Hops Harvest 2007 - Beer Bits 2 & The Brew Lounge

What a great day! Time to harvest the hops Bryan and I planted last year. This time the yield was 18 times the yield last year. Check out Bryan's site for his write up.

I'm working on a list of resources for hop growing, harvesting, brewing and dry hopping. You'll probably see it posted sometime this week. One thing is for sure harvesting 5.6 lbs of hops growing through a fence and arbor is time consuming. I think we were out there for about four hours. Just think 5.6 lbs of hops will yield around 5.6 ounces of dry hops :-( At least that is what I've read. HOLY SMOKES! Now that makes me appreciate what goes into just one glass of Alpha King from Three Floyds. I might just savor that next beer a bit longer.


Here are a bunch of pictures. 5.6 pounds of fresh Cascade hops were picked today by Bryan and I with some help from my kids.







Flowers before being picked from the bine.








Interesting looking flower with the bine running through it.








We just cut the whole plant down instead of trying to pick off the fence and trellis. This is one tangle we cut down.







Bryan shared some New Glarus Raspberry Tart with me. Man this is one fresh tasting beer! Delicious!







Picture of my son and I. (Thanks for the picture Bryan)








The picked hops layed out on some screens in the yard.








Some of the hop flowers that were already dried on the vine.









Leaves and flowers damaged by Japanese Beetles






All the flowers on screens in the basement with a dehumidifier running. Should be dry in about 3 days. (according to online sources) Bottom left are the hops that were either damaged from beetles or very dry already.