Hop Farm Season 2011 Begins!

Around this time of year, it's usually a good idea to start getting ready for the upcoming hop growing season.  My hop farm is located in sun drenched San Diego North County.  I have three terraced rows on a north-facing slope.  Each row is setup to accommodate ten mounds (for a total of 30 mounds) which seems more than enough to handle on a casual basis.  Here's several images to show the preseason hop farm:

Hop Farm from the top of the mulch hill.

Hop Farm from the east.

Detail of the terraces with lots of weeds to pull.

Hop Farm from the lower east slope.

Hop Farm from the lower west slope. Avocado tree to the right.

Today, Michelle and I set out mostly to start weeding and mulching.  The ground was nicely wet from recent rains so the weeds were easy to pull. While we worked for quite some time, we were only able to take care of the top row (Chinook and Centennial).  Next weekend we will try to recruit Kara to come and help with the bottom two rows (although the outlook looks like rain again).

My wife, Michelle, taking out those weeds!

After the weed pulling (which never stops) and mulching, we'll need another work day to prune the mounds.   Essentially, this involves shoveling and cutting around the mound to trim down the roots to prevent the plants from popping up away from the mound.  This should also present opportunities to find rhizomes to share with others.  I have a few QUAFF buddies already signed up for Chinook and Centennial rhizomes.

Hop Farm Row 1 (Chinook and Centennial) weeded and mulched.

Beyond pruning comes trellis maintenance and restringing.  All of my posts seem to be in good condition this year.  I will need to re-anchor the end-posts of each row to help keep the top guide-line taut.   A small buried cement block might do the trick.  I know that hop farms restring each year with twine but I have been using wire.  I'm finding the wire tends to rust out after one or two season so perhaps I should also look into finding a better solution for this as well.

Row 1 from the west, after weeding and mulching.

Another concern, I need to find better solutions for the problem with rabbits and gophers chewing on the vines.  In some cases, these wascal wabbits have chewed mature cone bearing vines that essentially put an early season stop to some of my mounds.  Possibly a simple chicken-wire cage will keep the nasty gnawers at bay.  See some of my previous hops seasons' blog posts on this topic and more.

One Chinook hop mound seems to already be breaking soil.

As for this year's last planning element, I want to replace all the mounds in the middle row with two new varieties of "C" hops.  While the former two varieties,  Magnum and Vojvodina, had a good running, last year had a significant decrease in viability and yield.  It's time to get rid of these and move on.  Considering the success of my Chinook and Centennial mounds, I believe other "C" hops will likely do as well.  I recently pre-ordered Columbus hops and am crossing my fingers for Cluster or Citra to be available this year.  Even Simcoe (we'll write it "Cimcoe" to keep with the theme) would be desirable.

Here's a couple of links for buying rhizomes directly from the source.  As of now, no rhizome source has a list of what will be available this year.  Several homebrew suppliers and stores will also have rhizomes available beginning next month.  I got really excited when More Beer! announced their rhizome pre-order a couple of weeks ago and jumped at the chance to order Columbus hops.  Their pre-sale deal is only good until March 1st.
Rhizomes from Hops Direct
Rhizomes from Northwest Hops

Hops Direct made a YouTube video series last season to show the hop farming process.  They're great if you haven't seen them yet.  Hop farmer guru at Hops Direct, Stacy Puterbaugh, shows you how to plant hops and even what a large scale hop harvest looks like.  I'll share some of these videos here as the season moves on.

Hops TV, Episode 1: Planting Hops

California Common, January 30 2010

Beer is on its way, my friends!

I had a hANCHORing for a steam beer and it just so happens that house temperatures are ideal right now for fermenting this style. Michelle and I and our friend Kara have had a number of Anchor Brewing beers in the past few months and it reminded me of how much I truly enjoy their Steam® beer (that's right, the descriptor "steam" is a registered trademark by Anchor Brewing and thus the universal style is named California Common rather than a steam beer). I've brewed a handful of beers in this style in the past and you just can't go wrong! I spent the last two weeks dreaming of how I want this beer to be brewed (a clear sign of a serious homebrewing problem!) with the current storehouse availability.
In other news... The state of the kegerator is in recovery mode ever since the mass consumption that took place over New Year's. Currently on tap is the Agave Smoked Porter and the two versions of the Mayahuel Mild. The porter is already running low after bottling-out and a surge of consumption from the recent homebrew drought. The milds were also bottled-out for our club-only session challenge competition as well as to share with Larry at Cantina Mayahuel this coming Monday. Though in recovery, the kegerator is calling, "Feed me, Seymour!" I've realized that I need to start doing 10 gallon batches in the future just to keep up with the local consumption.
While in Big Bear I did manage to bottle out some of the homebrews to share with QUAFF and for the upcoming AFC Homebrew Competition. This past Tuesday, I shared a few beers with my fellow QUAFFers, the infamous Blueberry Wheat, Winter Warmer, and the recent Agave Smoked Porter. I've been genuinely enjoying sharing my beers at our club meetings. While it seems to be easy to please friends, it is the comments and appreciation from fellow homebrewers that is most gratifying.

California Common, January 30 2010
5 Gallons, All Grain, Single Infusion Mash, 90 Minute Boil

8 lbs. Maris Otter Pale
1 lb. Crystal 20
1/2 lb. Victory
1/4 lb. Biscuit
1/4 lb. Caravienne
Single Infusion Mash at 148°F

1 oz. Homegrown Vojvodina hops for 60 min.
1 oz. Spalt for 20 min.
1 Whirlfloc tab 20 min.
1/2 oz. Hallertauer for 10 min.
1/2 oz. Saaz for 10 min.
1/4 oz. Hallertauer for 5 min.
1/4 oz. Saaz for 5 min.

White Labs WLP810 San Francisco Lager Yeast (vial to starter), thanks Kara!

OG: 1.062 @ 66°F
FG: 1.014 @ 42°F
Kegged on March 8th, ABV 6.5%
*some bottled for sharing on March 17th, damn its good!

Image Source: This 1931 anti-prohibition march in New Jersey photograph occurs in abundant locations all over the web. There are many online entities selling prints of this photograph as well. While I found numerous descriptions, none identified the photographer or an authentic source. Considering its abundance on the internet without a valid origin, I feel this is a heritage photo and took the liberty to upload it to my own album.

Vojvodina and Centennial Harvest

Here's me picking the vojvodina hops. The ladder is 6 feet to give you an idea where the top of the trellis is. Vojvodina has a very low yield, small cones, and are delicate to pick. The bitterness is on the lower end and quite smooth. The aromatics remind me of hallertauer but its more subtle. We filled a half brown grocery bag with all of the vojvodina cones that were ready, some new cone growth was apparent. We also filled an entire bag with centennial. We barely put a dent in the hop picking today. The vines that made it this year are just loaded! Sent from my mobile phone.