growing Humulus lupulus (hops)

[Johnny_B]

Anyone been successful at growing Humulus lupulus? I have collected four varieties of hop plants that I'm going to start growing for my home brewed beer (cascade, centennial, chinook, and glacier).

Just wondering what types of soil you use, watering tips, or if you have any other tips or secrets? From what I hear, these things will do great in a well drained, neutral pH soil. I made some small raised planters out of rocks in a sunny location, and hopefully the plants will grow up the hill along 20 ft. guy-wires. I'm going to do a mixture of potting soil, sand, aged manure, and top soil, covered w/ some fine wood mulch.

 

[DelSc]

Hi Johnny_B
Years ago I brewed beer, and tried my hand at homegrown hops. My experience was they grew like weeds and produced lots of cones without much attention on my part. I have well drained sandy loam soil that tends to be low pH. I grew them in full sun on the south facing side of my house. From a beer making standpoint, the only problem I had with them was that I knew no way of measuring alpha and beta levels of what I grew so it was hard to follow any standard recipes. They sure smell good when the cones are ripe.
Scott

 

[TYMinColton]

TBN is great for tractors and tractor related stuff, but I'd recommend a trip to TastyBrew.com | Homebrew Recipes & Resources. Lots of folks are growing hops successfully all over the country. :thumbsup:

As pointed out, the biggest issue with homegrown is you can't get an accurate measure of alpha acids for bittering. However, they are still very good for flavor and aroma additions, particularly cascade and glacier.

Good luck!