First Hop Harvest!

We picked the first harvest from our organically-grown Cascade hop crop!  General wisdom is that hop plants take three years to really establish themselves, but I'm very pleased with this crop.  With this first harvest, I picked 7 ounces of hops (weighed before drying).  I estimate that there are at least three times as many cones still on the bines, maturing.  Here are the very fragrant cones:

You can see that some of them are nice and large, and my hands smelled lovely afterwards:

We planted three hills of Cascade rhizomes and they all did great.  We also planted two hills of Willamette, which came up and grew, but didn't thrive.  Looking at the bines and leaves (no cones developed), you would think that they weren't watered enough, but I couldn't have watered them much more than I did.  I'm hoping they put all their energy into developing their root crown underground in preparation for next year!  Here's a photo of the Cascade bines growing along the west side of our home:

After picking, I divided the hop cones into three brown paper bags and put them in a warm and dark upstairs closet, to dry.  In a couple of days, after they have dried, I'll put them in freezer bags and freeze them for later use. 

These hops were grown from rhizomes we bought from Glen Fuller at Rising Sun Farms http://www.coloradoorganichops.com in Colorado.  Glen is an organic farmer who recently began growing and selling hops.  I've used Glen’s hops (Cascades, actually) in previous beers, including an IPA we are currently drinking http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/Short-Nights-IPA.html

If you are a homebrewer and would like more information on growing hops and other brewing herbs, check out the Homebrewers Garden, its great fun to read and full of good information.