Growing Your Own Hops

by Brad McMahon

What are hops?

Hops grow from an extensive root system and crown. Each year the hop vines, traditionally called bines, can grow up to 8 metres in length. Underground stems, called rhizomes are used to artificially propagate the plants. Hops have both male and female varieties. The male plant is only used to pollinate female plants and to breed new varieties while the female plant grows the all-important flowers that are used in brewing. Depending on the variety and growing conditions you may very well get up to 1 kilogram of dried hop flowers per plant.

It is these flowers that you use to bitter and flavour your beer. Hops are packaged in three ways for brewers. Hop flowers, which are also called cones. Plugs, which are flowers that are compressed to a half ounce (15 grams) tablet, are used by British brewers to add to a cask of beer to give a strong hop aroma to the beer. Pellets, which are compressed, powdered and extruded from fresh hops have a longer shelf life and are easier to measure, store and transport.

Planting

Hops require a lot of sunlight, even the harsh Australian sunlight poses no problems to hops. As the hops have an extensive bine system, you need to set up somewhere for the bines to grow and wrap around. Trellises work well but if it is against a wall make sure you do not have a problem with a lack of sunlight. Some growers plant a tall pole and run several wires outward from it, much like an English May pole. I use a wire running between two poles at chest height. The poles are about 5 meters apart. Having the hops running horizontally at chest height makes picking very easy.

Planting of the rhizome is done in late winter or early spring, August or September being good months to plant. You may wish to establish the plant in a pot for the first couple of months and then transplant to the garden. 

Loosen the earth and make a small mound. Put the rhizome about 3 centimetres below the surface, pointing vertically. If you are growing more than one plant, place them at least 1 metre apart.

Mulching the soil and using some slow release organic fertiliser will always help.

Growing

Hops are thirsty plants and they are hard to over-water. In the first year, frequent light watering would be best but don’t drown it. More established plants can get away with one good deep watering a day. Ten litres a day is not an unreasonable amount of water for a growing established plant. Try not to flood the soil though this could lead to mildew.

Once the bines start to grow to about half a metre in length, train them onto a wire. Train about three or four main bines and cut back the rest. The bines will grow counter-clockwise up the wire. You may not get many more than four bines in the first year but subsequent seasons you will get many more. Be ruthless and you will get a better crop. You may have to trim back a few times during the spring and early summer.

Once the plant is about 2 metres high, trim away the bottom foliage up to a metre in height from the soil. Keep this bottom metre trimmed to help stop diseases and bugs taking hold of your precious hops.

Hops in full bloom

The Harvest

Unfortunately you will not get any flowers in the first year that are worth harvesting. The hop plant is intent on establishing the rootstock and little energy is going into flowering. You will get a few burrs here and there but you are only going to have an ornamental plant in the first year.

For established plants, the hop flowers are ready for picking in mid-March through to late May, depending on local conditions. The hop cone will turn from a moist silky feel to being dry and papery. When the edges of the hop flowers begin to turn brown they are ready to be picked. As the flowers will ripen at various stages you able to have a few pickings per year.

Drying

Drying can be done in a dehydrator or in an oven on low heat for a few hours.

The best quality hops are air-dried.

A good idea is to record the weight of your fresh hops. Once dried, the weight of your hops will be 10-25% of the original “wet” weight depending on conditions.

I dry my hops on a fly screen with a PET bottle top on each corner to allow airflow underneath. Hops also need to be dried in the dark so I built a cardboard cover that allows plenty of airflow while keeping the hop cones out of the light.

Drying takes between three and seven days depending on temperature and humidity.

Turn your hops every day to make sure they all dry evenly. When the flowers are completely dry and feel brittle they are ready to store. When you think they are dry, re-weigh your hops to make sure they are dry enough.

 Storage

Trimming back

Using your hops

The major problem you will face is determining the strength of your hops. Many people do not bother using homegrown hops for bittering purposes and just use their hops for flavour and aroma. As I grow the Pride of Ringwood variety that is better suited to bittering I simply have to guess their strength. By looking at the amount of yellow lupulin that is in the hop flower I can get within a few percentage points. Brewing a beer is the best way to tell! Remember that hopped beer had been brewed for hundreds of years without any way of determining alpha acid levels.

 If you are still uncertain of your own instincts, just brew a beer, estimating an alpha acid level of say, 6%. Aim the bitterness mid-range for the style. Even if your guess at the alpha acid rating is way out, you are unlikely to brew an undrinkable beer. If this unlikely event was to occur, you can always brew another batch compensating for your first batch and blend to suit.

Obtaining hop rhizomes

In Australia, it seems the best way is to get some from someone you know is growing them. The two main varieties that suit Australian conditions are Pride of Ringwood and Cluster. Other varieties can sometimes be sourced.

As with all plants, it is illegal to import hop rhizomes and hop flowers into Australia. Please do not bring in those diseases that plague European and American crops!

If you have any doubts please contact the Australian Quarantine & Inspection Service (AQIS) for clarification.

There is another reason not to import rhizomes.

Hop flavour is based a lot on soil conditions. Hops grown in the Hallertau valley in Bavaria will be nothing like the same variety grown in the Latrobe valley! Commercial planting in Australia of famous European and American hops have shown disappointing results in terms of reproducing those characteristic flavours and aromas desired.