Archive for hops
Hops Harvest 2011
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Nugget, Magnum Cascade Hops
Hops harvest 2011 was delayed a little due to our strange growing season this year. A cold wet spring, a wet hot summer and dry September made for some challenges. I believe all the rain led to leaching the soil which caused a boron deficiency for my Magnum hops. Luckily I diagnosed the boron deficiency just in time – sprayed the sickly hop bines just in time to save them. They did not reach the top of the rope as the bines were stunted to 10 feet. Some laterals managed to climb an additional 4 feet almost reaching the top (the center hop bines).
We harvested a total of 4.25 lbs between all 3 varieties. This year I trained 5 bines per rope. I think I will fall back to 3 bines per rope next year. I think they do better with 3 bines – not too crowded. I gave all my hops to my friend that has far surpassed my brewing abilities. This spring he took 2nd place for an American IPA using my magnum hops (see Award Winning Hops ). In return for the hops, I get to try many styles of beers and ales (he has over 100 batches under his belt).
Due to the issues I had this year, I am going to fortify the soil next spring with more compost(top dress), composted manure and
Conjoined Hop Cone
kelp. This should address any deficiencies. Notice the gigantic leaves mixed in the bines – especially the Nugget (closest)? Those huge leaves are a result of the Bonide Liquid Iron + micro-nutrients – containing: magnesium, boron, copper, iron, manganese, zinc. It seems they may have been deficient all along? Some of these leaves were 10 inches across! I will also give them another spraying of the Bonide product as I have some left. I try and stay as organic as possible – these are just minerals so I consider them still organic.
I get one or two of these conjoined hop cones each year. They are pretty cool looking and I look forward to finding them each year. It was pretty dark by the time we finnished harvesting as you can tell by this picture (with flash). Of course the friggen mosquitoes were eating us alive once it got dark. Luckily it didn’t take us much longer after dark to finish harvesting this years hops.
That’s it for this year. If I come up with any news or advice, I will post it. Otherwise we will see you next year. I hope everyone had a good year for hops. Feel free to update us with your comments on this post.
Cascade Hop Cones On The Bines
2011 September 6th Hops Update
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Cascade Hop Cones
September 2011 hops update – approximately 2 weeks before harvest. The hop cones are getting big and plentiful. They are still wet and cool feeling when they are squeezed and do not compress much when squeezed – in other words they are still wet and not ready to harvest.
Hops should be fairly dried out on the bine before harvest. When they are dry (relatively speaking – they still require additional drying once harvested), you should be able to almost squeeze them flat without much resistance. They should feel “papery” and light and spring back to the size they were before you squeezed them.
This has been a weird growing season in the Minneapolis, Mn area where I am located. A cold, wet spring and hot, humid and wet summer. By the looks of the hop bines and cones compared to last year’s pictures, it will be a comparable hop cone harvest. Probably light on the Magnum hops due to the boron deficiency experienced earlier in the year (see previous posts).
Magnum Hop Cones
Nugget Hop Cones
3rd Year Hops Mid-August Update
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Recovered Magnum
3rd year hops mid-August update. This has been a challenging year for growing hops here in Minnesota (and probably most places). It started out with a cold spring, followed by a hot and humid summer and my brush with a boron deficiency.
As you can see, the Magnum hops shown to the left have recovered nicely. While the hop bines were stunted at 10 feet, some laterals decided to climb 4 feet higher. If you haven’t seen how bad off the Magnum hops were, go back a few posts or just click here –> Hops Boron Deficiency. They were just about dead. I am damn lucky I was able to revive them with a boron solution (after I finally determined thats what the problem was).
The Cascade and Magnum have a few small hop cones and are loaded with hop burrs. Same as the last 2 years, the Nugget are about 2 weeks behind the other 2 with burrs just starting. Unfortunately, it is hard to get a decent detailed picture posted without slowing down my blog. I will make it a point to get some close ups closer to harvest (and look into a beefier hosting solution – what do you expect for $8 a month – I host many other sites too).
No problems with deer. Rabbits munched a couple of hop sprouts when they were just starting out, but I had dozens of sprouts per plant so not an issue. I noticed quite a few Japanese beetles this year in my tomato garden. I have not seen any on my hops. Something has muched on some of the leaves but I haven’t seen who the culprit is yet. I am not worried as 90% of the leaves are untouched. I have learned to share a little in my organic gardening ways.
I tried something new and trained 5 or 6 bines per rope (I usually do 3 hop bines per rope). We will see what kind of harvest I get this year. Too many variables to really compare harvest amounts. Being third year hops, they should be near peak output. 3rd year hops, weather, deficiency issue, 5 -6 bines per rope – it will be hard to compare to last year’s harvest. We’ll see what happens.
With all the rain (above average) and humidity, I am surprised powdery
Nugget Magnum Cascade
mildew hasn’t hit. I see it or a similar disease on the leaves of my Lilac bushes, affecting my cucumbers and tomatoes. I have slime mold oozing from the ground around my tomatoes. I guess I have been lucky as far as my hops go. Let’s hope I don’t have any more challenges with the hops between now and harvest time.
I hope you all are having a good hop year. I would like to hear from you how things are going with your hops. Any “challenges” or “opportunities” to deal with this year? Any tips or tricks that would help this audience out? Make a comment – link is right below the post title “3rd Year Hops Mid-August” (don’t use the “Contact Us” form as only I see those).
Hop Sprouts 2011
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4/3/2011 Albino Magnum Hop Sprouts
April 3rd I uncovered my hops as they were sprouting when I checked beneath the mulch. I keep them buried in mulch to delay their sprouting as long as possible. The reason for that is there are many freezes overnight until mid May in my area (Minnesota) . The hops seem to ride out most of the freezes – I have not lost them to frost yet.
They are albino white until they are uncovered for a day or two, then they take on purple/red stem and green leaves while they are small. My previous post on hop rhizome trimming was a week after this picture was taken. It has been a cold April here (so much for global warming) – this morning I had ice in my birdbath and the high today hit 40!
Cascade Hop Sprouts
Nugget Hop Sprouts
Due to the remnants of the winter that wouldn’t die, these hops haven’t grown much in 3 weeks. These hop sprouts have survived many frosts in the last 3 weeks. I am hoping for average temps soon, the average highs are supposed to be in the 60′s – like I said, it peaked at 40 today – sucks. Some of these bines are big enough to start training up the ropes.
I have been reading of other peoples hops hitting 10 feet tall already – obviously not around here. If the past is any indicator, these hop bines will be topped out by the end of the month(May). I haven’t been lazy about updating this blog, just not much to report on yet.
I do have one sad thing to report. My Fuggle container hop plant did not survive the winter. I do not have a root cellar or insulated garage to move it to for the winter. I covered it with 4 – 6 inches of leaves and then buried the container in snow (we had a ton of snow this year). I believe this was enough to insulate it from our 20 – 30 below zero winter temps, but one high wind day it blew the snow away from the container and left it exposed. My hops in the ground handle it just fine.
Container hops are not working well for me. Aside from the Fuggle that froze to death this winter, I lost a Mount Hood to wind (50+ MPH) last summer. Apparently this corner is not protected from the wind. I think I am going to stick with my three amigos this year – Cascade, Nugget and Magnum.
With a few weeks of sun, I should be able to report back that the hop bines have topped out again. I hope your hops are doing well – if you are not growing hops, you should be. Hop on!
Award Winning Hops
Posted by: | Comments2011 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out 2nd Place US IPA!
Upper Mississippi Mash-Out Home Brew Competition
Award winning hops from the 2010 growing season! Ok, my friend Brad Nordine is the brew meister here that took 2nd place in the 10th annual Upper Mississippi Mash-Out (UMMO), category 14 – US IPA! The competition was this past weekend (January 28th and 29th, 2011). This competition is the 2nd largest in the nation! My Magnum hops were used for bittering and he used his Chinook hops for aroma (yes, they are also a bittering hop). See, you can make award winning beers and ales from homegrown hops! I had one of his award winning US IPAs and it was awesome!
Brad has been brewing for several years now and getting better and better each year. He has got quite a setup for his all grain beer and ale making. He has tackled many different styles successfully and is a true connoisseur. When he recommends something, I go buy it. I happily offer my services as a taste tester for any of his creations. If you are in the Minnesota twin cities area, you have seen him at beer events. He is the one that turned me onto Surly when they were an unknown upstart – now Surly Brewing has a hard time keeping up with demand – congrats on 5 years Omar, Todd and staff!
There is not much to write about this time of year (maybe I should be in Australia or New Zealand writing about hops?), so when Brad told me he took second place and my hops were involved, I figured I would put this together. Check out the Upper Mississippi Mash-Out website and consider attending (maybe even entering) next year. You can see Brad’s entry here:
2011 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out – Category 14 – US IPA
Brad deserves all the credit here but he doesn’t have a website or blog for me to plug. His wife Julie does some amazing custom glass work so checkout her site (Valentine’s day is around the corner). She also makes custom glass handled beer openers!
Julie Nordine – Credit River Art Glass – Tell her Tony sent you.
The moral of the story here is – you can make amazing beers and ales using homegrown hops. If you are not growing hops, why not? If you have the space and the climate – just do it.
