Hop Harvest time!

[Muddydisco]

Seems As the weather has broke up here and the winds have dried out the hops nicely, I shall be harvesting them all on my own today.
Pics will follow as will the pics of my Oast. See you in around 6hrs :cry:

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Mine are also ready, looks like a good harvest this year. :party:

 

[graysalchemy]

My rhizomes didn't even push any shoots out of the ground. However I have found a whole heap of wild ones I may harvest, keeping my eye on them.

 

[Swift Pint]

Stupid question. How do you know when its time to harvest?
I harvested too late last year & they were all a little bit too brown and dry & smelt a bit funny.

 

[Muddydisco]

Once the cones are open, and they feel papery, just before they turn brown!!

I have under estimated how many hops I have got!!! 3 hrs in I have just finished 1 Plant, the Fuggles grand total before drying 1.7kg
Got 5 more to go :shock: May take longer than 6 hrs may be into days!

 

[Swift Pint]

Nice one, cheers. I found a few videos on youtube too which should help.

How do you dry yours? I was thinking putting them in baking trays in the airing cupboard, turning occasionally.
Do you package them and store them, or just make an almighty wet hop beer?!

 

[Wendy1971]

You could dry them on a net curtain stretched out somewhere dark and warm turn them every day to help with the drying process.

 

[Muddydisco]

Here's the Pic's of my Hop Oast! Hedgerow Pete and Springer might reconise the set up

All 5 levels now full and blow drying as we speak. Mind you won't take long they were throughly blown dry the last couple of days. have lost a fair few to wind Damage

1.7 Kg fuggle
700grm Northdown (poor this year)
1 Kg Challenger
Target haven't been harvested yet just ****** it down and my oast is full anyway :lol:

 

[graysalchemy]

That looks like a nifty bit of carpentry MD :thumb: :thumb:

 

[shearclass]

However I have found a whole heap of wild ones I may harvest, keeping my eye on them.

Hi

I have a hop plant that has not harvested anything, though i didn't expect them to as this was it's first year.

I have, however, just come accross a wild plant that appears to look very much like hops. Is there any way at all that I can know what characteristics they will have, or do i just have to try some and find out? I only do kits, but liek to dry hop, or boil a few litres of water with some hops before starting fermentation.

 

[Sean_Mc]

Good stuff MD, totally forgotten about my little fuggle, will have to see how its doing in the morn :thumb: