BeerBorg

So you planted some hop rhizomes, watered them, trained them up a trellis or twine and now they are sporting an abundance of nice plump, flower-like cones. How and when should you harvest them? Do they need to be processed somehow? How should they be stored? How could they be used in your beer? Growing hops is an exciting addition to any home brewery. Here’s how to get a hop crop from the yard to the brew pot.

First a little background. Common Hops (Humulus lupulus) are a hardy perennial plant that dies back to the ground each winter then grows up again in the spring. The plant grows as a bine, which will wrap clockwise around anything handy and cling to it with the aid of stiff bristles on the stem. The female fruit are often referred to as cones for their resemblance to spruce cones, only green and leafy. These are the hops that we know and love in our beer. The place where hops are grown is referred to as a yard.