block but will expand and fall apart - about 24 hrs seems optimal (also depending upon how much moisture was in them upon harvest) for my plug making.
Though I don't harvest too wet or too dry (IMO), after drying I would guess that I get about 25%-30% by weight of what I harvested. I dry mine on a window screen supported on both ends and turn the hops twice or more daily (apart from when I tried to dry some in the electric smoker - it did not work).

I am not sure if there are different species of chlorophyll; I just thought it made plants green and drying was to remove water and stuff.

In regards to all of the above: YMMV.

 

[hoppy2B]

Wet hops take up a hell of a lot of room compared to dry hops. I dry most of mine because its safer for storing if there is a power outage or something and to conserve space. I may have picked up about 5kg dry weight this year. Still waiting for the final harvest in a couple of days. My freezer runeth over. :unsure:

 

[jc64]

It depends I reckon on your ambient conditions and the moisture content upon harvest. For instance in my shed, 3 days air drying would make my hops so crispy dry that they are brittle and break apart too readily when trying to package or brew with them. A little bit of moisture left in them is beneficial IMO as they will hold together better when brewing or packaging.
If I want to compress them into plugs, two days is generally too long drying them as when compressed the cones do not stay as a block but will expand and fall apart - about 24 hrs seems optimal (also depending upon how much moisture was in them upon harvest) for my plug making.
Though I don't harvest too wet or too dry (IMO), after drying I would guess that I get about 25%-30% by weight of what I harvested. I dry mine on a window screen supported on both ends and turn the hops twice or more daily (apart from when I tried to dry some in the electric smoker - it did not work).

I am not sure if there are different species of chlorophyll; I just thought it made plants green and drying was to remove water and stuff.

In regards to all of the above: YMMV.

I'm going to work on a 5:1 ratio, dry 500 grams down to 100 grams and see where that leaves me. I'm harvesting cones that are still just on the moist side with only some brown tips. I have plenty of too dry cones on the Chinook plant which I think is due to the heat over the past few weeks in Victoria.

 

[Malted]

Just went back through the thread to see Punkin's results. I'll freeze these hop's all wet and use them in the boil kettle, if I was to dry hop a beer with my hop's I would dry them first.

Searching a few threads from the US seem's to indicate that results are good with freezing straight from the bine. I've got a food dehydrator I can use to dry half of my hop's that I pick but would like to experiment with wet hop's as well and as I have a young family my brew day's are all about timing which the hop plants don't seem to understand :unsure:.

Take 2 bananas. Put one banana in your freezer for 24hrs, leave the other on the bench. Remove frozen banana and put on bench for 24hrs with its mate. Frozen banana will be black, other banana might be still yellow, or maybe a little brown.

Slow freezing fresh plant material (and animal material) causes the water in the cells to freeze. Slow freezing causes large ice crystals that rupture the cell walls. Therefore upon defrosting they turn to mush. Snap freezing does not cause large ice crystal to form as it is too quick, thus the cells are not ruptured and it does not go mushy upon defrosting.

Would you want mushy hops in your beer or dehydrated hops that have been stored in a freezer? We just want the lupulin that is not locked inside the plant cells but is adhering to cones don't we? IMO freezing fresh green hops is going to lead to grassiness (or release of the plant cell contents), if you specifically want that, then fine go ahead. Freeze them fresh and green if you must but try the banana test first.

Edit: domestic freezers are not capable of snap freezing.

 

[jc64]

Wet hops take up a hell of a lot of room compared to dry hops. I dry most of mine because its safer for storing if there is a power outage or something and to conserve space. I may have picked up about 5kg dry weight this year. Still waiting for the final harvest in a couple of days. My freezer runeth over. :unsure:

Take 2 bananas. Put one banana in your freezer for 24hrs, leave the other on the bench. Remove frozen banana and put on bench for 24hrs with its mate. Frozen banana will be black, other banana might be still yellow, or maybe a little brown.

Slow freezing fresh plant material (and animal material) causes the water in the cells to freeze. Slow freezing causes large ice crystals that rupture the cell walls. Therefore upon defrosting they turn to mush. Snap freezing does not cause large ice crystal to form as it is too quick, thus the cells are not ruptured and it does not go mushy upon defrosting.

Would you want mushy hops in your beer or dehydrated hops that have been stored in a freezer? We just want the lupulin that is not locked inside the plant cells but is adhering to cones don't we? IMO freezing fresh green hops is going to lead to grassiness (or release of the plant cell contents), if you specifically want that, then fine go ahead. Freeze them fresh and green if you must but try the banana test first.

I freeze bananas all the time for use in smoothies, tastes great. You can also freeze tomatoes etc. they will just not have the same texture upon usage. I would imagine freezing hops would follow along these lines. A tip for bananas in the freezer, remove the peel first or you are in for pain trying to remove it.

I think hoppy2b might have a point with the space issue in the freezer but I don't think I would have enough to be a problem.

 

[hoppy2B]

Tea leaves contain no lupulin but do release all sort of flavours due to steeping in hot water. Its probable that freezing won't release anything new from hop cones that wouldn't enter the brew in the kettle anyway. Wouldn't advise dry hopping with wet frozen hops though.