hop farmer

[deltronZER0]

hey hop leaf, didn't get a chance to read all the responses in this thread, but its always awesome to see another brewer on this site! what varieties of hops do you grow?
I'm always a big fan of centenials, cascades, amarillos, chinooks, and used some summits on a brew I did last night, I'll let yall know how it turns out
and do you find that for your canna-ales, you go heavier on the malt or hops flavor?
also, do you ever make yeast starters? I never really had before, but I did last night, and this shit is goin' nuts!

 

[hopleaf]

hey hop leaf, didn't get a chance to read all the responses in this thread, but its always awesome to see another brewer on this site! what varieties of hops do you grow?
I'm always a big fan of centenials, cascades, amarillos, chinooks, and used some summits on a brew I did last night, I'll let yall know how it turns out
and do you find that for your canna-ales, you go heavier on the malt or hops flavor?
also, do you ever make yeast starters? I never really had before, but I did last night, and this shit is goin' nuts!

nice to meet ya deltron. always bice to meet other brewers. to answere you question i have zues, glacier, cascade, and chinook. in the backyard i have mt.hood, and simcoe. let me know if your ever interested in growing your own i'd be happy to send a free rhizome from my feild. i'm with you i'm a huge fan of amarillo, chinook, but my fav by far has to be simcoe. they're like cascade on roids.

the zues hops are like the king of hops. they have been genetically developed to be extremly high yeilds and very very pest and disease resistance. it grows kinda slow and doesn't have to many crazy side branches. they also typically finish a week or two before some of my other varieties. you can expect huge leaves, a wonderfully beautiful plant, and ping pong ball sized hop cones that have a very strong grapefruit flavor. they are mostly used for bittering.

the glacier are by far my most vigorous variety. they not only out grow every variety i have by at least 5 feet they also grow up to a foot and half in a single day. they also yeild extremly high amounts of high quality hops. very similar to fuggel in flavor and cone shape. this one get side branches like a mutha making it fairly difficult to keep under control. tho hops cones are long and very light witha great earthy almost spicy flavor and aroma. these are typically used for flavor or aroma, but can be used for bittering as well.

i would give more info on the cascade and chinook, but it's my first season with them, so i can't really say how they will grow.


while brewing a cannabis ale i personally prefer a the hops to be the main event. actually i'd say thats how i like to brew period. i find nice citrusy hops really comliment the earthy undertones that the cannabis imparts into the wort. i do like to go with a more malty base tho. something bready or biscuty to which also compliments the flavor of the cannabis. in reality though you can play with it and make it to your taste.

as for making a yeast started i think it is crucial for optimum attenuation. i always like to get my yeast going about a day or 2 before my brew day. i've attempted to keep certain varieties of yeast alive for prolonged periods of time and only had limited success. if i don't have time to get a starter going then i usually use two wyeast packs just to ensure complete fermentation.

 

[deltronZER0]

very cool! I was actually thinking about ordering some hop rhizomes fairly soon for my garden in my backyard along with tons of ginger (for home made gingerale) and the usual veggies and stuff. all your varieties sound super nice tasting.
how do you grow them? I was gonna throw the rhizomes into a 4-5 gallon bucket of potting soil, and then throw up a lattice made of thin wood, string (would this work?) or pvc depending on price. If i put out the rhizome in like june, would that harvest in time?
I was hoping to use simcoe on this last batch of beer, but when I went to the local organic snooty brew shop and they didn't end up having any! "oh we can't get those organically"

 

[hopleaf]

very cool! I was actually thinking about ordering some hop rhizomes fairly soon for my garden in my backyard along with tons of ginger (for home made gingerale) and the usual veggies and stuff. all your varieties sound super nice tasting.
how do you grow them? I was gonna throw the rhizomes into a 4-5 gallon bucket of potting soil, and then throw up a lattice made of thin wood, string (would this work?) or pvc depending on price. If i put out the rhizome in like june, would that harvest in time?
I was hoping to use simcoe on this last batch of beer, but when I went to the local organic snooty brew shop and they didn't end up having any! "oh we can't get those organically"

well i can get em organically. they are fantastic.
as for growing hops in your back yard i say go for it! just remember that a single hop bine can reach up to 30-35 feet, and if weigh up to a hundred pounds. a strong very tall trellis is a must. mine in my backyard actaully only go vert for 9 feet then horizontal the rest of the way. they are really fun to play with and you you best bet is to build a trellis that fits your yard. mine act a wonderful canopy over my deck. the ones in my feild get to go strait up for 30 feet. i have them on ropes that are part of a pully system so i can just lower the bines to the ground come harvest time.
as for puttin them in 5 gal containers it will work for the first year, but hops have very extensive root systems. you will need to get them in the ground by the second season. they are very hungry plants as well and will take heavy feedings like crazy when they get big.
if your in the right location then i'd say you can get a very late harvest in if you get them started by early june.
i hope i was some help, and let me know if i can help any more. the best of luck to you and i hope you do plant some hops in your backyard. you will not regret it.

 

[hopleaf]

here are some a pics of my backyard trellis.

 

[Green Thumb]

Nice hop yard you have there. I'm a brewer and grower of hops and other stuff . I saw you listed Simcoe in as one of your varieties, do you mind sharing where you found a rhizome of that variety? I love Simcoe for my finishing addition and dry hopping. Another hop I tried recently was Citra, real nice and citrusy...great in american IPA's.

I just picked up a centennial rhizome from the local brew shop but my 2 year old plants are cascade, newport, fuggle, and nugget. Newport hasn't yielded much but when it did it was very pungent, had a hint of garlic aroma too.

Welcome to IC btw.

 

[hopleaf]

first off i'd like to say that your have the coolest avatar i've ever seen. in fact it's the coolest steal your face i've ever seen...steal you hops.
as for my simcoe rhizome i bought from my local brew store a few years ago. i've been wanting to do simcoe out in the feild, but finding the rhizomes is difficult. so for now it's my prized. i have been able to dig up rhizomes from it, just not enough to do in the feild.
i've heard great things about the citra, but never seen them or brewed with them. if you want maybe when i can PM i'll hit you up, and maybe we can do some rhizome trades or even hop trades. thanks for the warm welcome.

 

[JAAM]

welcome

 

[hopleaf]

welcome

thanks. i'm glad to be here. i've only been here for less than a week and i've already fell in love with the site. to the point of obsession. great group of people on this site and everyone is honest and helpful...no beating around the bush on this site.

 

[hydromaddicted]

Good Stuff and Hello,

It's always nice to see people experimenting with beer and it's ability to soak up all sort's of flavor's.On that note look up and research Flavinoids of Food there's all kind of constituants of flavor that are very desirable to the human palette that can be added to or soaked up by beer in fact some are shared with marijuana and hops a good example is the use of dank as a descriptor for beer.I have made 1000's of batchs of beer ever heard of Hopsickle well that's my recipe. I could probably help with an I.P.A recipe or 3.I found the use of a little lightly toasted oak chips really goes along ways to help intermingle with the flavors cannabis adds to beer;-)

On another note Zues hops are the same as Tomahawk and Columbus it's just one group of farmers that use that proprietary name for there crop of hops if you look up the hop supplier Brewers Supply Group they sell them as a cultivar called CTZ which is just a blend of all three super high alpha hops.

And another thought have you ever contemplated making hop hash and using it to brew with;-)the larger hop suppliers sell co2 extracts of alot of different fractions of the broken down hop plant for specific use in certain stages of the brewing process

 

[Sandnut]

Welcome

 

[hopleaf]

Good Stuff and Hello,

It's always nice to see people experimenting with beer and it's ability to soak up all sort's of flavor's.On that note look up and research Flavinoids of Food there's all kind of constituants of flavor that are very desirable to the human palette that can be added to or soaked up by beer in fact some are shared with marijuana and hops a good example is the use of dank as a descriptor for beer.I have made 1000's of batchs of beer ever heard of Hopsickle well that's my recipe. I could probably help with an I.P.A recipe or 3.I found the use of a little lightly toasted oak chips really goes along ways to help intermingle with the flavors cannabis adds to beer;-)

On another note Zues hops are the same as Tomahawk and Columbus it's just one group of farmers that use that proprietary name for there crop of hops if you look up the hop supplier Brewers Supply Group they sell them as a cultivar called CTZ which is just a blend of all three super high alpha hops.

And another thought have you ever contemplated making hop hash and using it to brew with;-)the larger hop suppliers sell co2 extracts of alot of different fractions of the broken down hop plant for specific use in certain stages of the brewing process

the zues i have come strait from a feild owned by budweiser in idaho and the farmer was very adamant about calling them zues. i have seen both tomahawk and columbus growing and they look exactly the same as my zues. i've always read and knew they were the same, but i figure i'd just stick with what the farmers name.

i'd really like to see that hopsickle recipe. post it here if you can't pm me. as for the hop hash i've though of trying to make hop oils and extracts but never hop hash. that sounds like an amazing idea and i think we need to work on doing it. i'm sure you have a better idea of how to go about doing it.
always great to meet a serious homebrew master.

 

[Sandnut]

welcome

 

[hopleaf]

thanks for the warm welcome sandnut