Second year growing hops. My first year Chinook yielded around 8 oz of wet hops last year. They all pretty much were ready to go at the same time so I brewed a wet hop Blonde with them (was hoping for at least enough to call it a Pale Ale, but whatever).
This year my Chinook plant grew much bigger, but it seems like some of the hops were ready to pick weeks ago, some are in their prime and some are still a bit young. I went ahead and harvest the entire plant today, tossing out the brown hops and hoping the young hops still make for a decent beer.
I think maybe I should have cut back some of the initial bines. It seemed like a fairly mild spring and the plants took off early. Some of the shoot that grew tall seemed to be bull bines. Would cutting back the bine have helped with a more even harvest?
Oh well...I got about 2 lbs of fresh hops off the Chinook that I have drying in my garage now.
In the first picture you can see some nice fresh green cones down lower, with several brown cones at the top (and some cherry tomatoes escaping from my deck).
My Harvest
Does size matter?!?
Giving drying:
This year my Chinook plant grew much bigger, but it seems like some of the hops were ready to pick weeks ago, some are in their prime and some are still a bit young. I went ahead and harvest the entire plant today, tossing out the brown hops and hoping the young hops still make for a decent beer.
I think maybe I should have cut back some of the initial bines. It seemed like a fairly mild spring and the plants took off early. Some of the shoot that grew tall seemed to be bull bines. Would cutting back the bine have helped with a more even harvest?
Oh well...I got about 2 lbs of fresh hops off the Chinook that I have drying in my garage now.
In the first picture you can see some nice fresh green cones down lower, with several brown cones at the top (and some cherry tomatoes escaping from my deck).
My Harvest
Does size matter?!?
Giving drying: