Let's see your cones!

[amartin]

Nugget

DSCN5908.JPG

Golding

DSCN5909.JPG

Cascade

DSCN5910.JPG

[Jayme]

Lots of lupulin?

[amartin]

Yeah, there's plenty there.

[RubberToe]

Do they work any good?

I've only used them a few times and so far so good, with a decent vacuum and seal. The rival is practically brand new.

[canuck]

amartin, nice lookin' harvest you've got there!

[wortly]

Good one!

Nugget

DSCN5908.JPG

Golding

DSCN5909.JPG

Cascade

DSCN5910.JPG

[Dirt Chicken]

I guess this is a sign that I have to get my arse out to my folks place and harvest my hops!!

[Jayme]

I just checked mine last night - they're not ready for harvest yet but are getting close. Probably about at the point when I hurricane harvested last year which was two weeks from now. Still springing back strong when you crush them and the lupulin doesn't look dark enough yet. I'm going to have some big ass cones though! I'll post pics at some point when I have chance.

[Dirt Chicken]

I'm wanting to harvest mine asap!! my centennial never does that great, only a pound last year, but this year I missed it - they're all brown : (
My cascade on the other hand are extremely prolific, and I don't want to miss them, with rain on the way today and tomorrow, I may try to get out of town to harvest them on Saturday morning.
The worry now is that the lines may break due to the weight of the hops, some cones are more than 2"length, so I don't think I'll wait until gale-force winds from hurricanes!!
Anyone else in nova scotia harvest their cascade yet? Are they ready in areas of high altitude, they're around the same altitude as Mt. Uniacke, so a different growth zone than halifax or the valley.

[jeffsmith]

Definitely not high altitude here on the marsh, but the majority of my Cascade is going to be ready to harvest in the next couple days.

[Jayme]

Why do you want to harvest immediately after the rain when everything is sopping wet?

Though the heat was a shock to the system we were thankful for dry weather and no rain – the first rains hit about 3 days after we finished picking this year. It isn’t that hops can’t be harvested in the rain, it just makes already hard work that much harder.

- that's from the Crosby Hop Farm blog.

I guess if you're drying them it wouldn't make much difference, but if you intend to use them fresh or 'wet' (in this case quite literally), the typical 4:1 or 6:1 rule will be thrown off by the extra moisture content I would think. It will be harder to tell if they are actually ready to harvest if they're sopping wet.

I didn't mean to give the impression I'm waiting for a hurricane to harvest mine - that's not at all the case. I will harvest them when they have peaked - one of the biggest mistake (or so I've heard) that most home brewers make is picking their hops too early and missing out on the peak oil content. Last year I harvested mine early because of the hurricane/rain that was coming. Gavin waited a week or two past that and his were more aromatic (we are also growing them in different locations which may also have contributed to that)- the hurricane was somewhat of a bust too so in hind sight, I would have been fine to wait for mine as well. C'est la vie.

[akr71]

Last year I harvested mine early because of the hurricane/rain that was coming. Gavin waited a week or two past that and his were more aromatic (we are also growing them in different locations which may also have contributed to that)- the hurricane was somewhat of a bust too so in hind sight, I would have been fine to wait for mine as well. C'est la vie.

That exactly what happened here last year too. I was worried that they were gonna get shredded by the coming hurricane and what I harvested had little to minimal aromatics. I'm not growing next to a building again - if the wind knocks them down, fine, better the whole bine on the ground than shredded by roof line.

[wortly]

The different compounds peak at different times. Alphas and betas peak a bit earlier, and some of the essential oils peak after that. I have heard of smaller breweries in the states requesting their growers to delay harvest and sacrifice alphas and betas for a higher essential oil content in some of the traditional varieties.

I met this guy at a hops conference in Vermont in the spring; he is on the cutting edge of some of this stuff:

http://www.uvm.edu/extension/cropsoil/w ... _Aroma.pdf

[Jayme]

That's true, but let's face it: unless you have a lab to analyze the hops, you'd be foolish to not try for peak aromatics - guessing acid contest is very much a shot in the dark. And also, different parts of the bine will peak at different times. That is one of the luxuries of small scale - you don't have to pick them all at once.

Andy, did you avoid growing them in the same spot this year?

[akr71]

That's true, but let's face it: unless you have a lab to analyze the hops, you'd be foolish to not try for peak aromatics - guessing acid contest is very much a shot in the dark. And also, different parts of the bine will peak at different times. That is one of the luxuries of small scale - you don't have to pick them all at once.

Andy, did you avoid growing them in the same spot this year?

Yeah, I moved. Unfortunately, the 3 plants I brought with me didn't survive the move - a casualty of moving Nov 30... I thought they'd go dormant and do OK stored in my cold room. They'd have froze into a big block of ice if I had left them in the shed. In hindsight, with the winter we had, I should have just wandered out into the field dug a hole and planted them.

I planted a bunch more this spring, but since they're first year plants, I didn't even bother stringing them up and haven't even checked on them in a couple weeks

[Jayme]

Meh - they're robust. I'm sure they are fine. Some of my first year plants are about 10 feet long or more though! If yours are like that, it will be a big messy ball haha

[HopGrower]

1st year Galenas, Nuggets, and Mt Hoods


1st year Nuggets close-up


2nd year Fuggles



2nd year Cascades

[Dirt Chicken]

The different compounds peak at different times. Alphas and betas peak a bit earlier, and some of the essential oils peak after that. I have heard of smaller breweries in the states requesting their growers to delay harvest and sacrifice alphas and betas for a higher essential oil content in some of the traditional varieties.

I met this guy at a hops conference in Vermont in the spring; he is on the cutting edge of some of this stuff:

http://www.uvm.edu/extension/cropsoil/w ... _Aroma.pdf

I'm only aiming to use my cascade for mostly aroma wet hopping for this year, but next year I will be dividing my 6yr established crowns to plant more. I'd be curious to see if they would be suitable for bittering hops. Wanted to know if you could do a test on a dried sample if I could send you some to the island?

[Dirt Chicken]

the rain tonight and tomorrow in consideration, I'm heading out tomorrow eve to the country, harvest in the late morning on Saturday once they had a chance to dry out, don't figure they would get that wet given the nature of the flower.

[RubberToe]

Awesome setup HopGrower, living up to your name!

[wortly]

Nice setup!

1st year Galenas, Nuggets, and Mt Hoods


1st year Nuggets close-up


2nd year Fuggles



2nd year Cascades

[mr x]

That's a hardcore hop farm.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2

[Jayme]

I'd be curious to see if they would be suitable for bittering hops.

Cascade is typically considered a 'dual purpose' hop. As far as I'm concerned, you can you just about any hop you want for bittering - it just doesn't make sense to use really low alpha hops for bittering as you need a LOT of them, which costs more due to the obvious need for additional hops, but also increased wort loss. With fresh or 'wet' hopped beers, it's common just to use pellets for bittering so a) you're not wasting valuable fresh hops, b) you won't need as many (home grown hops typically have lower acid content compared to commercial growers) and perhaps most importantly, c) you will have a much better idea of how many IBUs your beer is, giving you a better chance of balancing your recipe. Anyway, after that ramble, yes - you can use your cascades for bittering as well - as someone said earlier in the thread, best go with a beer that you don't risk over hopping and then go for the high side of the estimate. Not a bad option if you have an excess of home grown hops another year.

[Jayme]

That's a hardcore hop farm.

That it is!

HopGrower - where are you growing those?

[amartin]

That's a pretty sweet setup, how many plants is that? I hope you'll have some help when you go to harvest them starting year.

New harvesting question, what do you guys do with your plants after the harvest? I know the commercial growers will cut them down to the ground, but that just doesn't sound like what's best for the plants. Mine are still around 12 feet tall, I cut off the horizontal part and the side branches from the vertical part. I always cut them to the ground in the fall, save for a few inches to tie next year's trellis to, but I never know what to do until then.