Brewing Beer: Growing Hops Plan

See what happened next -> Day 1: Cascade Rhizomes Planted Moon on the day the trellis was constructed. What?! Does that seem strange? Hey, I needed a picture ;-)

Have you noticed that Bryan is away? Does it seem like there are less well written Brew Pub posts? Not to worry, Bryan will be back from Boston soon. I think he'll have lots to write about too.

Ok, so the hops are in the ground and growing. Here are the other tasks I think I'll need to do during the growing season, 120 days or so.

• Water them moderately with Miracle Grow every day. (Decided not to do that as per Chris. He said it didn't promote good root development)
• Maybe put some short stakes in to start the plants on.
• String the thin steel cable between the posts.
• Drop the stringers from the cable for the hops to grow up.
• Not sure how many I'll need. Probably will be more than one bine (yes, bine) per plant.
• Perhaps prune some of the extra shoots. (wait and see how many grow)
• Train the hops plants on the stringers as they grow.
• Watch them grow. Explain what they are to everybody with such excitement that they wish they never asked ;-)
• Decide on how to dry the hops. (in sun, near humidifier, make a hops drier)
• Harvest when the cones are ready.
• Dry the hops cones.
• Store them (how?)
• Brew!!!

I'm sure there will be more to add. Hmmm...are you thinking what I'm thinking? This might be time consuming :-) I guess we'll see if the excitement will wear off after the first day...er year. By the way I'm trying to be realistic. There might not be much of a crop this year. Hopefully I'll get enough for a batch of beer. That would make me happy.

See what happened next -> Day 1: Cascade Rhizomes Planted