This past year my 2 boys have gotten into brewing beer. One of the biggest expenses is the hops that go into the brewing. Drew has a house and decided to try his hand at growing his own hops. Unfortunately, Adam is in an apartment and can’t do the same. One call from him saying, "Hey, mom, can you grow some hops for me?" had me online figuring out how feasible that was.
I followed Drew’s lead and went to Freshops. It has tons of info about growing hops plus you can buy the rhizomes directly from them. Tim and I decided to give it a try. The boys decided on the following varieties: Mt. Hood, Williamette, Cascade and Brewer’s Gold. We bought 2 of each variety. These plants grow as vines and need support. They will grow to a height of 16′ to 24′ each season! To keep the variety pure, you need to plant different types at least 5′ away from one another.
We planted one of each variety just outside the north border of our raised beds. This is a 32′ span so all the plants are over 5′ away from each other. Directly across the garden, on the south border, we planted the corresponding second plant of each variety. We haven’t yet, but Tim plans to sink a 10 foot 2"x4" by each plant. We will then wrap twine around each post, carry it over the garden (an 18′ span) then run it down the other post. As the hops grow, they should go up the twine and meet somewhere in the middle! (I’m sure we’ll need support in the middle. I’m thinking totem poles! Tim is quaking!) I’ll post pics when we build the supports. As it is we just planted the rhizomes on Saturday, April 25. It will probably be a few weeks before we will need to start staking the plants.
The plants are perennials, and Freshops said it will take a couple of years to get a full crop. Although these vines grow to 24′, after harvest they die back to ground level and start over next year. During their peak growth season, the hops can grow as much as one foot during a day! I think this is going to be great fun for the kiddos to watch. Think we’ll use it to do some measuring and recording. Anyway, we shall see how this goes. If nothing else, it sounds like fun!
EDIT: Went out and picked up these pics for those of us totally unfamiliar with hops! You can either grow it straight up, like pictured here, or train them to grow on a trellis, fence, etc.
(Royalty free images from fotosearch.com)
That’s clever to have it go across the yard to the other side. DH has talked about planting hops for years, and they actually grow quite well in our climate here, but I’m not sure if our 1 acre is enough for hop plants! Although, I told DH about your post and he started muttering again about a hops covered pergola over our fire pit. No thank you! DH is wondering if the boys are all grain brewing or extract brewing? (He’s been making beer for 15 years which is longer than he should admit.)
I think up to now extract, if I understand correctly. They buy some sort of concentrate but I think they want to do grain, which is why their own hops, but I don’t know for sure. I have just vaguely listened to the whole process thing. I will let them know your DH is a bit of an expert if they have any questions. Drew’s real lucky because he has this truly great shop in Madison and the people have been really helpful. After Tim was reading about hops, and their value, which changes from season to season, he was ready to turn under our full 2 acres and become a hop farmer, hehe! I’ll keep you posted on our success/failure and general satisfaction rate!
I haven’t seen a hops plant before so this should be very interesting!Looking forward to seeing your beer garden grow! 🙂
I’m very curious to see how these grow too. I don’t think I’ve even seen a picture of hops plants before… I will be off to google it in a minute. How exciting if they really can grow a foot in one day. We can sit back and watch them grow! Should be cool.