Hops - Growing



Cascade plant



Nugget Hop tower

After making your own beer, whats the next level? How about growing your own ingredients?  While it isn't practical for the homeowner to grow fields of barley, hops are actually not so difficult.  There are numerous websites selling hop rhizomes (Root cuttings you can use to propagate the plant)

I forget if these plants are on their second or third year, but I do know I only got hops from one of them (Nugget) last year.  It was enough to make a nice IPA and I plan to do the same this year - but hopefully with enough hops left over to dry and save for later batches too.

I moved the Cascade plant to a better spot with more sunlight and it has thanked my with tons of hop cones.  I have it growing horizontally along the fence.

For the nugget plant, I made a 20' pole and hung strings for it to climb.  In only a few months, it climbed to the top and back down another 6'.  It looks like this single massive hop tower.

In a few weeks, I will harvest and use a ton of them in a nice IPA.  Most recipes use dry hops, which weigh about 80% less than fresh, so I will need to adjust by about 5x, so while a normal IPA recipe may ask for 1/2# or so of hops, I will need more like 4 pounds...

I will post more on that IPA when the time comes.

Drying hops - Assuming I have enough to save for future batches, I will need to dry them for proper storage.  There are a number of methods suggested out there.  I am leaning towards filling a pillow case and putting it in the dryer.  Once they lose 70-80% of their weight I will pack them in ziplock bags and store in the freezer.

Other uses - I also like to make Hops tea from the fresh hop flowers.  For this, just break up a few cones, put them in a tea steeper, fill a container with hot tap water and put in the fridge.  Once it cools down you have a nice refreshing hoppy beverage.  Now that I have a carbonator cap, I may try some hops soda...mmm.  My wife has a recipe for ginger hop soda that we want to try.