Hop shoots are up 2014!!

[jeffsmith]

I'm surprised at the amount of cones I'm seeing on my first year Zeus, I think they really like the land chemistry here in Amherst based on Andy's photo. I've got a few cones showing up on my Cascade, but nothing on my Centennial. Hopefully next year will be a better growing year.

I need to find a better way of fending off earwigs next year as well. The bastards have been shredding my leaves all summer. I've been putting out vegetable oil traps for them everywhere but there seems to be an endless supply of the little fuckers this year.

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[mr x]

Nice pictures.

[jeffsmith]

Nice pictures.

Thanks—though more due to the camera equipment than the operator...

[akr71]

I think I'm still a couple weeks away from harvesting. Cones near the top of the bines seem more mature than lower down, but I expect that. If I have to, I'll harvest in stages and freeze 'em.

[jeffsmith]

I think I'm still a couple weeks away from harvesting. Cones near the top of the bines seem more mature than lower down, but I expect that. If I have to, I'll harvest in stages and freeze 'em.

I'm in the same position. I'd been planning on using most of my Zeus for wet-hopping, but I don't think I'll have enough ready to harvest at once to make that happen.

[Tony L]

How the hell did your hops get that good? I was talking to my buddy in Prospect and he told me the weather was shi$ty all summer.
Much like mine here on the Avalon. Mine are just starting to show burrs. I doubt I'll get any harvest this year.
Those look yummy.

[akr71]

We've had tons of rain & they love that, not a whole lot of warm weather until recently. When I planted them in spring 2010, I dug a big hole and filled it with manure and gave them some more this spring. That's all.

[jeffsmith]

Ditto to what Andy said except I planted mine this year. They definitely do love all the rain we've had. And on the scant few hot, sunny days we've had, you could pretty much watch them grow. A couple of my bines shot up 6 to 12 inches on some of those days.

[jeffsmith]

This crazy wind we've been having all afternoon could back off any time. I had to put some serious tie-downs on my Zeus this afternoon so the main bine didn't shred. Hoping it'll still be in one piece by tomorrow.

[chalmers]

I harvested my hops yesterday. My 3-yr old Cascade plant yielded about a litre of hops, and the first year Nugget and Zeus were duds (they both fit into the small Acadie-Broue glass). Oh well, there's always next year!

[mr x]

Nice looking cones. How did you get the AB glass?

[maltster]

I picked a few cones yesterday from my first year cascade. How do I know if they're ready for picking? Or should I harvest this morning to avoid them getting shredded with the wind that's coming?

[chalmers]

A-B glass was bought @ Seaport Beer Fest.

When are your cones ready? Have they been growing in size at all? Take one and roll it in your fingers. You want to leaves to be a bit dry, but not brittle. The good stuff from the hop is the yellow lupulin dust (looks like pollen), so smell and touch that. The oilier the better (so the longer they stay on the plants the better), but once they stop growing, they tend to dry out and go brown.

I took mine down because they were getting a bit brown, and the wind that might come today...

[akr71]

I chopped down my Mt Hood earlier this week & got ~ 3#.

I would have liked to leave the Zeus for a little while yet, but I'd rather have them, than have Irene scatter them all over the place. 2 pounds bagged, plus to 11 liter ice cream pails and half a bine to go (it got tossed into a garbage bag and thrown into a freezer).

The goldings didn't even fill a small freezer bag.

Pics to follow.

[mr x]

Sweet Haul on the Mt. Hood. On my three year old MH's, I bet I have picked a grand total of 35 cones...

[jeffsmith]

I was forced into harvesting my Zeus and Cascade (both first year) earlier than anticipated due to last week's wind storm. Only managed 1.5oz dry of Zeus and 0.5oz dry of Cascade.

[amartin]

I got all mine in last week, from a cascade, nugget, and two golding plants, all three years old. I got 18.3 oz from the cascade, which will last me all year (no, I'm not really a hop head), as well as 4.9 oz from the goldings and 1.4 oz from the nuggets. The nuggets were disappointing, but they didn't look very good all year. I'm going to give them better soil next year, see how that goes. I'll post pictures once I figure out how to get them off the camera.

[chalmers]

Keep in mind that wet hops are much heavier than the same volume of dry hops (upon which most recipes are based), so your 18.3 will shrink to well under 10oz.

[whisle pig]

Picked all my Cascade yesturday to brew tomorrow hopefully; Managed 11oz. which will be enought for 1 good batch!

[amartin]

Chalmers - All of mine are dry weights.

[akr71]

How do you dry your hops? I just bag 'em and throw them in the freezer wet/fresh. On the home-grower scale, I'm not sure what the advantage of drying them is.

[jeffsmith]

Drying them lessens the chances of freezer burn/crystallization since the water concentration is drastically lowered. Basically just lengthens their life in the freezer I believe.

I dried mine using furnace filters I had kicking around and a fan, worked great and only took about a day and a half.

[akr71]

Drying them lessens the chances of freezer burn/crystallization since the water concentration is drastically lowered. Basically just lengthens their life in the freezer I believe.

I dried mine using furnace filters I had kicking around and a fan, worked great and only took about a day and a half.

I guess I'll just continue to use them up quickly!

[chalmers]

Chalmers - All of mine are dry weights.

Even better!

[amartin]

Chalmers - All of mine are dry weights.

Even better!

Whoo!