Hop Harvest 2011

August 31, 2011:  In honor of my Brewther's 27th birthdays. 
This is the first year that I tried to grow hops and we had our first successful harvest. I purchased 2 varieties of rhizomes (Chinook and Cascade) and planted them in April.  After worrying at first, it wasn't long before they were really growing.  Most rhizomes spend the first year developing their crown; they usually don't produce hops.  But, we got lucky!

The Chinook variety was ready to harvest this week...The Cascades have fairly small cones, but we'll see if they are ready in the next week or so.

Pulling the cones off the vine. They sure are sticky!! And covered in a yellow resin called lupulin.  They smell delicious.

We ended up with 3.6 ounces wet... After drying in the warm Brewathroom for 3 days, we had 1 ounce of dry hops... Can't wait to use these next week!

BTW.... dried hopvines make beautiful wedding ceremony decorations.  I'll take orders now.  Hint. Hint.