Growing Hops

I've been tempted over the past couple of years to grow my own hops, and then in turn, brew my very own pale ale. Nothing commercial or to a large degree, I'm not a big drinker really, its more to immerse in the process and hopefully with a fairly decent method see a return of a decent brew.

Has anyone on here ever grown hops? I know commercially, large telegraph style poles are erected with ropes for the bines to climb and cling to. I have no intention of going mad in that direction, but was thinking of making a rope wall down one side of my allotment plot. Fence posts from the top of the plot to the bottom.

If anyone has had a go in the past with fairly decent results I'd love to know your experience. I'm trying to school myself best as I can before looking into getting it going.

Cheers, beers and mucky ears

 

I've got wild hops growing in my garden, make sure you plant them away from paths/children as the sharp spines on their stems will tear skin plus cause rashes if you brush against them.

This should do until I take a macro shot in my garden ...

 

I had no idea. I shall definitely be taking your advice.
One side of my plot is used as the main pathway to move from the lane (front of plot) to my potting shed (back of plot), the other side, luckily, has a trench that I use as a divider from my neighbours plot, but which also comes in handy as drainage. So after what you have said, it would make sense to use that side, which is already an out of bounds area, due to the trench.

 

Only ever grown a variegated hop myself, but they tend to still grow in the hedgerows around here, and up the odd telegraph pole.
They are pretty rampant things once they get a hold.

Just another thought, but the sap contains a brown dye.

 

After the first harvest I shall be cutting right back so that the well known bullying rhizome roots don't wander off. My plot is sloped so I'm thinking of going the horizontal washing line approach.

Do you think the brown dye in the sap plays its part in the colouration of the ale then? I didn't realise they had that.
I suppose with only hops used in brewing and not stems or bines, I imagine the colour could only come from the hops. That's a guess though.

 

I have an ornamental Golden hop very nice leaves , but as Pete said the growth is rampant . I think @Zigs used home grown hops in a brew . He may advise on the success or failure of the trial ?

 

Make sure you get a decent variety, wild hops can give dodgy flavours to beer.

 

Cheers Harry!
As I said I plan to train it clockwise up a couple of bines and hopefully keep on top of it. I'm putting the planning in now ready to plant some dormant rhizomes around January, which will hopefully come to life around spring.

Fingers crossed @Zigs has a couple of pointers to throw into the pot. Every bit helps.

Thanks buddy

 

Here he is!

That's the plan mate. A proper decent brewers variety. Have you had any success yourself?

 

Not grown em meself, usually buy fuggles

Had a thought, don't over hop a brew, they're a strong sedative. I put too many in once, got a strong bitter flavour but fell asleep after 2 pints

 

Haha trust you! Good shout mate, I think I'm gonna play around and make a few varied batches and see which works best.
After a proper drying, hops are supposed to store well in vac bags in the freezer, so I'm hoping to have a wide window for mistakes

 

I just store them dry in a cupboard.

Only UK member of the Cannabis family, they do contain a small amount of THC man