After 4 months of growing hops in the backyard, I was able to reap the benefits of homegrown hops.  All the spiny flowers transformed into cones very quickly and grew and grew until they started to dry out a bit on the bine.

Maybe I’m lucky, but I was able to get some cones from the first year of the bine.

I have picking the cones in batches.  I started with the ones that were are the top of the bines first.  They were pretty big and seemed to be more mature than the ones lowers down…probably because they got more sun.

I still have hops on the bine to pick but I will get to them once they are ready.

Here are some things that I learned along the way:

• I watered mine with a light sprinkle every day, especially in the early months.  My bines did pretty well with frequently watering.

• I did use some plant fertilizer every couple of weeks.  The plant reacted well to it.

• Get as much sun on the plant as possible.  Find a spot where it can get 8 to 10 hours of sun a day.  We had a really sunny, dry summer this year.  I think it was the biggest factor in the plant’s success.

• Let it grow.  I did some pruning of the lower leaves in late July.  I am not sure it was necessary.  The more I just let the plant grow in all kinds of directions, the more flowers bloomed…and the more cones I got.

 If you like to follow along on this homegrown hops odyssey, start in May and work your way up:

May Hops Update

June Hops Update

July Hops Update

August Hops Update

I saw a recipe for Jamil’s Baltic Porter in the September 2010 issue of BYO.  It also appears in his Brewing Classic Styles book. In the recipe, he calls for Lublin hops. Having ancestors from the Baltic states, I wanted to learn more about this variety.

I believe the Germans would refer to this hop as Polnischer Lublin. The Polish would call them Lubelski.

Origin: Poland

Aroma: Herby, mild, Noble-esque

Alpha Acid: 3 - 4.5%

Typical Usage: Finishing hop for the most part. It appears they can be used throughout the boil for beers featuring them as the only variety in them.

Not sure how easy they are to get in the USA. I have never seen them online or in store. Keep an eye out for them.

Check out other hop varieties:

Saaz Hops

Tettnang Hops

Noble Hops

Three months down in the Brew Dudes homegrown hops odyssey and we finally have hop flowers.  The 2 main bines sprouted multiple new bines so now I have four lines of twine (total) hung up to support the plant. 

Around mid-July, I started to see little spiny flowers underneath the main bines big leaves about halfway up.  Then, they started to appear on all the other bines, especially the new ones. 

I just let everything grow for a while, constantly training new bines to wrap around new or existing twine.  Last week, I followed a tip of cutting off leaves at the bottom of the bines to ensure more energy was going toward the maturation of the hop flowers into hop cones.  I hope this tip pays off. 

The spines of some of the flowers are starting to brown and curl up.  They are now looking more like cones, so we’ll see.

I read that the maturity of Magnum hops is “late”.  With a good sunny August and a warm September, we may just get something out of this first year plant. 

Photos:

July Hops Update

June Hops Update

May Hops Update

This is a pretty new variety - it was just named in 2002 by Charles Faram & Co Ltd. Its working title was S24 with a nickname of Ros. The name Pilot was picked from 100 entries in a contest. It appears to be still a hedgerow variety so probably won’t see a wide distribution of it yet.

Here is some more information about Pilot hops:

Origin: UK

Aroma/Flavor: Mild herbal, lemon hints, fresh mowed grass

Alpha Acid: 8.0 - 12%

Typical Usage: Bittering

Beer Styles: Bitters. Could be good in some APAs.

Here is a English variety for you to try out: Challenger hops.

They are bred from Northern Brewer from our friends at Wye College in England. They were developed orginally as a Goldings replacement with the thought that this new variety would be more resistant to downy mildew. What they got instead was a good dual purpose hop. From what I read, their really sweet spot is to be used as a bittering hop with other English hops that are primarily used for aroma/flavoring such as East Kent Goldings.

Origin: UK. Released in 1968 but I think made available in the US in 1972.

Aroma/Flavor:  Refined spicy notes, fruity, more orange or tangerine than

Alpha Acid:  6.5 to 8.5%

Typical Usage:  Dual purpose, but use as a bitter hop along with other British aroma hops.

Beer Styles: All English Ales.

It’s been two months since I planted my Magnum hops rhizome into the ground and they are coming along nicely.

I have two strong bines climbing up twine and they are starting to sprout more bines.  Not bad compared to a month ago.

Plus, I didn’t get a close up shot but it appears I do have some hop flowers/burrs starting up.  They are pretty small but hopefully they grow into some nice cones.

Hopefully by the start of August, we’ll have some pretty good results.

This hop profile is for Target Hops. They are an English variety that was bred in the mid-1960s at the Department of Hop Research at Wye College. It appears that it was released in 1972 and made available to the US in the spring of ‘76. Some other hop varieties bred at Wye College include Brewer’s Gold, Progress, and Admiral hops.

It’s a cross between Kent Goldings and Northern Brewer, producing small tight cones.

Origin: UK

Aroma/Flavor: Unique herbal character, earthy, minerally, grassy

Alpha Acid: 8.0 - 12.5%

Typical Usage: Bittering - Some sources claiming some good flavoring results.

Beer Styles: English style ales, American porters and stouts. Subtitutes include Fuggles and Willamette.