2017 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

[Danscraftbeer]

Picked the Red Earth today while boiling a brew. No I didn't throw them in its a strictly brewed German Ale that's boiling.

Red Earth 600g Wet. Not even photo worthy because I didn't get any red cones. They were only red in early stage.
Its a first year in a pot but still good for sampling this breed.
The aroma is interesting. There's a pungency new to me. Its difficult to describe it seems a kinda exotic culinary mix with a hint of Garlic in the background? with that usual floral, spicy Dankness of any fresh hop etc. They smell great as any fresh hops do but with a flavour I cant rely describe and when I read descriptions of hop character I often frown with confusion ha...

Hallertauer and Cascade remains to be harvested.

edit: I now want to have a (dust catch) under a layer of drying hops after seeing yellow dust on the concrete gone to waste.
Its surprizing how much yellow Lupulin falls out!!!

 

[gezzanet]

I picked most of my first year (in my dirt lol) POR strange that one side flowered and the other didn't. As in I put a few zomes in either side of the veg patch and strung a trellis.
Got 75g wet but I think I may have left them a little long due to the wet week we have had.
My cones don't seem as big and compact as others on here? Hoping that it's just because of the first year and maybe because I didn't give them much in the way of fertilizer? I'll give them more love next season.

at least your pors still alive. Mine suffered due to no water for a month then drowned so it rotted in the ground a sad way to go.

 

[Digga]

at least your pors still alive. Mine suffered due to no water for a month then drowned so it rotted in the ground a sad way to go.

Plenty here for you to take a chunk of the root in winter.

Haven't planted your cascade yet. Tomorrow arvo's job hahahaha.

 

[kaiserben]

A big pot that I'm growing hops in has just sprouted loads of golden mushrooms.

I hadn't watered the pot for days, but it has been raining a lot, so the tray under the pot has water in it.

I assume I want to get rid of the mushrooms (and no, my experimental days are well & truly behind me) and then let the soil dry out asap by lifting it out of the tray - to stop the hop root system from developing any fungal disease?

EDIT PHOTO:




The bines themselves are around 12 foot long (not shown in photo).

 

[wide eyed and legless]

NO, a lot of fungi are good for the soil and can be beneficial, there is fungi that do attack roots of plants but that isn't them.

 

[ScottyDoesntKnow]

Just wanted to share a pic of my brew day yesterday, first lot of home grown chinook flowers going into the kettle. Thanks to all for the tips and support, looking forward to adding a few more varieties for next season.

 

[Mardoo]

In fact, there are many fungi without which trees cannot survive, as the mycelium covers the rootlets of the tree and acts as the intermediary to get minerals into a tree's system.

I had a lovely infestation of bird's nest fungi in my hops last year!

 

[kaiserben]

So consensus would be to just leave that fungi be?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

In the future we are going to have to rely on mycorrhizal fungi, global reserves of phosphate are running low and scientists at Monash Uni have been testing the effects of low phosphate levels on plants, thousands of species have been found to become dwarfed (maybe you would like some dwarf hops) but the major problem is the plants go into survival mode and pack themselves full of cyanide, the sorghum was found to reach a cyanide level enough to kill a cow.
The mycorrhizal fungi is a fungi that assists plants in extraction of phosphate.
Bloody amazing what you learn sitting in hospital waiting rooms perusing New Scientist and Cosmos magazines.

 

[Rocker1986]

Just did another harvest of my Cascade, this time got about 150g wet, although that number might be a little overstated since some of them had water drops on them from rain overnight. In any case it should dry out to I guess somewhere between 30 and 40g to go with the 100g already dried and in the freezer. There will be another harvest in another 3-4 weeks when the last lot of flowers is ready to be picked. From the looks of it, that one will be a small harvest maybe around 50-60g wet.

 

[Benn]

Harvested 3.96kg (wet) Cascade cones today; with the Victoria harvest from 2 weeks ago, that's pretty much it for this season.
Looks like I'll be donating a good amount to the local brew pub that opened up last year. I've got more than enough to last me till next season.
Next year I'll have to set up some sort of drying area in one of the sheds at M&D's farm. At the moment I've taken over my youngest Daughters room (she doesn't really use it) as a drying room equipped with screen door drying racks and a circulation fan.
Can't wait for the 2018 Harvest,

 

[Curly79]

P.O.R about 600g Dried and vac sealed. Coopers clone coming soon

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Its official, for me. Hops harvest around the end of Daylight Savings. 1st of April. Fools day. The date I joined this forum but I don't believe in that **** its all just coincidence haha.
Dried all my hops this year. No wet hopping. I'm kinda over that fresh veg hop flavour so all dried for 4 days then kept in 20lt pales, sealed, then open them each day over a few days to let out gasses. It has something to do with metabolic activity that improves the end result. Then vacuum sealed and frozen.

The small bunch in hand is Hallertauer.
Total dry yield was 320 grams. They were small cones but they were first year in pots so I'm pretty happy with the yield but they are so very delicate in hop aroma power etc. I load them in late for Altbeir, Pilsners, Dortmunder etc.

The rest is Cascade. Now this is hop aroma big time. Sticky resin hands. Slight euphoria when picking etc. I like to get my hops to fully ripe.

I still have Aquaponic Cascade to harvest next weekend. That's different again. Much greener.

Total yields yet to be counted but maxing out in freezer space so all coming brews are to be made with these fresh hops.

Aquaponics still to come..

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Last harvest. Aquaponic Cascade. Almost 6kg wet. It was still sprouting some new buds I only realised when I cut the hole thing down. That's the limit that the drying rack can handle before it starts buckling.
A pic of the crown that I call the Kracken! 50c coin at the base.
3 of the Silver Perch at 600g. Yummy too.

Tally:
Goldings 265g dry
Chinook 780g dry
Red Earth 175g dry
Hallertauer 390g dry
Cascade (dirt grown) 1650g dry
Cascade Aquaponic ~6kg wet should be 1500g dry

4.7kg dry Home Grown Hops Holy ****! :kooi: Bloody hours of picking..

 

[LiquidGold]

Nice looking perch there Dan, and that cascade crown is huge!

 

[ein stein]

what are you doing with the lupulin dust Dans? are you going to just sprinkle it over a beer as dry hop for extra aroma? i had a friend who used to make hash by pressing his kif in cigarette wrapper cellophane under the leg of a bed or table, it might work with lupulin..

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Yeah I have sprinkled Lupulin it into a beer. I actually woke up looking and feeling strangely groggy in the morning, puffy eyes ha.
Maybe it shouldn't be consumed in that way. Or I just over did it.
I just toss the Lupulin powder in with the hops when I bag them.

 

[Brownsworthy]

That's it I'm looking for a decent IBC and am going to give aquaponics a go that yield plus the added bonus of tasty fish has convinced me thanks Dan.

 

[AJ80]

Brewed this week with a stack of 2017 home grown flowers. For those of you who have the space, but aren't yet growing hops, get on it. There's a freshness with your own flowers that you just won't get with pellets.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Picked up a couple of plants about a month ago and they are growing well, I have my fingers crossed for next year.

Any tips for wintering the plants /rhizomes in northern climates? I'm in Ballina.