GROWING HOPS

Whether you want to get into home brewing or are simply looking for a hardy perennial to provide shade, consider planting hops in your backyard. This quick-growing plant will attract butterflies and can provide shade and privacy as it grows.

Hops is a vining plant—mature vines can grow as tall as 25 feet—so a trellis system is required for backyard growing. Depending on your space, your trellis system can be as simple as a fence or an arbor. Hops are fast growers. The plant can grow up to a foot per day during the first few months after planting!

Once your hops plants have grown to about a foot in height, it is time to begin training them to grow up your trellis system. This “training” process helps the vines stay healthy and strong. Use twine to train the vines to the trellis. Select only vigorous vines to train and prune away the less vigorous ones. As plants reach the top of the trellis, they will begin to branch put horizontally. It is these horizontal branches that will produce the cones that are used for brewing beer.

Because hops plants grow vigorously and can easily take over your garden each spring and summer, you may need to trim their roots back each spring. Sink a spade into the ground in a 12-inch circle around the rhizomes.

Warning: Hops cones can be toxic to dogs. Do not allow your dog to eat the cones, either fresh or dried.

If your goal in planting hops is to make beer, your hops plant should be ready to harvest the cones the first fall after planting. A single hop plant can produce up to one pound of cones, so several plants are usually sufficient for home brewers. Your hops vines will reach their full maturity—with a pound or more of cones per plant— after three years.

Each hops cone grows to a length of one to two inches with papery green scales. In late summer, pinch a cone. If the texture is papery, the cone is ready to pick. Inside the ripe cone are small, yellow particles, called lupulin, that give beer its flavor and aroma. Your cones will mature at different times over the next few weeks, so check them frequently for ripening. Be careful—cones are very thin and can come apart when picked. Do not pull but use pruning shears to remove them from the plant. It is a good idea to wear gloves and long sleeves when you harvest because hops plants can cause skin irritation in some people.

After harvesting your cones, it is time to dry them. Simply spread them out in the sunshine in a single layer on a clean window screen. Make sure you protect the screen from squirrels and other wildlife. Outdoor drying can take anywhere from a few hours to several days, depending on your region’s weather.

You also can dry hops in the oven. Set the temperature at 140°F and leave the oven door slightly open to allow moisture to escape. Watch the hops closely to make sure the cones do not become too brittle. Use the cones right away for brewing, or you can store them in a sealed container in the freezer for later use.