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Growing Hops

Harvest time brings thoughts of what to plant next year.  I hope to be growing hops when the time is right.

When clicking around the ol’ homebrewing blogosphere, I saw posts from other homebrewers who were harvesting the hops that they had grown on their own.  I have to say I was a bit envious.  The photos revealed what seemed to be bushels of light green beauties all ready for brewing.  Take a look as some posts out there:

Jason’s Hops

Travis’ Hops

Man, I gotta get to growing hops this coming spring.  Now that I have a back yard (my family and I just moved to the ‘burbs*), I feel like I have no excuses to not grow hops.  The one thing I would like to have before I buy and plant some rhizomes is to get tips from people who have done it before.

BYO and BeerSmith have good primers but if you have some tips or would like to share anything about your experiences growing hops, please leave a comment.

Now I need to choose what hop variety to grow.

I would like to take pictures of my harvest next year…like this one!

Growing Hops

*We are not looking for a bailout.

If you need more information about gardening in general, check out this guide for gardening for beginners.

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3 Comments

  1. Matt

    A great Hops growing Guide can be found on the Freshhops website

    http://www.freshops.com/gardening.html

    I volunteer at a local Organic Farm and the Farmer happens to have a few hop vines growing up his Silo (unknown variety) so we harvested them and will use them for Dry Hopping .

  2. Nathan

    It has only recently hit Spring here in Australia and my hops are going very well so far. I have a Chinook and Goldings that are almost 1.2 mtrs high and a second Chinook which is about 40 cms high so far.

    This is my first time growing hops so I’m very happy with the progress to date, touch wood.

    I found I was having a few bugs nibble on the leaves but since putting out a beer trap (a glass jar with a splash of beer in it) all the slugs are being killed and the leaves have regrown.

    Not a lot of tips yet as I’ve only just started, but I’ll link some photos when I get a chance to take some.

  3. Tony

    Hops are fun and easy to grow. I gave up homebrewing since the beer and ale selection is amazing these days (wasn’t so when I made my own beer). I still grow hops and give them to my home brewing friends (I do get homebrew in return). They are amazing plants and fun to watch grow.

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