hop farmer

[hopleaf]

hello everyone, i'm an organic hop farmer who lives in michigan. i love brewing beer and growing hops. i've even become pretty good at brewing cannabis ales recently. i'm pretty new to growing having only harvested about 20 or so plants. i'm currently running some of cannacopia's bubba kush x deep chunk and arjan's haze #3. i've heard wonderful things about this site, and i'm glad to be here. i'm sure i'll be able to double my growing knowledge and learn a thing or two from some of you.

 

[hopleaf]

heres a pic of one of my bk x dc at week 4 veg.

 

[TommytheCat]

Hey Bro,
Welcome to the site from another homebrewer! Glad to have you here at the site buddy. Stay around a while, you can learn a lot here. There are lots of well informed folks here who are willing to lend you a hand.

Also, that plant looks b-e-a-utiful. Very healthy looking!

Hey buddy, if you do not mind me asking, what kind of grow setup are you using? I'm always interested in hearing in others grow setups. If you have any questions just ask! Someone here will be able to help you with anything you need to know. Again, welcome to the site, glad to have ya here. It's also good to see another homebrewer.

 

[hopleaf]

Thanks man. i really appreciate it. i have a small closet with sunleaves 250w dual purpose system with a "200w" cfl. of course my dual purpose system is only lighting my MH and i've sent it to be fixed twice now, and i only get about a week of hps use before it stops working. so i've been flowering under MH for a couple grows now. i have an exhaust fan that will suck your shirt off if you stand too close(not really, but it's big) i've been doing bio-bizz soils and nutes for the past couple grows and i love them. i have lots of questins i just don't know where to begin. just from looking around for a couple hours this site is amazing...the things i can learn here are endless.
so you got anything fermenting or growing?

 

[diamondmine]

hello everyone, i'm an organic hop farmer who lives in michigan. i love brewing beer and growing hops. i've even become pretty good at brewing cannabis ales recently. i'm pretty new to growing having only harvested about 20 or so plants. i'm currently running some of cannacopia's bubba kush x deep chunk and arjan's haze #3. i've heard wonderful things about this site, and i'm glad to be here. i'm sure i'll be able to double my growing knowledge and learn a thing or two from some of you.

I'm intrigued, more info...

 

[OrganicMeds]

Welcome mate, yeah would love to hear about your Cannabis ales

 

[hopleaf]

i brew high alcohol beers then i guess you could say i dry hop the batch with as much homegrown as i can. usually an ounce to two will do the job just fine. the alcohol dissolves the thc into the wort. if you want i can post a complete guide including recipe. i have recipes for pale cannabis ale's or my attempt at the famous brain death ale that lead the way for cannabis ales everywhere. i never actually tried brain death, but i knew the basics behind how it was done. about 10 batches later and i have come up with a great recipe for cannabis ales. plenty of citrusy hops to balance out the earthy undertones of cannabis which compliments the malty goodness. really it's something you can play with as long you understand how to get the thc into the beer. which is simply using the alcohol in the beer to dissolve it after primary fermentation has occured.

 

[TommytheCat]

Thanks man. i really appreciate it. i have a small closet with sunleaves 250w dual purpose system with a "200w" cfl. of course my dual purpose system is only lighting my MH and i've sent it to be fixed twice now, and i only get about a week of hps use before it stops working. so i've been flowering under MH for a couple grows now. i have an exhaust fan that will suck your shirt off if you stand too close(not really, but it's big) i've been doing bio-bizz soils and nutes for the past couple grows and i love them. i have lots of questins i just don't know where to begin. just from looking around for a couple hours this site is amazing...the things i can learn here are endless.
so you got anything fermenting or growing?

No problem brother, glad to have you here with us!

Nice man! I've seen some really nice results from CFL's. I know people who've flowered under MH with no problems. I can't say out of experience, but in the beginning I've vegged/flowered under an HPS. They sell these HPS bulbs that have 25-30% more blue spectrum, which worked great for me when I didn't have a veg area set up. I just use flouro tubes now for veg. There is a link to my little veg cab in my signature if you care to take a look.

Bro, its nice to see that it looks like you did some research. I'm not sure exactly how long you've been growing, but its nice to see people who take the time to get themselves the bare minimums before they start growing. I know you wrote about 20-30 plants, thats a nice start man. Once you get growing more and more, everything becomes second nature. You just get a feel for it all. I'm sure everything is becoming familiar to you after 20-30 plants.
I'm not to familiar with your grow system, but I hope you can get it fixed bro. It's always a pain in the butt dealing with equipment issues. I used to have a horrible heat problem growing in the summer. Finally decided to break down and just get a big exhaust fan. I know what its like to deal with equipment and other variables giving you fits. It sounds like you have enough equipment to manage though. If your problem keeps giving you troubles, you could buy a cheap HPS system online and convert it into an aircooled (you can actually buy cheap air cooled systems if you use lower watts), or into a cool tube. Of course, I just hope you can get your system fixed. Just making a couple suggestions if (knock on wood) it keeps giving you fits.

It sounds like you have a really cool little setup though bro! I'm a cab grower, so were basically in the same boat. Both micro growers. What temps are you running when that MH is on? Those exhaust fans are life savers man. When I first started growing I ran that HPS in the cab and temps were running so hot, I was pushing into the mid-90's. Ended up coverting my 400w HPS into a cool tube, with a 265 cfm exhaust pulling air around the bulb. Now the temps arn't pushing 78-82 F.

I've never tried the bio-bizz, would you say their worth the money? I've been doing mostly organic teas for about 2 years now. The teas work great, but can be messy to make. I've gotten fantastic results from them though, plus its organic which is cool. No chemicals in your smoke. For me, when I was first starting nutrients were the hardest thing for me to figure out. I was often adding to much, or not enough. Asking questions saved my plants more than once. If you have a question don't be worried about asking.

Well bro, I'm just preparing to get back into growing. I've been growing for a handfull of years, and because of family reasons I needed to take a short break to be with family. I'm hoping within about 2-4 months to have my cabs back up and running. I'd like to get some of my old favorites up and running again.

I have a few brews fermenting right now actually! Just pitched the yeast a couple days ago. Their bubbling like crazy now. Got some of that WYeast liquid yeast. Stuff is great! A bit pricier than dry yeast, but I've always gotten fermentation off of them. These are the two that are fermenting now.

Haus Pale Ale
Bavarian Hefeweisen

Both are fantastic, simple beers. Do you brew all grain or extract? These are both all grain, I'd be happy to share the recipes with you if your interested. Nothing like breaking out the mash-lauter tun. Built myself one out of a 15 gallon cooler, fitted with a copper manifold.

On the topic of ICmag, just remember one thing. This place is BIG, so if you don't get a lot of feedback right away, it doesn't mean people are ignoring you. It means your post might have gotten buried under a few others. It happens, but there are lots of good folks around here who would be happy to assist you and answer any questions you may have.

Sorry for rambling on there buddy. I tend to do that sometimes. I talk to much sometimes.

 

[hopleaf]

hey that grow cab is pretty sweet. sorry i didn't read the whole thread, but what the dimensions on that bad boy? i'm all about the micro grows. i never have done huge indoor grows, but it seems to me that by focusing on only a couple plants at a time you can really grow some unique and very high quality bud. you can get light intensity in smaller grow rooms that would be very un economical to do so in a larger scale.
i appreciate any advice you can give. i'm getting pretty frustrated with my current hid system, so i might look into something new real soon. my exhuast fan is 464 cfm for a 62 squar foot closet. things brings temps down to managable levels in like 30 seconds.
to answere your temp question i have the closet in my basement and the outside temps have been fairly cool lately, so right now i'm running in the low 70's during day and mid 60 at night. during th hottest part of the summer the closet usually runs 75-80.
on the whole bio-bizz product line i'm very happy with their soils. you get twice as much as fox farm for the same price and imo the quality is better. after i use up all my liquid bio-bizz ferts i'm switching to making my own teas. seems cheaper and i love getting dirty. you will definatly have to school me on some tea making.
hopefully you can get that cab up and running real soon. i really like the idea of those grow cabs. it's like the perfect grow room that you put anywhere.
on the topic of yeast i couldn't agree more that wyeast is the shit! ever since i started using it my brews have been so much better. i'd bet we'd be great friends...i have my own home built mash tun made out of a 48l cooler with a manifold made out of that pvc that can handle hot water. i went with the pvc manifold so it i can take the manifold apart for easy cleaning. then i have a 10gal mega pot, and all glass carboys. hit me up and i'd be happy to send some free hops from my hop yard. once again thanks for all the help.

 

[m00nchild]

I wanna see some of your hops plants! I'm fascinated by hops, and beer is among my most favorite of beverages.

 

[hopleaf]

heres one of the hop flowers which will become a hop cone...looks a lot like a bud site to me.

 

[hopleaf]

or heres the pic...sorry.

 

[guineapig]

Can you make a cannabis mead?

Happy you joined the forums....

kind regards from guineapig

 

[hopleaf]

i'd beat you can make a dank ass cannabis mead. the key is to add the cannabis after a majority of the sugars have been converted into alcohol. i've never made mead, but from what i understand it's just fermented honey. get yourself and ounce of some good bud, and add it to the mostly fermented whatever. i guess if your doing anything less than a 5 gallon batch you could use less. like for a 1 gallon batch you could probly use a 1/4 oz. and 3/4oz for 3 gal batch. either way if you can't measure gravity then add the cannabis two week after fermentation has begun and two week before bottling. you will need a long fermenting period becuase it should be as high alcohol as possible.

 

[TommytheCat]

hey that grow cab is pretty sweet. sorry i didn't read the whole thread, but what the dimensions on that bad boy? i'm all about the micro grows. i never have done huge indoor grows, but it seems to me that by focusing on only a couple plants at a time you can really grow some unique and very high quality bud. you can get light intensity in smaller grow rooms that would be very un economical to do so in a larger scale.
i appreciate any advice you can give. i'm getting pretty frustrated with my current hid system, so i might look into something new real soon. my exhuast fan is 464 cfm for a 62 squar foot closet. things brings temps down to managable levels in like 30 seconds.
to answere your temp question i have the closet in my basement and the outside temps have been fairly cool lately, so right now i'm running in the low 70's during day and mid 60 at night. during th hottest part of the summer the closet usually runs 75-80.
on the whole bio-bizz product line i'm very happy with their soils. you get twice as much as fox farm for the same price and imo the quality is better. after i use up all my liquid bio-bizz ferts i'm switching to making my own teas. seems cheaper and i love getting dirty. you will definatly have to school me on some tea making.
hopefully you can get that cab up and running real soon. i really like the idea of those grow cabs. it's like the perfect grow room that you put anywhere.
on the topic of yeast i couldn't agree more that wyeast is the shit! ever since i started using it my brews have been so much better. i'd bet we'd be great friends...i have my own home built mash tun made out of a 48l cooler with a manifold made out of that pvc that can handle hot water. i went with the pvc manifold so it i can take the manifold apart for easy cleaning. then i have a 10gal mega pot, and all glass carboys. hit me up and i'd be happy to send some free hops from my hop yard. once again thanks for all the help.

Hey Buddy,
Don't waste your time reading the thread with my veg cab. There isn't anything to see. On another forum (before it was shut down) I had the whole assembly posted up there and pics of it in use. That was much more interesting. Now I don't have those pictures.. figures..

Thank you though. It's a simple design, but it gets the job done. Eventually I'll install a scrubber (to remove odor), and some light reduction stuff on the back. I never had to worry about odor in my house, (especially for vegging plants), but if I set up an apartment grow, I want to take all the precautions.

Dimensions are

Exterior Interior
50.5'' Long 48'' Long
30'' High 26'' High
25'' Deep 24'' Deep

Bro I fully agree about the micro grows. I know guys who can churn out great quality plants on a large scale, but I prefer to keep mine micro. I smoke what I grow. I don't need a massive amount. For me, I can focus best when I can maintain all my plants in a small area, and I can control the variables best. Plus I like micro grows, they are to much fun and way to cool. It's amazing what you can do with a small grow area.

Your temps are perfect. No problems there at all. Micro growing can be tricky (with temps), but its well worth it to me and the other micro growers. Also buddy, I'd be more than happy to teach you to make organic teas. I learned from a guy (and girl) a while ago, and I'd be happy to pass on the info as they did for me.

Buddy, I think I'll be building a new flower cab soon. Do you have any woodworking skills? I'd be happy to put up detailed instructions on the build for you. I'll detail the build picture by picture like I did with my previous builds on other sites. This cabinet I'm planning on building will be about 3' tall, 2' wide, and about 1.5' deep. It would perfectly fit a 150w, 250w, or even a 400w if you can maintain the temperatures and all that. I'm thinking about installing a 400w cool tube (air flows over the bulb to cool it) in there. I use a 265 cfm fan to cool my flower cab with a 400w. I think you have all the equipment you need already (besides the cab) to set up a great flower cab.

Bro, as a micro grower, I STRONGLY suggest learning about a few of the grow techniques for growing as many plants as you can in one small area. SOG (Sea of Green) SCROG (Screen of Green), etc. Screen of green is fantastic. Please check out these links bro, they might give you an idea of some great techniques. These helped me increase my yeild a lot without sacrificing much space.

SOG (Sea of Green)
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=94884

SCROG (Screen of Green)
http://www.angelfire.com/clone2/fault_line/
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=75077
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=31605&page=3

Scroll down on the 3rd SCROG link page. There is tons of great pics and info there for ya.

Bro, I love the cabs. I'm hoping to have them both up and running in 2-4 months. I'm in the process of preparing to move, which is a big deal for starting grows. I learned a lot about cab growing from a friend of mine MtnJohn. He really proved how functional, and compact cab grows can be. In my opinion MtnJohn is the king of cab growing, and he is also my inspiration for this upcoming cab I will be building. Which is many aspects is very simliar in size to his own personal cab. Please check out his link. I have so much respect for this guy. He is a great person, great grower, and a great friend. He has taught me so much, and helped me a lot. He shows exactly how well a dialed in SCROG setup can work.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=49829

 

[TommytheCat]

on the topic of yeast i couldn't agree more that wyeast is the shit! ever since i started using it my brews have been so much better. i'd bet we'd be great friends...i have my own home built mash tun made out of a 48l cooler with a manifold made out of that pvc that can handle hot water. i went with the pvc manifold so it i can take the manifold apart for easy cleaning. then i have a 10gal mega pot, and all glass carboys. hit me up and i'd be happy to send some free hops from my hop yard. once again thanks for all the help.

Man no joke! That Wyeast is some insane fermentation. Very fast! I've had some fermentation happen as quickly as within 4 hours with that stuff. Normally 12 hours is about average though until it starts going crazy. It really does help increase the quality over the dry yeast (just like you said).

Haha my brother! Another mashtun DIYer!! I've seen good results with the PVC, but I never used it myself. I used a stainless steel braid with some food grade plastic tubing (for hot beverages)

I'm getting ready to grab a turkey fryer with a massive pot to do my boils in because I've been having to do split boils which sucks. Split the hops up, and 2x the evaporation. I end up with like 4.5 gallons even into the carboy. I use all glass carboys also bro. I think they are 6.5 gallon or 8 gallon. I can't remember now man. They do the job though. 8 sounds right, but I dont want to say for sure.

What kinda beers do you brew bro?

Bro, let me know once you've been here a week so we can send private messages.

 

[hopleaf]

wow never heard of or seen sog styles grows before. i'm old school...i always thought big bushes was the only way to grow. man was i wrong. if i went with sea of green i could do a double level. might have to try that out with my next rip.

on another note i personally have limited woodworking skill, but i have a good friend who is a professional carpenter. so ya post your designs and i'll check em out. i totally dig the whole grow cab thing, and that one you have is good size too. i'm really excited to see it in action.

those turkey fryers are great for brewing...i used a turkey fryer for my first couple years and it worked great. in fact the only difference between the turkey pot and my mega pot is a ball valve and thermometer.(and size) i still use my turkey pot to heat sparge water.
as for me i'm a hop head and i live for those hopy ass ales that make your face implode into itself when you drink them. i have a pale ale recipe that i've been trying to perfect for 3 years now. i only have a handful of good recipes i like actually. i'm not one of those homebrewers who try something new everytime. i like to keep brewing a recipe until i get it down to where i wouldn't change a single thing. so i have a killer i.p.a recipe, amber ale, pale ale, and munich heller which is my secret recipe. i sell my hops to a local brew pub and have gotten much knowledge from their brewmaster. i grew up in a farming family, so farming and working the feilds always came natrually to me. after i grew up and moved out of the farm i found myself a little one acre feild where i grew corn and other vegtables for a while. until that one fateful day when i went to the local hydro shop and they happen to have hop rhizomes for sale. so bought a couple and grew them in my backyard. thw following year i realized i could create my own little hop farm, so up went the support beams and ropes. soon followed was about 50 or so hop rhizomes of 3 different varieties. zues, glacier, and chinook. now years later i have found a passion for brewing, and now i've been brewing for 4 years. i've brewed over 120 5 gal batches only about 60 of them being all-grain.

 

[m00nchild]

the

 

[JAAM]

welcome...

 

[CarpeLibertatem]

Awesome! So what would be the outcome of using buds alone in place of hops? Nasty? What about using hops and some nice dry sift instead of buds in the brew....would it give a decent buzz thc wise? Glad to have ya here!