Tinkering with Wild Hops

A Golden Drop of Sun: Tinkering with Wild Hops

As Doug Tallamy likes to say, plants turn sunlight into food. All life benefits from this, especially you and me. Attending the Saint Louis Zoo’s Pollinator Dinner annually in June is an eye-opening reminder of the importance of sunlight, pollinators, and native plants. I highly recommend it. The food is creatively prepared and delicious. Each dish is the happy result of pollination of the ingredients of the dishes, by bees or other insects. For example, squash is pollinated by squash bees. Chestnuts are pollinated by common bumble bees (and the wind). Dishes at the 2022 Pollinator Dinner included sumac and cornmeal-crusted catfish, charred wild garlic and sorrel maple brined turkey, bison hand pies, roasted squash with a pumpkin seed pesto, roasted burdock, wild grape dumplings, grape syrup, and chestnut crumble, to name a few. Wow!

In recent years I’ve come to appreciate a new native plant for its ability to transform sunlight into golden drops of beer. Wild hops (Humulus lupulus) is native in Missouri along railroads and roadsides. I first noticed it in Pacific, Missouri, growing along an abandoned railroad at the edge of town. I’ve since seen it growing wild in hedgerows and woodland edges more widely. It even grows at Shaw Nature Reserve at an undisclosed location. (“Undisclosed” because brewers are collecting wild hops in other parts of the country, but collecting on private property in Missouri is prohibited.)

Wild fresh harvested hops are a sought-after ingredient that makes really great beer.I can confirm this because four years ago we collected wild hop seed, grew seedlings, planted a fifty-foot long hop yard (a tall trellis) and last summer, harvested four bushels of fresh hops. What to do with so many hops? We gave them to Six Mile Bridge Brewery of course (owned by Lindsay and Ryan Sherring) in Maryland Heights, Missouri, who produced a delicious citrusy saison. This experimental batch was the first of what we hope will grow into many more tasty beers concocted with Shaw Nature Reserve native hops.

Though they are easy to grow, native hops need a frequent thinning to produce a decent quantity of fruit. Vines need to be trained on a trellis that is at least 8 to 10 feet tall, or even higher. The other thing to keep in mind is that plants are dioecious. That means that male and female plants are separate. Only female plants produce hops, so it is to your advantage to have more female plants and fewer (or no) male plants.

There are more and more home and craft brewers using specialty hops, and quite a few of them are growing their own. There is also a handful of foragers, looking for hops growing in the wild. Though it is legal to collect seed along roadsides in Missouri, it would be challenging to find enough wild hops for anything but a small home brew operation. I recommend growing them at home on a trellis. If you are interested in acquiring seed of wild hops for your homebrew operation, Shaw Nature Reserve can supply you with starter seed packets. I cannot think of a better way to spend time, than to turn the sun’s rays into a golden pint of beer.

Happy brewing, y’all! Humulus lupulus Hops Pouring a glass of golden drops of sun!

Wild hops growing on trellises at Shaw Nature Reserve. The female flowers (the hops) from these plants were used to create this special brew crafted by Six Mile Bridge Brewery.

SCOTT WOODBURY Horticulturist

Scott Woodbury was the horticulturist at Shaw Nature Reserve for 30 years and stepped down from that position in June 2022. He continues to work on contract for Shaw Nature Reserve to carry out native landscaping education, and has launched his own business called Cacalia: Native Garden Design and Wilding.

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The Greater Kansas City Water Garden Society Presents Turtle Crawl Water Garden Tour 2022

29th Annual Tour Continues

Our “Turtle Crawl Water Garden Tour” highlights different locations around the entire metropolitan area. As we celebrate the art of nature, we will continue to host plein air artists during the day at many sites and will conclude with a local business-sponsored evening garden party.

Only 3 tour dates remain

in the 2022 Season of Tours scheduled for the following Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Rain or Shine

Tour # 3 Aug 6, Kansas North Zone: Merriam, Shawnee, Prairie Village, Wyandotte County and Leavenworth County Tour # 4 Aug 20, Missouri Central Zone: Jackson County North and west of 435, Independence, Blue Springs, and Raytown Tour # 5 Aug 27, Missouri South Zone: Jackson County south and east of 435, Lee’s Summit, Lake Winnebago, Cass and Ray Counties

Tickets for all tours are $10. Tour one or all for the same price. Children under 14 attend free. Purchase tickets through Eventbrite by visiting kcwatergardens.com/tour. Garden Centers and other retail outlets have tour books/tickets available.

Our Turtle Crawl Water Garden Tour is our only fundraiser to build ponds for schools and other nonprofits. To date we have built and sustained over 60 water features. Plan to attend the tour of water features this summer. It’s sure to be turtley awesome!