Hop Growing 2013

[seymour]

Do hop cones change colour while they're growing/once they're fully formed? Whenever we've bought dried Cascades, they've always been a vivid green, but these have been US ones. We're growing two plants (first year) and the cones are really starting to form now (wasn't really expecting any in the first year, so thats nice), but they're pinkish. It's like they've got a lot of red pigment like some bines have. Do they change as they mature? Could these be something other than Cascade?
Any info for a newbie would be brill.

Are you talking about the bines or the hops? Any chance of some pics?

Good question, because they sure don't sound like the Cascades I grow, which have always been the same colour as the ones I buy:

[WishboneBrewery]

Here are todays hop photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdtnc/sets ... 261878616/

[jmc]

Do hop cones change colour while they're growing/once they're fully formed? Whenever we've bought dried Cascades, they've always been a vivid green, but these have been US ones. We're growing two plants (first year) and the cones are really starting to form now (wasn't really expecting any in the first year, so thats nice), but they're pinkish. It's like they've got a lot of red pigment like some bines have. Do they change as they mature? Could these be something other than Cascade?
Any info for a newbie would be brill.

Are you talking about the bines or the hops? Any chance of some pics?

Good question, because they sure don't sound like the Cascades I grow/buy.

Pic of my (UK) cascade taken today for comparison.
My cascade hops are green as are their bines


They are growing through some grape vines so you may see the odd vine-leaf to confuse things.

[SBMongoose]

Are you talking about the bines or the hops? Any chance of some pics?

Sure,




But while I was taking these pictures, I also noticed these...

Please tell me that these are going to develop into more cones? Because I've heard the male flowers described like this. And are Cascades hermaphroditic like this? Or is it possible I've been sent the wrong plant do you think?

Any thoughts would be great. Thank you.

Mr & Mrs SBMongoose

[keith1664]

That looks like baby cones to me, my cascade also has green cones but they're a bit more developed than yours so I wouldn't worry about it.
(I was on my hols when they were smaller so can't comment on if they had red bits when babies)

[SBMongoose]

And the "balls" on the third pic, do you think they will become cones? Or are they looking like male plants? The enemy of the brewer. Boo, hiss.

[scuppeteer]

And the "balls" on the third pic, do you think they will become cones? Or are they looking like male plants? The enemy of the brewer. Boo, hiss.

They'll be cones, hops can be hermaphroditic, I had a Bramling X that did that, male and female flowers, quite strange but true. But if it was a male it would have flowered by now, males always come earlier!

Never seen a hop that colour before, I was concerned you had red on the leaves (which is a sign of spider mite). But they look quite healthy. They do look a little bit behind, but a local farmer to me has noticed one of their varieties are flowering and still have burrs as well. So leave em another couple of weeks and they should be great.

[seymour]

And the "balls" on the third pic, do you think they will become cones? Or are they looking like male plants? The enemy of the brewer. Boo, hiss.

They'll be cones, hops can be hermaphroditic, I had a Bramling X that did that, male and female flowers, quite strange but true. But if it was a male it would have flowered by now, males always come earlier!

Scuppeteer, you're the hops guru so I'll believe you if you say so, but are you 100% sure?

Biologically, Humulous lupulus is dioecious, and I've never heard of a hermaphoditic mutant. Did you literally follow the pollen sacks back to a bine which was one-and-the-same as the one producing female cones? In every case of a male hop plant I've heard of, it resulted from a previous season's seed which fell to the ground and germinated in the same hill as the existing female. It could be growing from the same hole, tangled amongst it onto the same string, but still a separate and distinct plant. This would be a fairly common occurance in UK commercial hop fields or homegrown hop gardens where males are allowed to remain nearby, the wind blowing their pollen into nearby female flowers, thus producing bigger cones full of fertilized seeds (a tempting scenario when hops are sold by weight, as opposed to alpha acid content) compared to US operations where males are vigorously uprooted to produce seedless cones.

I hate to confirm his fears, but my best-guess is that SBMongoose has discovered that in addition to the female plant (hopefully Cascade, but the jury is out), he also unknowingly bought a separate male plant. It certainly looks healthy, but wouldn't be a Cascade at all.

Here are some comparative pics of yellow-green male flowers, typically 15-25 cm long, narrowly spreading panicles.

[chivelegs]

A question mainly aimed at Scupateer but feel free to chip in...
What kind of window do the commercial hop growers operate in when it comes to harvesting?
Obviously there's a period of time for picking when the hops are fully fragrant and before they start to dry out too much but is it a week? A fortnight? A couple of days? I'm away again for a while and don't want to pick too early but likewise don't want dried out rotten hops at the end.

[Blackaddler]

I think that it's going to be a good year for British hops.

Despite the fact that my own potted plants [a wild whitebine and a redbine] were decimated by windburn, followed by whitefly, the local wild hops seem to be in pretty good health.

I've been out on the push bike with my trusty hop pole, picking hops for the last four afternoons. So far, I've have collected over 7.6kgs.

Some locations haven't been quite as good as previous years, but I think that's down to a lack of rain. The best locations have been near rivers, ponds, etc.

However, these are the best sized cones I've seen in the last four years...

Some pix taken earlier today, in one of my favourite spots...











... and in case you're wondering what all that concrete is in the backgound... it's the M25.

[seymour]

Wow, that's so cool. Do you suspect they're probably naturalized descendents of a Goldings type?

[Blackaddler]

Quite likely. The ones pictured appear to be redbines.

[seymour]

Quite likely. The ones pictured appear to be redbines.

So, what's it like living in the Garden of Eden?

I can't wait to hear about your brews. Will you be doing a Green Hop Beer this weekend?

[Blackaddler]

No, I've brewed wet hopped beers before with wild hops, and they don't really add anything.

They're OK for a low AA bittering hop, but there's not much aroma. Maybe a little grassy, if anything.

[scuppeteer]

What kind of window do the commercial hop growers operate in when it comes to harvesting?

Well judging by today the window is "SHIT they're ready!"

My friends took a trip to Hereford last weekend, they came back Wednesday afternoon, had a look at the gardens and panicked! Picking machine was still in bits and the hops needed picking. So as always with hop growers they rallied round, got the right people at the right time and by early afternoon today (Friday) they were off. Got down there about 1.45pm and left half an hour later with 9kgs of Phoenix for the first Kent brewery Green hop beer of the year. 2 hours later and they were in the copper.

I think that it's going to be a good year for British hops.
Despite the fact that my own potted plants [a wild whitebine and a redbine] were decimated by windburn, followed by whitefly, the local wild hops seem to be in pretty good health.

That's the problem with wild hops, they look great and can fair better than commercial ones, but take them away and try and plant them out and they promptly bugger off. I took some root stock in the spring from a wild bine not 300yds from where I live. The wild ones look fantastic, the ones in my pot are heavily invested with red spider.
The quality will be good this year but quantity may suffer. We have had too much cold weather when the bines should have been growing and when the sun did arrive they got too dry, which is why they are ready early. Many growers expected them to be late because the apples are, but you can't plan a hop!

But just to confirm the Phoenix I brewed with today smelt amazing, the aroma stuck to me so much so one of my colleagues though I'd been smoking some strange herbal stuff!

Anyway bed time as I'm off to take brewer in training to the gardens tomorrow at his request. I believe I have brought up my 9 year old son very well!