Home grown hops - best results in the finished beer

[Tilt]

A question for the experienced backyard hop growers out there.

Only having room for 2 or 3 hop varieties on my section I'm trying to get a handle on which hops from the varieties commonly available to NZ home brewers give the taste and aroma I'm looking for?

From looking up old threads and talking to growers it seems like NZ homebrewers can commonly get hold of :

• Kortegast
• Danscade (NZ Cacade)
• Smoothcone
• Mystery German variety
• Sticklebract

Appreciating that there are 'terroir' differences depending on local growing conditions, different ways to use the hops and different brewer preferences - whats the experience of those who've grown and used these types for the final taste of the beer?  

Do you have preferences - and if so why?  

Are there any that haven't delivered and you've moved on from?

Cheers

[denimglen]

Can only speak about Danscade and Smoothcone.

My first season Danscade was great - sort of an inbetween cascade and riwaka.

There was a year that I didn't bother harvesting - I can't remember if it was last year or the year before (season two or three).

Either way, the season I did harvest I used both Danscade and Smoothcone.

Smoothcone I wasn't too fond of, it had a generic 'hoppy' character with some spiciness and some light citrus.  In saying that, that years harvest of Danscade wasn't as good as the first either.

Timing of the harvest plays a massive role in the quality of the hop I reckon.

Since then I've transplanted my hops into containers and out of the ground - they seem to be doing well so far.  If ground space opposed to garden space isn't a problem you could try growing some in pots.  I'm using big plastic rubbish bins for mine.

[mattd2]

Hey Glen, what do you consider would be the smallest size "pot" for hops? Given what I've heard about them putting out massive amounts of roots for miles I'm guessing the rubbish bin route would be a good way to avoid your property from getting invaded by hops (not that that would be such a bad thing anyway!)

Sorry Tilt for Hi-jacking your thread.

[Tilt]

Thanks Glen - good to know.  I figured there was probably a reason Smoothcone was let loose on amateur growers (as far as I know no commercial brewers use it).  Danscade sounds a ripper variety to work on though.

Interesting what you say about timing the harvest - there's definitely a skill to being a successful grower which I'm keen to learn more about - including ways to get best results (no worries Matt on your Q - all's good in my book for brewers swapping notes) 

[denimglen]

Hey Matt,

Can't help out too much as I pretty much took a guess and ran with it.  I have heard of guys in the states being successful with as small as 50L.

The roots do spread very far and are a prick to get rid of, especially Smoothcone - very aggressive.  Although, the main rootball is about the size of a soccer ball so I think pots are viable as long as you stay on top of nutrient and water needs.  But I'm no horticulturist so I could be wrong!

One thing to note is I think hops need to get to a certain height before they will flower, so an adjustable trellis is a good idea if you're using a stake in your pot.  I'm just using a giant tent peg, a stake about 7 feet tall with a SS screw in 'eye' on the top.  I run some rope from the peg up through the eye and down to the bottom and tie it to the stake.  I train the bine up the peg side of the rope and as it grows I just loosen the knot and move it upwards increasing the length of rope on the bine side.

[denimglen]

A good article from BYO mag on container hops - http://www.byo.com/component/resource/article/1926-growing-hops-in-...

[mattd2]

Thanks Glen, Got some lunchtime reading to do now!

Might try get myself organised by next planting season. Cheers.

[Pilgrim]

I bought a Smoothcone and a Sticklebract off TradeMe. Both rhizomes were quite small (fitted in a small, 100mm, plastic pot). The Smoothcone is in it's third year and I've never had a flower off it, so this is it's last chance before I rip it out. I suspect it's a male. The Sticklebract died the first year. I was then given a large rhizome of Cascade (possibly Danscade) and the first year got 750g (undried) of flowers off it. Made a really nice Hop Harvest Ale. This year it's gone absolutely wild, I think it's trying to take over the neighbourhood, so hoping to get a really good crop.

Harvesting at the right time is important. Just when the first tinge of browning starts and the lupulin at the base of the flowers is really sticky. Drying the flowers to the right moisture content is difficult so using them green is a good idea. Some of the ones I dried last year weren't dry enough and went to mush in the vacum sealed bags.

Hope this helps.

[Tilt]

This is great info Pilgrim - thanks. 

You've brought up an important point - weeding out the males seems to take ages... as I understand its essentially a process of elimination by waiting a season and see if it flowers/fruits (then I'd probably give it a second and maybe third chance as you've done)  So overall it could take 2-3 years before you'd know to give up on a plant and start again. 

Danscade sounds like a winner hop from your and Denimglen's experience - a hefty yield and brings the goods in the final result - I'm going to have to find myself some!

Great article in Shed magazine BTW - good to see informed, accessible info that demystefies HB and shows the end results are worth a bit of effort.  What with your article and Stu McKinlay's radio segments there's bound to be a few new people kicking around on here in the near future.

Cheers

[Pilgrim]

Thanks for the good words Tilt.

[Hutch]

I think a lot of the smoothcone floating around is triploid, mine certainly are. Can't discount it being male though...

[Glynn cleaver]

Hi I'm in my first year growing hops I've got some unknown type.

So far out of the 4 plants 2 are 6 inches tall and two are over 6 feet and going nuts one of these plants is in a old recycling bin looking towards the first brew out of them I could have wasted a year or hit a cracker need to finish my all grain set up .

I say get some plants and go nuts

[Tilt]

Keen to know what you think once you've had a cance to use these hops Glynn - keep us informed.  What varieties have you got on the go?