A while back, my wife gave me a home-brewing kit, and in the past couple years I’ve made several dozen gallons of beer. It’s a quick, and pretty straight forward process, (kinda like following the directions on a box of brownies) yet there is a lot of flexibility and many different recipes to try… though I haven’t made any since last Christmas when I filled the pantry with stout, dopplebock, ale (IPA, pumpkin and apple), pilsner and even a coffee beer. Some were great, others destined for use in baking or cooking. (More on those on my nearly-defunct food blog.)
Meanwhile my brother-in-law has been brewing beer the good old fashioned way, (grinding his own grain, buying the raw ingredients, rather than simply opening cans of malt extracts – boiling the wert for hours and hours….) For his birthday or father’s day this year he was gifted some (ok, lots of) hops seeds. Surprisingly all the seeds were viable, and now, having more than he knew what to do with, gave me some of the seedlings!
I know I’ve got a little while before I find a home for these little guys – seriously little, I can’t get a clear picture, gonna have to wait a bit to see em! – But I know they’ll need to be tricked into thinking it’s winter at some point during their indoor stay, before they go outside next year. – and once they start growing they’re gonna need trellises to keep em from taking over the yard. (Future Lumberjocks project there).
Who knows, in a few years I might be able to harvest my own hops, and can brew up a really local batch of beer!
but until then, anyone have any experience or advice on getting these going?
-- southern NH. - smack dab in the middle of 5a and 5b - with lots of shade and full sun, in all the wrong places.
6 comments so far
Damocles
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805 posts in 361 days
hardiness zone 5
posted 69 days ago
My brother in law grows his own Cascade hops, and brews his own beer. The stuff grows like crazy, and quickly took over a corner of his garden!
It was for this reason alone that my wife actually vetoed me getting some roots from my BIL… (I’d still love to grow some of my own; especially because of the high price of hops these days!
-- Living on the square...Metro Detroit
roman
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636 posts in 327 days
posted 68 days ago
Micro breweries are having a difficult time getting hops and somehave resorted to “hopless” beer which I think defeats the whole flavour. Every one is smart in hindsight but if I would have bought “hop” futures I would smiling right now.
I know little about “hops” but always thought iy was much like wheat in that it is planted every year and was not perrenial.
-- Central northish Ontario
Damocles
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805 posts in 361 days
hardiness zone 5
posted 68 days ago
Definitely a perennial. If were to be killed by frost, I could probably convince my wife to allow me to plant some! LOL…
While Wikipedia isn’t a very reliable source, there is a nice article about hops in it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops
-- Living on the square...Metro Detroit
jroot
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1022 posts in 137 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 65 days ago
I’ve had some hops in the lower garden for quite a few years. It doesn’t get enough sun there, and hence has not become too agressive.
-- jroot
scottb
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167 posts in 386 days
posted 65 days ago
I have a spot in mind, next to the roses, that I can see from the kitchen window. It probably gets sun for at least half the day. Would be a nice spot for a trellis, even a bench under it (for a nice cold homebrew, not iced tea), even if it wasn’t the best spot for the hops. – lots of other things grow pretty well in that spot, so as long as the roses and hops don’t have border wars, then it might be fine.
I know of someone growing them (or letting them run wild) a couple towns over, and they are doing well, so they should do just fine here.
-- southern NH. - smack dab in the middle of 5a and 5b - with lots of shade and full sun, in all the wrong places.
MsDebbieP
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3811 posts in 507 days
hardiness zone 5b
posted 64 days ago
well isn’t this exciting. Looking forward to watching the growth.
-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)