Richard asks…
How easy, or hard is it to grow my own Hops for homebrewing?
What are the optimal soil and sunlight conditions?
GardenersCardiff answers:
Most likely your climate is a good climate to grow hops, assuming you live in the continental US. Once you plant the rhizome, water, water, water will help get the hop bines (hop plant equivalent to vines) going in the right direction. Many books will tell you to cut back the first shoots and allow the plant to grow up to 15 feet tall, but if you have an equivalent length fence, the hop vines will climb along it instead. Plus, it’s much easier to collect the hop cones from the fence. Some years, you will get too many hops and some you will get just enough from one plant. Almost never will you not have enough hops.
Donna asks…
How easy, or hard is it to grow my own Hops for homebrewing?
What are the optimal soil and sunlight conditions?
GardenersCardiff answers:
Hops is one of the easiest plants I have ever grown. It needs lots and lots of room to spread out and climb. Mine is planted on the west side of an old garage with southern and western sun exposure, none from the east. It has survived 3 winters of North Dakota sub zero winters and comes back beautiful. I don`t water it very much except during late spring and if the temps hit over 90 for more then a couple days in a row. Once growing season is over I will trim it up , and pile dead leaves around and over the base right before freeze up. You should have no problems with it.
William asks…
Is beer better when the hops, malt, barley, and wheat are in season?
In Budweiser for example, do they grow their own grain or do they get it from farmers. Where do they get the beechwood from? Is the beechwood inspected before they throw it in the big tub of beer? Which river or stream does Coors get it’s water from? Is beer better in January than it is in August?
GardenersCardiff answers:
Please don’t think I’m being sarcastic here, but if the breweries waited for the above mentioned to come into season. Beer would not only be extremely expensive, but very difficult to find year-round. Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) does have several contractural agreements with farmers to grow their ingredients. That’s a well knowned fact. However, grains, etc. Are processed and packaged and shipped all over the world to different breweries. A prime example, Great Lakes in Ohio gets some of their hops from England. So, as long as there is no breach in the ingredients that would compromise freshness, it doesn’t matter when the beer is made. I use to know the answer to your beechwood question, but it’s slipped away from me. However, if you go to their website, you can get this in detail. Same with Coors in regards to their stream. Contact them, or browse their website. There is an entire world of beer out there 🙂
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