October 23, 2018
Growing Hops: Diary of a First-Time Hop Grower
An Account of a Homebrewer's First Time Growing Hops
It's high time I grow my own hops.
I'm always looking for ways to save money, right? Especially if it lets me look at my final beer and think to myself: not only did I make that, I made the ingredients that made that. It's freaking badass. And I just moved from my old apartment to an actual house, with a backyard and everything. No more excuses.
Preparing the Planters
Since this was my first attempt at growing hops, I didn't want to go overboard. I followed the advice of Chris Colby from Brew Your Own magazine and one of his articles about growing hops in containers. Colby's container set-up seemed accessible, easy-to-build and spatially efficient. He suggests putting a long post in the soil before you plant so you don't injure the rhizomes after-the-fact.
- I bought a 7ft x 1in x 2in post for each container and attached an eye hook to the top of each.
- I put the posts in the soil and secured them with packed soil.
- I tied twine to a stake that goes into the planter opposite from the post. This twine goes up to and through the eye hook, then wrapped around the eye-loop, brought back down to the soil level and tied it off to a second stake. Now there were two lines for the hop vines to grow up.
Planting Hop Rhizomes
In each of the 16-inch containers, I planted one healthy-looking rhizome (already sprouting roots at the ends) horizontally about six inches deep in store-bought potting soil. I believe that potting soil contributed to the eventual success of this pair of rhizomes.
I also planted two rhizomes in yard dirt against the south wall of my house. As you'll see later, they did okay, but not like the potting soil/container group. After planting the rhizomes in the large containers, I put up some medium wire mesh around them to keep out rabbits and squirrels and such.
"It's Alive!" The Hop Rhizomes are Growing
Within two weeks, the first sprouts appeared along the wall of the planters. They initially looked like small green shoots of asparagus. And everything you've heard is correct - they grow insanely fast, sometimes more than an inch in one day.
According to my resources, you choose the strongest stalks in the first month of growth and cut away any others. You want to concentrate your growing energy on a few dominant vines. It wasn't raining much last spring and summer, so I was watering each planter with a gallon of water every other day. Again, check other resources for more formal watering advice.
The vines took off. Once they are tall enough to reach the lines you provided, you'll need to "train" them to grow. Do this by twisting them clockwise around the line for a couple of days. I trained two vines up each line. Soon enough, the hops learn the way of the walk and start growing around the line on their own. It is rather freaky. My hops quickly outgrew the seven feet of line I had provided and Phase Two of Operation: Backyard Hops was underway.
My next mission was to provide more room for the hops vines to grow.
I decided to go horizontal. I bought two more 7 x 1 x 2 posts (Note to self: next year, buy thicker/denser posts) and built two large T-shaped posts with two eye hooks on top of each. I put the posts a foot into the ground about 20 feet apart from each other. Then I ran the existing twines from the planters to the new post and twisted the vines onto new lines that stretched across the 20-foot space.
Essentially, I built a clothesline. If you already have a clothesline, or at least the posts for one, you're one step ahead.
Yet again, they took off like mad. A little extra training was required until the vines got used to growing "across" instead of "up."
Maintaining Your Hop Bines
Maintenance is minimal, but there are a few things you'll want to do:
- Keep vines well-watered
- Cut shoots that emerge from the soil
- Cut "side-vines" that start to grow from the bottom foot or so of your main vines (keep the energy focused!)
- Prune any dried or pest-ridden leaves
- Fertilize (I didn't, but some say you should)
In mid-summer, I started noticing small yellowish-orange "hairs" and the increasingly familiar form of a hop cone emerging. The kids were growing up so fast.
Harvesting Your Hops
The time to harvest is different for everyone depending on your variety, geography, climate... perhaps even based on your intended use. Check out our How To Grow Hops FAQ for more information. There are rules of thumb for harvesting based on appearance, texture, amount of lupulin, and aroma. Being my first batch, I grew concerned that I was waiting too long and I harvested early (mid-August). From the dozen-plus hops I left on the vines as an experiment, I found that I would have been better off waiting almost another month. The cones grew larger and, my goodness, the aroma was so much more intense!
I carefully plucked the green beauties from the vines. Though I didn't have the means of making an official weight measurement, I can tell you the hops filled a one-gallon pitcher one-and-a-half times and when laid out to dry fill two large window screens. Not bad!
Drying Your Hops
My first plan was to dry my hops out in the garage, but it ended up being too humid as was the screened-in porch. I ended up putting the screens in the basement with a floor fan blowing across them and a dehumidifier running nearby. So, I sort of compromised heat for dryness, which worked out just fine. After three days the cones were papery and didn't rebound when pinched, both good signs that moisture has been pulled from them.
What an adventure! I can't wait to do it again next year!
Want to try it? Order Hop Rhizomes today and get planting >
Read More about Growing Hops:
How to Grow Hops - Our step-by-step guide
Growing a Hop Garden - A family's history of growing hops and 'how-to'
Harvesting Hops - A guide on what to do during harvest
How to Harvest Hops - Scientifically determining when to pick hops
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