2013 Hop garden photo thread

[prohl84]

Did a partial harvest just before lunch. 1/2 lb. fresh from my 2nd year Galena and she's got another load on her at least as big as this. Smells awesome! Hoppy Harvest from Toledo everyone! I can't believe she was just a couple of sprouts a few months ago!

P.S. I know gingers can't wear red.

 

[sweetcell]

to all the folks using dehydrators: they get the job done, at the expense of losing some oils and aroma.

heat is the enemy. you want air movement, not heat, to do the drying. most of those dehydrators use heat... so you're not getting the most out of your homegrown hops.

a great read: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/gvh-drying-method-415728/

 

[mhurst111]

First harvest of my first year cascade. This was .5 lbs wet. Probably have almost as many cones still growing.

 

[BigGoat]

Also a first year cascade harvest. Picked most all of the cones. 0.9 lbs wet. Not too shabby for the first year. I just want to bury my face in them they smell so good!

 

[BoomerHarley]

Brewed up a fresh hop ale the other day:

Five and a half pounds of cascade right here.

 

[Wingnutt73]

Why the Flippy floppy? Is that added Bitterness?

 

[TangoHotel]

Coz he at kinkos straight flippin' copies.

That is a wonderful pile of hops.

SHAMELESS PLUG: DONT FORGET TO ADD YOUR YIELD HERE!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/2013-hops-harvest-422529/

 

[Wingnutt73]

Coz he at kinkos straight flippin' copies.

That is a wonderful pile of hops.

SHAMELESS PLUG: DONT FORGET TO ADD YOUR YIELD HERE!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/2013-hops-harvest-422529/

LOL that didnt take long!

 

[prohl84]

to all the folks using dehydrators: they get the job done, at the expense of losing some oils and aroma.

heat is the enemy. you want air movement, not heat, to do the drying. most of those dehydrators use heat... so you're not getting the most out of your homegrown hops.

a great read: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/gvh-drying-method-415728/

+1

and thank you for the great link.

Very true- this is why boiling drives off most aromatics as well. Also why homegrown hops (despite lack of knowing your AA%) are/ can be superior to their commercial counterparts.

My dehydrator is set @ 90 which is the lowest temp setting and the cutoff for oil loss. I use it mostly because it does have a nice fan and it keeps the cat off of the herbs. SWMBO is an aspiring herbalist and because of her recent harvests we are maxed out on passive rack space. :rockin:

Also I am brewing with (most of) these tomorrow and I wanted them dry to avoid grassy flavors. I plan to wet hop the next take in secondary.

 

[BoomerHarley]

Why the Flippy floppy? Is that added Bitterness?

For scale. Oh and some wild yeast.

 

[Looper]

Harvested half of my crop yesterday...

 

[day_trippr]

Brought in almost 9 pounds of Centennial cones today, roughly 11 gallons of 'em. Way more than I expected. They're in the drying rig and the house is filled with the amazingly intense aroma of hops! (spouse just walked past my office and said "It totally reeks!" Yeah, baby! )

I'm definitely going to be giving some dried/vac-bagged/frozen hops away this year. Between the Centennial, Chinook and Cascade I'm probably going to end up with around 7 pounds of dried cones, and I still have hops left over from last year. Someone in this group warned me last year this was gonna happen. It's a high-class problem to have, for sure

The beer is my house "home-grown-hopped IPA", using my Chinook, Cascade and Centennial. Seemed appropriate!

Cheers!

 

[Carlscan26]

Just finished harvesting my cascades - second round. These I left on longer than I wanted to due to work and travel. How do you know if they are too old? They don't smell as intense as the first batch harvested. This is just a sample if what I picked. Any thoughts?

Most look like the ones in the middle. Washed out green with some yellowing. Some are like the ones at the bottom that have dark brown leaves. Maybe 25% are like the ones at the top.

 

[TangoHotel]

Brought in almost 9 pounds of Centennial cones today, roughly 11 gallons of 'em. Way more than I expected. They're in the drying rig and the house is filled with the amazingly intense aroma of hops! (spouse just walked past my office and said "It totally reeks!" Yeah, baby! )

I'm definitely going to be giving some dried/vac-bagged/frozen hops away this year. Between the Centennial, Chinook and Cascade I'm probably going to end up with around 7 pounds of dried cones, and I still have hops left over from last year. Someone in this group warned me last year this was gonna happen. It's a high-class problem to have, for sure

The beer is my house "home-grown-hopped IPA", using my Chinook, Cascade and Centennial. Seemed appropriate!

Cheers!

I'm accepting donations... ;-)

 

[SupervisingChildren]

Brought in almost 9 pounds of Centennial cones today, roughly 11 gallons of 'em. Way more than I expected. They're in the drying rig and the house is filled with the amazingly intense aroma of hops! (spouse just walked past my office and said "It totally reeks!" Yeah, baby! )

I'm definitely going to be giving some dried/vac-bagged/frozen hops away this year. Between the Centennial, Chinook and Cascade I'm probably going to end up with around 7 pounds of dried cones, and I still have hops left over from last year. Someone in this group warned me last year this was gonna happen. It's a high-class problem to have, for sure

The beer is my house "home-grown-hopped IPA", using my Chinook, Cascade and Centennial. Seemed appropriate!

Cheers!

Totally jealous! First year cascades finally sprouted some cones while I was on vacation.

 

[tripplehazzard]

First year ctz harvest in the Midwest I just pick eight oz off this baby and more bines are coming in!!



Can't wait to brew with this :rockin:

 

[Gitmoe]

Did a harvest today of my first year crop. The Chinook were the best producing plants hands down. Here's a close up...

 

[jester5120]

Pulled around 8lbs total off 2 and a half cascade plants (one of my plants got knocked down mid season that's why the half). harvested 7lbs the first day, used 2lbs to brew with wet and got another pound the next day.

The top pic shows the remaining 6 pounds drying on a ladder i rigged up to dry with and the bottom is one of the pounds in the boil kettle.

 

[Crazytwoknobs]

I've got Cascade going gangbusters this year. I'm in the Chicago west burbs and I'm wondering if anyone else has harvested yet...

 

[Rys06Tbss]

I harvested 4.1 lbs of cascade so far. Off one first year plant! I'm amazed, anyhow, my vac sealer will be here tomorrow. They are basically dry right now. I'm west west of chicago

 

[badcat68]

Just a small picture of the top of my plants. I planted six
Rhizomes total; three Liberty and three Centennial. I was able to get a small yield on one of each species. I harvested what I could, dried them in a dehydrator, and added them to my secondary as a dry hop addition to a grilled cream ale that a day away from bottling.

 

[TangoHotel]

I've got Cascade going gangbusters this year. I'm in the Chicago west burbs and I'm wondering if anyone else has harvested yet...

I have a sunbeam and Willamette harvest again this weekend. Nugget will are place sometime in September. So far about only 3 dry oz. On the sunbeam. I'm expecting at least another half pound out of the next harvest, and probably 3 more ounces in september.

 

[kurtwil]

Just about to collect my first year cascade!!!!!!!

I took one cone and squizzed it and there was not a lots of aroma so im waiting a bit longer.

 

[day_trippr]

It was very humid around here the last week, but I finally got the Centennial dried to where the strigs would snap. Dumped all the screens onto the bottom one, got the scale and vacuum bagger out, cut some 11x19" bags from the roll and stuffed them with four ounces each. They squish down nice and flat (there's one turned sideways to the camera in the second pic). The bags are long enough that when I pull an ounce I can reseal the bag.

Ended up with 30.5 ounces dry weight (18% of wet weight). They're now chillin' in the hop freezer.

Next up looks like the Cascade. They should be ready by next weekend, which is A Good Thing, because today I found some spider mites on the lower leaves, well below where the cones start. I spent some time cutting off all the infested leaves, then blasting the rest with a hose. Hopefully it'll slow down the li'l bastids. I haven't had to use anything on the hop beds this year and would prefer to finish it out without spraying...

Cheers!

 

[TyTanium]

That is beautiful. Thank you.

 

[NuclearRich]

About 2 lbs from my 2nd yr nugget. First usable harvest this year, it makes me so happy!

 

[specialkaye]

That is beautiful. Thank you.

They're all beautiful.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

My hops are basically ready, hope to harvest them thursday night. Although the columbus may need to stay on a bit longer, they still feel a bit damp.

Newport

Cascade

Columbus

 

[day_trippr]

Yikes! Pics suitable for covering a wall or three.
I pity the poor bastids on DSL that clicked on that post...

Cheers!

 

[2BeerSpeer]

first harvest 14 oz each Brewers Gold and Cascade

 

[bluelimbo]

Holy shnikes... the yeilds off of some of the first year hops posted in this thread is making me insanely jealous. That is a hell of a haul. I picked off maybe 2oz from my cascade (at best) and have been watering roughly 2 gallons a day...

If you are pulling lb(s) off a first year hop, do everyone on the forum a favor and let us know what you have been doing to take care of them... besides given them 'roids!!

 

[day_trippr]

Don't forget that a pound wet equates to ~3 ounces dry. I pulled a little over 7 pounds from my first year plants and thought I was swimming in hops

btw, 2 gallons per day in the Chicagoland area seems wildly excessive unless you're in the midst of a protracted heat wave. My third year plants get that much water once every three days - and this year I totally am swimming in hops

Cheers!

 

[RomanRider]

Brought in almost 9 pounds of Centennial cones today, roughly 11 gallons of 'em. Way more than I expected. They're in the drying rig and the house is filled with the amazingly intense aroma of hops! (spouse just walked past my office and said "It totally reeks!" Yeah, baby! )

I'm definitely going to be giving some dried/vac-bagged/frozen hops away this year. Between the Centennial, Chinook and Cascade I'm probably going to end up with around 7 pounds of dried cones, and I still have hops left over from last year. Someone in this group warned me last year this was gonna happen. It's a high-class problem to have, for sure

The beer is my house "home-grown-hopped IPA", using my Chinook, Cascade and Centennial. Seemed appropriate!

Cheers!

Too funny! My wife hates the smell of hops too. She does like beer though and always tries any IPA that I try, but hasn't found one she likes yet. I cut down my Centennials Saturday and she even helped me harvest the hops. (3.9 lbs wet) (in addition to the few ounces I harvested in July) I dry them in the garage so the garage smells wonderful to me. She is my cap crimper when I bottle, and co-judge of my not so hoppy beers. She told me tonight that we should find somewhere to plant other varieties of hops. I'm happy with that as long as she continues to help me harvest!

 

[Komocabo]

Yeah homegrown hops! I have 6 varieties and have only harvested 3 so far. Cheers!

 

[Komocabo]

More... probably have 6-8#. Plus, my father-in-law has 6 more plants that I can have if I do all the work... um... deal! Should end up with about. 12-15# as his plants are old and mature. That will keep me busy for a while.
Varieties (mine): Willamette, Galena, Magnum, Cascade, Zeus, and Centennial.

Varieties (his): Mt. Hood, Cascade, Halletaur, Brewer's Gold, Willamette, and Magnum.

I'm a very luck man (and son-in-law)

 

[Komocabo]

Oh and those are wet weight, not dry... still pretty darn hoppy, I mean happy

 

[mthompson]

Centennials got picked the other day.

Bottom of the plants (and a guard dog)

Crappy pic, but it was a mounded 5gal buckets worth from two 2nd year plants.

I didn't weight them wet, but they are almost dry now.

Cascades and wilds in the next couple of weeks.

 

[msu09]

This thread depresses me... I'm going to end up with around 7 lbs wet for 7 second year plants.... I must be doing something wrong... but congrats to all of you! They look beautiful!

 

[jethro55]

Centennials got picked the other day.

Bottom of the plants (and a guard dog)

Crappy pic, but it was a mounded 5gal buckets worth from two 2nd year plants.

I didn't weight them wet, but they are almost dry now.

Cascades and wilds in the next couple of weeks.

fyi just in case - Be careful with the guard dog around the hops - have read some info on several posts about serious danger to them if they consume some hops.

 

[NuclearRich]

This thread depresses me... I'm going to end up with around 7 lbs wet for 7 second year plants.... I must be doing something wrong... but congrats to all of you! They look beautiful!

I only got a little over 1oz dried from my 3rd yr Willamette. And that was it's best production yet. Dont be discouraged. My second yr nugget gave me 8oz dried this yr.