growing hops in AK

[Skookumchuck]

Not to change the subject too much, but since we're on the topic of hops and malted barely, I have my first batch of homebrew ready to bottle. A couple weeks of conditioning / carbonating and I'll get to sample my first attempts at homebrewing!

Let us know how it comes out shearej! I boiled up 10 gallons of Pale ale w/ lots of amarillo hops this weekend. Hell of a brew day with the wind chill and frozen hoses....but I did make beer. yeasties are chewing away. Got a 7.8% spruce ale and keg-hopped 6.4% india brown on tap right now...mmmm beer...

 

[smpow]

In SE - maybe.

In SE - maybe.

Howdy - Last spring I purchased some rhizomes down south and grew 4 different varieties: Magnum, Centennial, Cascades, and ...I forget. The size of rhizome made a big difference in their first year. The biggest rhizome, produced the largest vines, and the smallest, the smallest. The biggest rhizome also produced some cones in its first year. I am concerned about their over-wintering status. We had some chilly weather (for the banana belt) sans snow. I am excited to see what happens this spring, might need to start over and do better winter insulating.

 

[upinak]

Oh neat! If they come back and do well, could you take some pictures for everyone and show us how they are standing up?

I would very much like to see how they do.

Howdy - Last spring I purchased some rhizomes down south and grew 4 different varieties: Magnum, Centennial, Cascades, and ...I forget. The size of rhizome made a big difference in their first year. The biggest rhizome, produced the largest vines, and the smallest, the smallest. The biggest rhizome also produced some cones in its first year. I am concerned about their over-wintering status. We had some chilly weather (for the banana belt) sans snow. I am excited to see what happens this spring, might need to start over and do better winter insulating.

 

[Warhorse]

Hops on the Kenai

Hops on the Kenai

We bought rhizomes a couple years ago from Arctic Brewing Supply up in Anchorage, they vine out nicely but never produce any cones. My wife put them on a trellis by her flower garden, they look nice in the summer but winter comes too early for them. They have came back the past two summers I guess we will see this spring also. So I buy mine via mail from Washington for homebrewing.

 

[kooky_]

Wondering if I should try to order some rhizomes to plant in Kodiak... Last I checked it was 19 hours of "sunlight"... Probably still too far north.

 

[iofthetaiga]

Wondering if I should try to order some rhizomes to plant in Kodiak... Last I checked it was 19 hours of "sunlight"... Probably still too far north.

I believe hops, like cannabis, require a certain photoperiod to stimulate flowering. If you chose a very early flowering variety, and depending on your site's micro-climate you might have a chance of getting them to make cones, but I would think not consistently. By the time the daylight starts getting shorter, the frost is coming also... But give it a try and let us know!

 

[kooky_]

I believe hops, like cannabis, require a certain photoperiod to stimulate flowering. If you chose a very early flowering variety, and depending on your site's micro-climate you might have a chance of getting them to make cones, but I would think not consistently. By the time the daylight starts getting shorter, the frost is coming also... But give it a try and let us know!

Yea, the cousin of cannabis. I would imagine there are auto-flower hops? Time based rather than light based. Never really looked into it. Perhaps they're not popular or don't exist.

Hop pellets are cheap these days, but I've never been able to add fresh hops to a beer, probably very tasty... Cryo Hops are quite good. What a remarkable plant.

 

[iofthetaiga]

Yea, the cousin of cannabis. I would imagine there are auto-flower hops? Time based rather than light based. Never really looked into it. Perhaps they're not popular or don't exist.

Hop pellets are cheap these days, but I've never been able to add fresh hops to a beer, probably very tasty... Cryo Hops are quite good. What a remarkable plant.

I've never heard of an auto-flower hop. Perhaps someone is working on it. If a person had a greenhouse here large enough to permanently allocate space to hops, s/he could probably grow enough for homebrewing.

Not fan of pellets for brewing, have always preferred whole flower. I suspect the freeze dried/foil vacuum packed flowers are just about as good as fresh dried(?).

 

[AKluvr95]

I was at the plant nursery in Indian Valley a few years back when I was excited to see several hop plants for sale. I grew Cascade & Chinook successfully while stationed in Idaho. After speaking w/ the grower, they said, "they're ornamental and would not produce cones". Not sure if this helps, but, you might pop in that nursery on your drive by and speak w/ them.

 

[NRick]

It was a while ago, so I don't remember the details, but someone in Anchorage was able to grow some cones by covering the vines with shade cloth at some point in the summer. The cloth blocked some, but not all of the daylight. I couldn't tell you at what point he did this though.

 

[grizzlyantle]

I've never heard of an auto-flower hop. Perhaps someone is working on it. If a person had a greenhouse here large enough to permanently allocate space to hops, s/he could probably grow enough for homebrewing.

Not fan of pellets for brewing, have always preferred whole flower. I suspect the freeze dried/foil vacuum packed flowers are just about as good as fresh dried(?).

No such thing as auto-flower hops. Unlike cannabis, there is no ruderalis variety of hops to tap into for that specific gene set. (disclaimer: I am a cannabis breeder and medical grower with 26yrs of experience)

You may be able to utilize light deprivation growing techniques, I run long flowering sativas outdoors with a light dep greenhouse to shorten their season. I would imagine that setting the light schedule to 12/12 would get the hops to flower when you want to start that process.

As far as hops go, I worked at a brewery for a couple years. The freeze dried/foil packed hops work great and maintain lots of flavor. They are available in both conventional and organic, so you can get as schmancy as you wanna go. I really dig the citra hops from Crosby hop farm has a very bright finish.

 

[iofthetaiga]

As far as hops go, I worked at a brewery for a couple years. The freeze dried/foil packed hops work great and maintain lots of flavor.

I love cutting open a pouch of flowers and sticking my nose in there! There's no question of the quality of that preservation method offers, but I've never had access to fresh dried for comparison...

I am a cannabis breeder and medical grower with 26yrs of experience

Want to help me breed an auto-flowering version Purple Buddha?

 

[grizzlyantle]

I love cutting open a pouch of flowers and sticking my nose in there! There's no question of the quality of that preservation method offers, but I've never had access to fresh dried for comparison...


Want to help me breed an auto-flowering version Purple Buddha?

I am always down to throw pollen

 

[iofthetaiga]

I am always down to throw pollen

Do you collect pollen in advance and save it (if so, how?), or do you try to time the two selections to be crossed to mature simultaneously?

 

[grizzlyantle]

Do you collect pollen in advance and save it (if so, how?), or do you try to time the two selections to be crossed to mature simultaneously?

Pollen is not very stable, even under the best conditions it will only be viable for a few months. Humidity is the enemy, pollen goes bad when it gets wet. I normally plant a bunch of seeds and hunt them for the best male or female, depending on the desired cross. I take cuttings of all of the plants and make clones. Once the first grow shows results, the clones that didn't make it get culled and the keepers get cloned again for backup and breeding stock. It is a process.