Hop Drying Calculator 1.0 is finally here!

After plenty of development, testing and a few bugs along the way, I've finally released my first Android app on Google Play!

Built for home hop growers, it helps take the guesswork out of drying freshly harvested hops, making it easier to monitor moisture levels and track drying progress.

It's free to download, works offline, and I'd love to hear what you think!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.hopdrying.calculator

My third year contributing our hops to the local growers collective, really pleased to get these! Great tasting pale ale 😀

I’ve got this tiny 4” bine growing from a 4” rhizome. It’s from a mother that has been growing in a similar climate for 30 years. Should I plant it outside to face the winter or because of its fragile state should I bring it inside to overwinter with my houseplants?

Golding in the front, tea maker in the back. That's a 4' by 7' frame for reference.

For anyone just starting. 3ed year is the year that they blow up. So just hold on, you will get there.

I started with 1 golding rhizome. The crown broke when I tried to move it after the first year. So I planted both. Then I took 2 other shoots and stuck them in dirt to see if they would take off. And they did. So 4 plants of golding.

I just got the tea maker this year. 3 plants this time. They produced way more then I expected for a 1st year.

Well, not too hard, they are literally everywhere.

I went bike riding yesterday and picked a kilo of wild hops that smelled very Tettnang/Hallertau’ish, very resiny and sticky.

They were dried at 130F for 9 hours yesterday and the 190g will be vacuum sealed and frozen tomorrow for a future brew day.

On a train from Duesseldorf to Netherlands, saw these growing wild at a train station.

Hey guys! What's up! So, some years ago (upwards of 5 or more years), my mom said she saw hops growing in our backyard. I thought, okay cool. Haven't seen any really growing (but I haven't been looking either.) And then, this year, we have what feels like a lot of actual hops growing. It's growing from one side of our fence, over and up a huge metal pole (previously used for clotheslines YEARS ago), to being now more in the middle of the small yard. I'm in Northern NJ, so these are probably Cascade. Smells more like citrus, kind of like an IPA, with some flower notes.

My question: what the hell can I do with these hops? It seems like there's not enough sunlight for some of these guys, so some aren't nearly as big, and some located near the top of the metal pole are more yellow/light brown. Clearly, I can't harvest everything.

Is there a process I can go through next year to try and get these growing right, and maybe make something more than tea out of them next year? Thanks in advance!

These Monocacy hops are growing in a bit of a feral state in Frederick County, MD, just as we originally found this plant.

It also appears that there is a sneaky male somewhere in the neighborhood, because there were some immature seeds when rolling a few cones in my hand this morning. I’ve not seen that in my years growing here.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Monocacy and her progeny. Hopefully the future will be full of tasty lager, kölsch and cream ale!

Teamakers cones look so cool.

I've finally moved into a house my wife and I are planning on staying in for the long term. We moved from a townhouse where I couldn't plant anything in the ground so all my gardening was done in pots, and the hop strings were tied to roofs. Now I've got a backyard I can do whatever I want with.

For those of you that have your own hopyards at home I have a few questions for you.

1. How high do you make your trellises? I was thinking 15 - 18 ft high. My general idea is two posts with pulleys so I can lower them to harvest instead of using a ladder.

2. How far apart do you need to plant the hops? How do you keep them from sending out runners and intermingling?

3. How many varieties are too many? Currently I've got Cascade, Chinook, fuggles, nugget and saaz. I'll probably get rid of the nugget though, maybe the saaz and fuggles as well to replace with a comet or centennial.

4. How heavy do hop plants get when they aren't restricted by pots? I want to make sure I build a strong enough trellis and rope system.

5. What is the best time of year to transplant from pots to the ground? Should I do it this fall after chopping them down, while they still have leaves or in the spring?

Is there anything else I should consider when making a hopyard?

Mine is Comet. Love the gigantic cones and they are easy to pick in bunches without getting leaf matter. Least favorite is cashmere.

Year 6 on 2 hills of comet and had a bumper crop. Already brewed 11 gallons of a fresh hop hazy, 3 lbs to a brewery, and picked a couple pounds to dry for the year. Lots still on the bine and centennial still to pick.

Happy Harvest!

In spite of my neighbour cutting my target plant stunting it's growth, an extremely dry spring and summer and being unable to harvest at the ideal time, im at least lucky that my Fuggles gave me 160g of hops from a single bine. Would have been more but the bad weather dried out several hops before they were ready for harvest and even with recent rains, my soil isn't great at soaking in water so ive definitely been lucky this year.

Fertilized with fruit and bloom every couple of weeks the last few months. Cascade did way better than the comet. I hear the third year is the charm, so we’ll see in a year. Western Washington.

Would be nice to know if anyone has brewed with them before and what they think of them.

These are Chinook. I picked some Willamette too.

Whats the best way to deal with frost?

I don't think my hops are ready to harvest but we are dropping to 0°C tomorrow and Saturday. They are 19 feet up the side of my house.

I was thinking maybe put a fan pointed up to keep air movement?

Harvested a decent amount of huge Saaz cones on Sunday and brewed a Saison.

On year six of the Comet, Cashmere, and Centennial hills. Last year I lost a few pounds of comet to above average temps after labor day. I brewed my annual fresh hop batches over the weekend and I think they were in their prime. They are opening and startin to brown but still smell great.

A local brewery wants all of the comet and centennial for a couple barrels on their small batch system. They wont be able to brew till Monday.

Will they make it to picking Sunday and delivering Monday morning?

Should I pick before the rain and vacuum seal and refigerate?

I'm in York, UK. I planted two small pots of Northern Brewer rhizomes in spring 2024. They grew to about 9 foot by last autumn and I kept them up until mid-winter.

This year they've grown to approx. 15 foot or so and I picked them last night - got 884g, so they're now drying in my conservatory. Really pleased with how they've come on! I'm planning on making a steam lager with them in about a month and I can't wait.

Willamette, Mt. Hood, and Cascade. I also have a Brewer’s Gold that I didn’t harvest, as it didn’t seem quite as vigorous as the other 3.

Grown on the side of the silo at my family’s farm - this farm has grown a lot of things, including an almost hundred-tree apple and fruit orchard, but as far as we know, the first time hops have been grown and harvested here.

Wanted these varieties for the “improved heirloom” genetics as well as the stylistic coverage for what I like to brew.

These were field grade crowns from GLH, couldn’t be happier with the quality of plants.

Mt. Hood; 10.2 oz wet, 2.1 ounces dried.
Willamette; 4.2 oz, 1 ounce dried.
Cascade; 1lb 8.7 oz wet, 6 ounces dried.

Next up, a farmhouse Zwickelbier with the Mt. Hood.

Just harvested the Star hops I have on my allotment. Star as I like Belgian beers and why not grow something I can't buy. Grown in East London.

https://www.hopslist.com/hops/aroma-hops/star/

A few Parent Bugs had a ride but they do not feed on hops so no issues there. You can really see the lupulin if you zoom in. I'll dry and vacuum pack for use through out the year. Made a dryer out of a cardboard box and fan.

Pheonix will be harvested in 5 days time I would think. After that the first year Tettnanger and Saaz - hoping I can tell which is which as I didn't keep notes.

Had to pick them a little bit early because I'm going on a trip and they'll be past their Prime when I get back.

It's been kind of a poor year for my hops. I didn't get a lot off my other plants but this one, which is only a 2-year -old plant, produced about 4 lb of hops and I really like them for juicy hazy ipas.

Probably one of my favorite hops that I got growing.