Second year dank hops....pumping straight outta the Nordeast soil!

After years of contemplating homebrewing, last year I took the plunge and decided to buy a kit from Midwest Brew Supply.   It was still winter, March of 09 and so I was early enough and already obsessed enough to buy a few hop rhizomes.  Everyone should grow hops!  Local farmers should grow tons of hops! I have three varieties; Magnum, Nugget, and Mt. Hood.  Here are links to what these hops can do for ya.

Magnum Hops profile
Nugget Hops -profile
Mt. Hood Hop profile

I wish I would have bought a few tasty flavor and aroma hops, Cascade maybe, duh!  Oh well.   I'm not too worried though. Last year I did get some locally grown Cascade hops from a guy (sorry, forgot your name) in New Hope and it turned out frickin fantastic in my Native Brown Ale.  Thanks man!  I decided to just go nutz and do an IBA.  I put all 4+ ounces of MN Cascade into that Brown. 

Well, last year my hops grew, but they didn't produce a ton of buds.  The Mt. Hood didn't flower at all, but the Magnum , and Nugget hops produced what seemed to be around an ounce a piece.   Unfortunately I had a fire pit located a little too close to the hops last fall and after a long night in the backyard, I woke up to toasted hops hanging from my fence...doh!


This year, the hops are going like crazy! 

Here's a couple pictures from 4/2/10

Here are a few pictures from May 15th on my 6 foot fence.

They haven't even grown that much in the last 15 days. It's been raining a ton, but the cloud cover has stunted vertical growth.   The roots are just suckin up all the goodness.  Next weeks 80 degree weather is going to make them explode!  The Magnum is almost 8 feet already!  Check em out a month and 12 days later!

Nothin like growin ur own!   If you have a lot of light, a ton of space for the bines to grow up, you should absolutely plant some hops.


I also wanted to mention a great new-ish hop farm in MN that I just found out about today. HippityHopsFarms!  They have 150 Cascade rhizomes in the ground, 75 of them on their second year, and 75 new rhizomes.   Plant the planet!  Plant Minnesota!

Salute!