Growing Hops

Just wondering if any of you out there grow Hops,I know of one place here in central WI. and I had a boss a few years back got into it, then quit (got bored with it)....Just wondering....Craig
 
I would be very interested in hearing more myself about that. Last summer I tried an experiment with Hops. I have a Hops plant that has been surviving for as long as I can remember,[that unfortunately is a looong time,] it must be a survivor from the 1800s. since until very recently no one was growing Hops in my area, and I know it was never cultivated on my place since that time. So last summer I took some cuttings to propagate them and I am anxious to see if they survived the winter.
 
plowboy,

Lots of folks putting in hops around here in Michigan. We have a large craft beer industry so there is a strong demand for them right now. However I got to believe we're going to get to the point of market saturation pretty soon. From what I hear the flavor of the hops can be effected by soil conditions so that some brewers will have preferred growers. Also there many varieties so knowing what hops to plant is going to depend on who is buying what. I'm a consumer not a producer when it comes to beer, so I can't speak to what hops to plant. I do have a plant that I got out of a popular seed catalogue in the corner of the wife's flower garden. She is not amused. That thing grows like a weed! Sends out vines and runners everywhere. The last two years she has chopped and dug and said some not so lady like things yet it keeps coming back. I gave a chopped up bit of a root to the neighbor and it seems to like his sandy soil a bit better, but it's doing darn good in this heavy clay too. So that's the extent of my knowledge regarding hops. Basically don't plant it in the flower garden. JD
 

I read recently as well that there are many different varieties and that the favored varieties change quickly.
 
I've been going to take a picture of a place down the road. Last fall they put in bunch of poles maybe 18 feet tall in a square grid and cabled and braced them all. Heard there going to grow hops.
 
They are adding lots and lots of acreage of them in Northwest Lower Michigan. I saw many many truckloads of them going east through Traverse City last fall. Not sure where they were going with them.
 
Not commercially, but I bought two plants for the daughter who thinks they are the wave of the future. They grow a bit like grape vines. Try to explain that it would take a fortune to switch over to those things and I don't have the energy.
 
/ A lot of years ago they grew hops in Otsego County NY in a big way. I remember seeing pictures of hop's picking crews on the August Bush home stead farm just north of Cooperstown NY. Loren lives only a couple miles from there, You might ask him about growing hops. He would be able to point you in the direction of where you could look for information on growing hops. There are a lot of hop houses in his area and you could find a lot of the tools like the hop press etc.
 
I have a 75 ft trellis with about 35 Cascade hops bines here in Southside Virginia. I dry and vacuum seal them, send them to my son who keeps me in good supply of all the fine German ale that I want to drink. Very interesting crop to fool around with, I enjoy them very much.
 
Watched a TV show on PBS about harvesting hops. That particular grower made his own harvester; the engine and re-configured drive line were from an IH 715 combine. The machine appeared to work very well.
 
A gentleman by the name of Herman Klaber farmed hops in the Chehalis river valley in western Washington many years ago. Was the largest grower in Washington at the time, I think. Went to Europe on a selling trip, and had the misfortune of booking his return trip on the Titanic. The hops were soon abandoned, and the land has been farmed by many in the years since. A few years ago, just about 100 years after the event, someone found some hops growing wild in the brush near the river, harvested some seed, and had a local brewer use them for Klaber Lager. So the legend lives on.
 
My son bought a new to him home in Grosse Pointe Park, MI in an old neighborhood and had a trellis with a bunch of vines growing in his backyard. He ripped them all down and put them out with the trash. I later noticed the remnants were hops. All gone...
 
Neighbor grows it, has about 20 plants. Sells to local micro brewery. They want the special kind that he grows.
 
Ive heard there is a demand for hops where I am because of the breweries that are everywhere. Where are you located steamboat, I'm near Brookneal
 
I don't have any, but we have had quite a few acres go in nearby. The hops like the same climate/soils that grow good grapes and other fruit, so SW MI fits pretty well. The first 20 acres went in about ten years ago, another five started about five years ago. Word was then that it runs about $30K per acre to start on clear ground. The BTO neighbor said they figure on $5K per acre for new grapes.

A couple of years ago, a group of brewers banded together to buy a forty acre vineyard and I think 50 acres of former nursery ground in downtown Baroda, MI. They have built several buildings for processing the hops, and begun to put up the trellis after clearing the nursery stock. Appears to be a multi-million dollar operation already, and will have the machinery needed to process for many other growers/brewers.
 
It's something I have thought about.I have an ancestor who was a travelling methodist preacher in the mid 1800s who quit to become a hop grower for Labbatts in London Ontario. I believe he had quite a large hop yard for that time and his own kiln. The soil on that farm is a silt clay type that requires tiling to perform well so I would think hop plants must be able to tolerate wet feet.
 
I have about a half dozen plants in a couple of spots. The older ones seem to do well in direct sun, against the woodshed. Amazing how quickly they climb. Usually by June they are at the top of the roof gable - 11 or 12 feet, then kinda cascade back down. Harvesting is a pain in the butt. I give them to a couple of folks I work with who are home brewers - the beer tastes pretty good. Would not want to try it for a business, thats for sure.

Tim
 

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