2018 hop harvest

[bpgreen]

I was out of town for a while and figured timing would be perfect to harvest my hops when I got home.

While I was gone we had a hailstorm that lasted 2 hours and had hailstones as big as golf balls.

I usually get a total of about a pound. They're dehydrating now, so I haven't weighed them, but I'd guess it'll be about 2 ounces.

[Beer-lord]

That just sucks! With hail that big, how'd your roof survive?

[Kealia]

Sorry to hear that. I'm hoping to start growing next year.

[mashani]

That really sucks.

[bpgreen]

That just sucks! With hail that big, how'd your roof survive?

We get canyon winds (sustained 90 MPH, with gusts over 120) here, so one time when we had a worse than usual wind storm, I took the insurance money and added some more from a refinance and had the roof taken down to the tar paper. I paid extra for the heaviest duty shingles they had and also paid extra for extra nails. I used to lose shingles every wind storm (and when the wind would calm down to 30-40 MPH, climb out on the roof and patch). I haven't had to replace a single shingle since I replaced the roof completely (almost 20 years ago). The hail storm didn't seem to faze it, either.

[Beer-lord]

I have 30 year shingles on my roof and they never last more than 20 but lucky for me (I guess) my 21 year roof was totally replaced by insurance 2 years ago due to 3 hail storms. They wouldn't repair it the first 2 times when the whole neighborhood got new roofs, then 8 months later they didn't again and finally, they had to. All the sand had worn off the shingles.
You prepared well and it paid off. Good for you!

[Kealia]

Glad to hear the roof survived. Make a beer with those hops and call it something like "All hail the hops!"

[bpgreen]

Glad to hear the roof survived. Make a beer with those hops and call it something like "All hail the hops!"

With two ounces total (split pretty evenly between Centennial and Cascade), I'd need more hops (have plenty, which is one reason I'm not too upset). And I don't really name my beers.

[Kealia]

I was thinking about a dry hop with them, which means you would of course need more for the boil as you noted.

I'm guessing you don't name your hop bines either then? [emoji3]

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[bpgreen]

They finished drying and I ended up with even less than I estimated. A total of 47 g.

[Beer-lord]

Make them count!

[berryman]

I haven't picked mine yet but I think next week. The problem I got is too many nugget and they go crazy here, but don't use many of them. The Chinook look good and I can use a lot of them but my Cascades is a little lacking and my favorite of what I grow. The Mount hood are still almost nothing. I think next week I will pull them down and see what I got. I have two of the each of the four.

[bpgreen]

I haven't picked mine yet but I think next week. The problem I got is too many nugget and they go crazy here, but don't use many of them. The Chinook look good and I can use a lot of them but my Cascades is a little lacking and my favorite of what I grow. The Mount hood are still almost nothing. I think next week I will pull them down and see what I got. I have two of the each of the four.

You can use the nugget for bittering, although you're just guessing at the AA% (unless you send to a lab and pay for the analysis). I usually either use the default values in the brewing software or the midpoint in a range I find online.

I didn't get any nugget this year. My nugget and Perle are on the north side of the house and don't do very well to start with, and this year, I never got around to giving them anything to climb on. The way weather patterns work here, the hail would have taken them out pretty much completely if I had don't things right with them, anyway.

My Cascade and Centennial bines usually produce pretty well. My Hallertauer is usually the most productive, but it was ready to pick while I was gone and the cones just crumbled when I touched them, so I didn't harvest them. I don't use hallertauer that much, anyway, so I've got leftovers from past harvests.

[swenocha]

I haven't harvested yet from the ones you sent me last year, but keeping a close eye on them. One (I honestly am not sure which is which now) has maybe a dozen cones, while the other hasn't produced. Last year I got a few from the first and none from the second. Thanks again for sending these. Fun to experiment with...

[bpgreen]

I haven't harvested yet from the ones you sent me last year, but keeping a close eye on them. One (I honestly am not sure which is which now) has maybe a dozen cones, while the other hasn't produced. Last year I got a few from the first and none from the second. Thanks again for sending these. Fun to experiment with...

I don't remember what I sent you. Depending on variety, you may be able to tell by smell.

My brother used to have 4 different varieties and lost track of which was which, so he'd just mix them together. He's kind of a seat of the pants brewer and never used software, so he'd just throw in a handful or two of hops and see how it worked. If it was too bitter he'd use less the next time. If not bitter enough, more next time. More power to him, but I can't brew that way.