rhizomes

SO!  With the incredible increase in the price of hops, due to the fires that claimed a large portion of our nation’s hop crop, I’ve decided to grow my own.  I went through my brewing books and researched them on the cyberweb, and selected four types of hops that I will plant and grow this season.  I selected Cascade, Fuggle, Northern Brewer and Willamette and I ordered live rhizomes from www.freshops.com.  I purchased two jumbo rhizomes and two single rhizomes.  The jumbo will grow to full size in the first year as well as producing a full crop in teh first year, as they were harvested from a large and well-established plant.  The smaller rhizomes will grow quite a bit in the first year, and will produce a crop, but will not be strongly established and “flourish” until next year.

Hops plants can grow up to (and occasionally beyond) 25 feet in a single season, before dying back down to the ground for winter, only to come back strong the next year.  So, obviously, it would be hard to have a big-ass hop plant, let alone four, in the back yard in the middle of Homer; due to this fact, I’ve inlisted the help of my father, who owns several acres next to his house in a more countryfied setting.  I plan to build a nice little pergola up on a hill, in a field, overlooking his house.  I will plant one type of hops at each corner and train the vine to climb the corner post and spread out across the roof of the pergola.  I think if it comes to play out as I hope, it should look pretty damn nice.

So, yeah…that’s about it.  More to come.

As the good book says, “Relax!  Have a homebrew!”

~ by mholl on March 14, 2008.