Hops Progress

These are the Willamette hops I am growing in Alexandria.

As we were preparing to leave last Saturday for a week of vacation in the Valley, I made one last progress check on the little potted hops rhizomes I’ve got out in the backyard in Alexandria.  There’s a photo here of the Willamette vines – my high achievers, but the Golding vines are doing well also, and at last there were little leaves poking out of the ground on the Centennial. 

Dan's hopyard - five varieties, and a homebrew porter.

Later that evening we joined up with Sally and Dan for dinner, and while we were there we took a walk around Dan’s expanding hopyard.  The mature vines there – several of these were planted four years ago, have already taken off and are climbing up the trainer strands.  He’s going to have a crop this year that will carry him through all of next year’s brewing, probably, and then some.

Incidentally, he now has five hops varieties going in the hopyard:  Cascade, Centennial, Willamette, US Fuggle, and Hallertauer.  His production will be suited to a wide variety of brewing next year – including at least IPAs, porters, and lagers.

A vine of Cascade hops, used as decoration.

As we settled down to dinner, there was a surprise in the planters around the patio – he had used some of his Cascade rhizomes for decoration.  Since my Centennial vine looks to be a slow starter, I might use this technique this year to let it grow and establish itself.