New Information For Hop Growers

[billvelek]

For those who grow hops or are considering it, I have a couple of bits of information that you should find interesting.

First, most homegrowers have no idea of what the alpha acid content of their hops is; I've done a LOT of searching and reading in a LOT of forums, and up until now the universal concensus was that you have only four practical choices:
1. Spend money (about $40 in the U.S. IIRC) to have a lab test it;
2. Do a comparative taste test which could be tedious and inaccurate;
3. Use homegrown hops only for flavor or aroma, so AA% won't matter;
4. Trial and error: just brew with it and adjust future batches.
Now I have come across a new approach that I hadn't read nor heard about anywhere; doing your own chemical test. I've just been engaged in a discussion on the Usenet group rec.crafts.brewing and another brewer mentioned that he titrates his hops to determine their AA content, and has provided some valuable info for anyone interested in doing that. Here is the Google display of that thread: http://tinyurl.com/yrp4zw -- see the four posts beginning with one by wpollitz on Feb. 4th at 12:01am and my replies. Also, this apparently isn't actually a new method -- just new to _ME_; you can do a google of 'titrate AND hops' and find other sources of info.

Second, for those who have never heard of 'vernalization', it's a process which signals the hop plant that it has been through the winter season, and is supposed to affect the amount of flowering (cones) that your plants will produce. Some growers in the southern U.S. have had some poor harvests which we suspect might be tied to the lack of vernalization. This website -- http://pw2.netcom.com/~dluzanp/nov.htm -- states that "The concensus among hop researchers is that hops need about six weeks of vernalization at 3 degrees C (about 38 degrees F)." Now, my weather has been too mild -- it was 78F/25.5C yesterday and is now 69F/20.5C -- and it's the middle of winter here. As an experiment, I dug up one of my hop crowns and have put it into my beer refrigerator where I will keep it for six weeks and then replant it, and I'll then compare the harvest I get from it and the other plants. If anyone else has done anything similar, or has more info about vernalization, I will appreciate hearing about it.

Our Grow-Hops Yahoo Group now has 881 members; we specialize in coverage of ONLY 'growing' hops and other beer ingredients like brewing-herbs and barley, and we do NOT permit other brewing topics, so we encourage everyone to remain active in their current forums even if they join us. If interested, please visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grow-Hops

Cheers.

Bill Velek

 

[b_thomas]

It's the same technique used by those in warmer parts of Australia for growing bulbs such as tulips or daffodils, pop them in a brown paper bag in the fridge a couple of weeks before planting them. Also there's a technique of tiping crushed ice on rhododendrons or snowdrops to make them flower if you've had a mild winter.

 

[billvelek]

It's the same technique used by those in warmer parts of Australia for growing bulbs such as tulips or daffodils, pop them in a brown paper bag in the fridge a couple of weeks before planting them. Also there's a technique of tiping crushed ice on rhododendrons or snowdrops to make them flower if you've had a mild winter.

Thanks. You've confirmed the need for vernalization and one possible approach. Where I live we've often have WEEKS of winter weather that is higher than the apparent recommended vernalization temperature, which is supposed to be about six weeks long. I'm trying to avoid the possible necessity of dumping ice on each one of my crowns, day in and day out, for possibly six weeks. That almost sounds insane.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

 

[mfdes]

In fact lack of adequate vernalisation is what makes growing hops north of Sydney practically impossible in the long term, apart from daylength effects on yield. After a few (3-5) years of growing without adequate vernalisation, sometimes much sooner, the hop plant loses its vigour and naturally senesces (dies).

MFS

 

[lochrockingbeers]

Bill

You really should put more than 1 rhizome in the fridge as 1 result is not going to really tell you anything because any number of other factors that you can't control could influence the growth of this 1 rhizome. I'd suggest more like 5 (10 would be better again) and compare with 5 (or 10) that haven't been in the fridge but will obviously have to be left outside or in the cool somewhere or they'll rot. Make sure the selected rhizomes are approximately the same size, variety, and preferably from the same plant. Potting them up is probably the best option to compare growth to avoid any changes in the soil and environment that you would encounter planting them directly into your garden. You need this much replication because in biological science, variation is commonplace so you repeat the experiment sufficient times to hopefully get a meaningful result. This type of experiment has probably been done several times by scientists around the world. However, I had a quick internet search of some scientific abstracts through work and found nearly 5000 articles referring to vernalization but none related to Humulus other than mention of hops seeds being vernalized prior to planting. This doesn't mean the work hasn't been done as the abstracts only search back as far as 1910 but perhaps vernalization in hops rhizomes hasn't been really confirmed and there's room for some pioneering research!

As for growing Hops in Australia, sure the plant may perform better in the southern areas, but it is a lot more forgiving plant than say the cherry tree. Like other plant species, variety selection will be the key as some varieties will perform better in some areas than others. I think some of the german varieties would perform very poorly outside of Tas and southern Vic whereas Australian and American developed varieties are likely to be more adaptable or tolerant of more climates, or at least more vigorous growers. Vernalization may partly explain this in that some varieties may need a longer and more severe chill phase than others do. If this is true, I don't think it's worth the trouble of moving a tricky variety to the fridge each winter or showering it in ice just so that it grows better. Sounds like an old wives' tale solution!

Lochy

 

[BOG]

If you have ever been to Canberra's Floriade festival you will see the result of putting bulbs in a fridge.

All the bulbs , Thousands of them, are stored at 4deg for about 2 months.

When taken out and planted they all bloom during a 4 day period. A lot of science goes into a display of that size. You cannot leave it up to nature to do it's thing.

Same Science different plant.


BOG

 

[billvelek]

You really should put more than 1 rhizome in the fridge as 1 result is not going to really tell you anything because any number of other factors that you can't control could influence the growth of this 1 rhizome. I'd suggest more like 5 (10 would be better again) and compare with 5 (or 10) that haven't been in the fridge ... snip

You make a good point, but let me clarify that I did NOT put just a "rhizome" in the refrigerator; I actually dug up one entire CROWN, which measures about 1 foot by 3 feet and is half a foot high (30cm x 91cm x 15cm), and it is taking up the entire bottom shelf of my refrigerator. It will be hard to find more room, not to mention that I'm not yet positive that lack of vernalization is a real problem here. If vernalization in a refrigerator turns out to be necessary, I'll need to come up with a better way.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

 

[b_thomas]

If hops is anything like other rhizomous plants then chop that sucker up with a spade (no need to be pretty with it, Irises tend to love it when you're brutal) and make some more plants for you to experiment on

 

[billvelek]

If hops is anything like other rhizomous plants then chop that sucker up with a spade (no need to be pretty with it, Irises tend to love it when you're brutal) and make some more plants for you to experiment on

Don't the rhizomes need to have 'buds' on them, or at least some special features which would distinquish them from an ordinary piece of root? This has been a debatable question in our group: what's the difference between a "rhizome" and just a chunk of root, and will the latter sprout? ... or just the "rhizome" with buds.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

 

[mfdes]

Bill,

Hops have a crown composed of rhizomes, which are thickened stems with obvious buds, and storage roots, which are just roots with no obvious buds. You generally use the rhizomes for propagation, I don't think you'd have much luck with the roots.
Or you can take softwood cuttings of the bine and propagate much faster. This is what is done commercially.

MFS

 

[billvelek]

Bill,

Hops have a crown composed of rhizomes, which are thickened stems with obvious buds, and storage roots, which are just roots with no obvious buds. You generally use the rhizomes for propagation, I don't think you'd have much luck with the roots.
Or you can take softwood cuttings of the bine and propagate much faster. This is what is done commercially.

MFS

I took some photos with my wife's digital camera, after I sprayed all the dirt off of the crown. I still need to post them somewhere, but she's at work and I don't know where the cable is or even how to do it <duhhhhhhh>. Cameras are not my 'thing'. Anyway, the crown does have a lot of buds already starting on it, so I know that anything with a 'bud' is a viable rhizome. Other than that, I don't know how to identify the difference between a 'potential' rhizome and a mere 'storage root'. As for 'softwood cuttings', we've had some members take cuttings from the bines and try to propogate them, even some of them using root hormone, but I think they had only limited success; I would presume that this is the 'softwood cuttings' technique that you referred to. Most of the literature I've read suggests that the primary means to propogate is rhizomes, followed by a technique of burying a portion of the bine while it is still attached to the plant, and then the bine will take root, after which a cut is made to separate it from the rest of the plant. Do you have more info on the 'softwood cuttings'?

Thanks.

Bill Velek