2009 Hop Harvest

Happy Labor day!! I harvested my hops today. I got 2.45 oz. (wet) from the cascade and about 6 cones from the centennial. They are now drying. I'm hoping to get at least and oz. to use, which I'm sure I will.

Cheers,

Jason

Almost Harvest Time!!!!

Hops are almost ready to harvest for this year. I'm estimating that I'll get between 1.5-2 oz from the cascade and only 5 hop cones from the centennial. Hey, it's 5 more than last year. I'll be harvesting on Monday most likely. I'll be bottling my Allagash Tripel clone tomorrow night. Can't wait to see how it turned out!!

Cheers,

Jason

Fresh Hop Harvest Ale

I had a great bewing day today. I was able to harvest a small amount of my cascade hops (I took 1 oz) and brewed my Fresh Hop Harvest Ale using the Cascade hops right from the vine as well as some Centennial pellets. I used Tastybrew to pull the recipe together since my recently created spreadsheet is not reliable at this moment. I was able to hit my target gravity right on the money. Below is the recipe and brewday stats.



Stats:
Water PH - 5.4
Mash PH - 5.0
Target Gravity - 1.056
OG - 1.056



Fermentables
7.5 lbs Amber Malt Liquid Extract
2 lbs. Pale two-row
.25 lbs Belgian Biscuit
.25 lbs CaraPils
.25 lbs Crystal 20L
.25 lbs Crystal 40L



Hops
.5 oz Centennial (pellet, 10.5% - 60 min)
.5 oz Cascade (fresh wet hops, 6.6% estimated - 30 min)
5 oz Cascade (fresh wet hops, 6.6% estimated - 15 min)
.5 oz Centennial (pellet, 10.5% - 5 min)
.5 oz Cascade (fresh wet hops, 6.6% estimated - Dry hop in secondary)

Yeast
Wyeast #1056 - American Ale


New Notes:
(9/2) - Primary fermentation went great. When I woke up the next morning, the bubbles were vigourusly popping. I racked to the secondary 8 days later (8/29) and added another .5 oz of fresh picked hops. Thankfully, I have another ounce or so on the vine which I'll dry and store for later use. The hop smell was amazing. Fresh cascade aroma filled the air as I racked the brew. I gave the .5 oz that I was dry hopping with a big squeze and rub to release some more aroma and dropped them in. I'm getting very excited about this beer.

(9/15) - I bottled this yesterday. When I uncovered the carboy to bottle, it had an interesting white film on the top of the beer. It tasted fine as I sipped the hydrometer sample (1.012) so I'm not too concerned. Hopefully the hops didn't have a bacteria on them when I dry hopped. Anyone have any experience with this or have seen this film on their beer before?

(10/6) - Bad news.....I tried the first bottle and it is completly ruined! It tastes like vinager so I'm going to jhave to dump them all. I'm am not happy. I guess thats the risk you run with fresh hops....lots of bacteria on them. Next year I will make sure that I boil them all and not dry hop with them. I had real high hopes for this one....oh well!!!



Cheers,
Jason

Almost Harvest Time

The hops are growing at record pace and I'm psyched. I'm working on the fresh hop APA that I'm going to make with them, along with some centential pellets. I can't wait. I couldn't believe how quickly they grew from just 2 weeks ago. I gave them a squeeze last night and they are still a little ways away from being harvested and some of them are weeks away. I'll post the recipe and pictures of the harvest as it happens.

Cheers,
Jason

Hop buds arrive

I guess I am proof that you can grow hops in a planter. The buds on my centenial hop plant are blossoming in large quantities and looking great. They are all over and there is more than i though there would be.

I haven't decided what type of beer I'm going to make with these, but I'm hoping to get enough to strictly use these hops and make a fresh hop ale. I'd like to make it close to what Sierra Nevada does with their hop harvest. That's probably one my favorite highly hopped ales. I had the Southern Hemesphere Hop Harvest at the ACBF in Boston last month and it was amazing.

Cheers,

Jason

Hops growing on the Trellis

The trellis is FINALLY built and in the ground. It's kind of funny how simple it was, I guess I'm just lazy! Anyway, I decided I didn't want to transplant them from the pot into the ground and risk killing them, so for the first year they will remain in the pot.

The hops are starting to show signs of small buds on some of the shoots. I'm hoping they are actually cones and not more leaves.

Cheers,

Jason

Hops Update

The Hop plants are moving along pretty good. A squirrel or bird bit off the tops of both of them a few weeks back and I was nervous they we're going to keep growing, but they're doing well. Can't wait to see the buds!!

Cheers,

Jason

Hops - 7 inches tall

My hops are now a full 7 in. tall. This one is growing very rapidly, and I'm psyched!! The Centennial plant is growing, but hasn't popped through the surface yet. I had to dig down to see if it was even growing, and thankfully it is!! Time to start building the trellis one night.

Cheers,

Jason

Growing Hops - First sprout

I came home Sunday from a week in NYC to see the first sprout from my hop plants. The Cascade I planted is growing at record pace. As I write this post, the shoot is already a half of an inch taller than in the picture. The Centennial has yet to pop a shoot out of the dirt, but I think I might have planted that rhizome upside down and a little deeper than the Cascade. I guess I'll just have to wait and see!

This weekend, I had planned to build the trellis so I can get it ready as the shoot continues to grow. I purchased the materials already ($12 at home depot for a total of $30 to grow these hops inluding the soil, fertalizer and planters) so I just have to get it in the ground. It's supposed to be awesome out this weekend, so hopefully I'll get that up and get a brew session in.

Cheers,

Jason

Growing Hops - Planted

Well, since I received my rhizomes a little early, I thought if I left them in the sandwich bag in the fridge they might get ruined. So, I decided to plant them indoors. I put them in two large planters and I have them in the room that gets the most sun in our house. I'm hoping that in the next few weeks it starts to warm up and stay warm so I can get them outside permanently.

I found a link online to a hop farm called Puterbaugh Farms, so I emailed them to make sure I could plant them in the planters. Elizabeth, from their staff was great and emailed me back in no time with this response:

On 3/28/08, HopsDirect.com Orders <orders@hopsdirect.com>
wrote:
Hello Jason,

Thanks for the inquiry. Hops will typically grow any which way you
train them to grow. Putting them in pots would be fine, as long as there is good
drainage.

Please let me know if you have any further questions or comments.

Regards,

Elizabeth

HOPS Direct, LLC

So, with that re-assurance, I planted them. More updates once I move them outside!

Cheers,

Jason

Growing Hops - Update

I find it extremely ironic that I first posted about my hops today. Much to my ironic surprise, when I got home I was greated by............MY HOP FUTURE!!!!!!!! They look so cool. Here they are. I guess I'm officially a hop grower. They came a lot sooner than I had though, which I guess is good. I now have to go to home depot and start building the trellis.

Cheers,

Jason

Growing hops....Oh boy!

So, in this time of rising hop prices in the world and brewers struglling to cope, I've decided to take my homebrewing to the next level in their honor. I'm going to start growing (or trying to grow) my own hops at home. I purchased 3 rhizomes from Northern Brewer and I designed a trellis to build for the hops. I have limited space so I'm going to give it a stab by growing them in large pots on the south side of my house.



My experience with growing hops is ZERO! I previously (and successfully) had a pepper garden and grew some fantastic hot peppers. There is a large difference in the plant, but I figure what the hell. Why not try it. The rhizomes were only about $5 each, so it was a small investment for a large potential for fun and great beer!



I've treid to do some reading on growing hops, and I know that I won't get a great crop, if any, in the first year. I'm hoping to maybe get at least an ounce or two from each plant as they normally yield over a pound per plant, so we'll see.



The ryzhomes won't arrive until april sometime (oops...see above), so once I receive them I'll post an update with some picture of the crop. If you've grown hops before and have some tips of the trade, please let me know!



Cheers,

Jason