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Date: 06 Aug 2006 11:27:26
From: David M. Taylor
Subject: Second-Year Hop Crop - 1.1 oz
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Last weekend I harvested my second-year Hallertauer hops.... a lot of them
were turning brown, and all had plenty of bright yellow lupulin. I thought
it was a bit early, but then again, Hallertauers are supposed to mature
early, so I figured, what the heck, and picked almost all of them except for
the really tiny ones. I must have picked fricking 500 hop cones, and it
took me more than an hour to pick them all. I was all excited, envisioning
the 4 or 5 batches of beer I could make with all these hops. (Note: I have
always used pellets in the past, never whole hops.)
After drying, low and behold, I came to find out that I had a whopping 1.1
ounces of hops. 1.1 ounces. Barely enough to do flavor or aroma for a
single batch, let alone 4 or 5 batches.
Is it just me, or is this a crazy low yield for a second-year crop? I
suppose I should mention that yes, there are a few little hops such that I
could still conceivably get a second crop later in the summer. But even
still, I probably won't get much more than like 1.5 ounces total this year.
Part of the reason I'm disappointed is that I plan to brew a batch with
nothing but my own hops, including bittering, flavor, and aroma. I figure,
with the crop I've got right now, I should be able to brew a delicious pale
ale, but only about 1.2 gallons of it. I'm going to brew it this week
Wednesday. I guess I don't care if I only end up with a 12-pack, it will be
made with MY hops, dammit. But I wish I could have made a little more.
Then again, maybe it will turn out terrible and I'll be glad it was only 12
bottles instead of a 24-case or two. Only one way to find out.
Any experience that you guys could share regarding your hop plant yields, or
anything else hop plant related, or any other advice would be appreciated.
I loved planting my hops and watching them grow. But I can't help but be a
little bit crabby that I can only make 1.2 gallons with them, after all this
loving care I put into them.
--
Dave
"Just a drink, a little drink, and I'll be feeling GOOooOOooOOooD!" --
Genesis, 1973-ish
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Date: 06 Aug 2006 15:56:20
From: schmitage
Subject: Re: Second-Year Hop Crop - 1.1 oz
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David M. Taylor wrote:
> "schmitage" <schmitage@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1154897711.550071.104900@n13g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> > 1.1 ounces after picking for an hour? My 1st year cascades had a very
> > light yield, and I got 3 oz off of 2 vines.. Took me about 15min to
> > pick them. Are you sure you don't have 1.1lbs? heh
>
> Positive. They weighed more than 1.1 oz prior to drying, no doubt. To be
> clear, 1.1 oz is the dry weight. So... what gives? Do you think I picked
> them too early or something?
>
> --
> Dave
> "Just a drink, a little drink, and I'll be feeling GOOooOOooOOooD!" --
> Genesis, 1973-ish
That would be my guess. You should've yielded quite a bit more, IMO.
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Date: 06 Aug 2006 20:39:20
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Second-Year Hop Crop - 1.1 oz
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On Sun, 6 Aug 2006 11:27:26 -0500, <dmtaylor@SPAM.geocities.SUCKS.com > wrote:
> Last weekend I harvested my second-year Hallertauer hops.... a lot of them
> were turning brown, and all had plenty of bright yellow lupulin. I thought
> it was a bit early, but then again, Hallertauers are supposed to mature
> early, so I figured, what the heck, and picked almost all of them except for
> the really tiny ones. I must have picked fricking 500 hop cones, and it
> took me more than an hour to pick them all. I was all excited, envisioning
> the 4 or 5 batches of beer I could make with all these hops. (Note: I have
> always used pellets in the past, never whole hops.)
>
> After drying, low and behold, I came to find out that I had a whopping 1.1
> ounces of hops. 1.1 ounces. Barely enough to do flavor or aroma for a
> single batch, let alone 4 or 5 batches.
500 hop cones only weighed 1.1 oz? IMO, something sounds weird about
those numbers.
John.
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Date: 06 Aug 2006 16:45:54
From: David M. Taylor
Subject: Re: Second-Year Hop Crop - 1.1 oz
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"John 'Shaggy' Kolesar" <spam@shagg.net > wrote in message
news:slrnedcl02.6i6.spam@weizen.shagg.net...
>
> 500 hop cones only weighed 1.1 oz? IMO, something sounds weird about
> those numbers.
Well, that's a ballpark.... I didn't actually count them, but I certainly
had more than say 200-300... I picked a ton of them. I wonder if I picked
them too early....... I must have picked them too early. The biggest ones
were maybe 1.25 inches long or slightly more, the majority were more like 1
inch, some were maybe 3/4 inch. They felt pretty dry and definitely smelled
like Hallertaus when squished. They fill a large ziplock freezer bag about
3/4 inch thick. I did go and weigh them again, and they weigh 1.4 oz,
including the ziplock bag. I know it's not my scale. I must have done
something wrong. What did I do wrong?
--
Dave
"Just a drink, a little drink, and I'll be feeling GOOooOOooOOooD!" --
Genesis, 1973-ish
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Date: 07 Aug 2006 10:15:21
From: John Heubel
Subject: Re: Second-Year Hop Crop - 1.1 oz
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"David M. Taylor" <dmtaylor@SPAM.geocities.SUCKS.com > wrote in message
news:uqtBg.337$SP2.215@fe04.lga...
> "John 'Shaggy' Kolesar" <spam@shagg.net> wrote in message
> news:slrnedcl02.6i6.spam@weizen.shagg.net...
>>
>> 500 hop cones only weighed 1.1 oz? IMO, something sounds weird about
>> those numbers.
>
> Well, that's a ballpark.... I didn't actually count them, but I certainly
> had more than say 200-300... I picked a ton of them. I wonder if I picked
> them too early....... I must have picked them too early. The biggest ones
> were maybe 1.25 inches long or slightly more, the majority were more like
> 1 inch, some were maybe 3/4 inch. They felt pretty dry and definitely
> smelled like Hallertaus when squished.
The cone size seems about right. Remember though that Hallertauer doesn't
have a high yield compared to some varieties like Crystal (in my
experience). You also said they were starting to turn brown. I wouldn't
have waited any longer based on your description, but without seeing them
personally I can't tell for sure. Hallertau is also a low alpha hop,
generally, so you should expect lower weight for a given volume, since there
will be correspondingly less lupulin per cone.
> They fill a large ziplock freezer bag about 3/4 inch thick. I did go and
> weigh them again, and they weigh 1.4 oz, including the ziplock bag. I
> know it's not my scale. I must have done something wrong. What did I do
> wrong?
Is this dried and uncompressed? I now have a FoodSaver to vaccuum seal my
hops, but when I used the gallon freezer bag method I would fill the bag
with dried cones, smash them down with my hand, fill some more, etc til I
could barely zip the bag. Must have been 3-4" across the "fattened" bag.
Then I would lay the bag on the ground with only a tiny opening in the
"zipper." Place a large book or other flat, sturdy surface on the bag, and
kneel down on it to force out as much air as possible. The finish the
zipping. This step would compress it to about 1" thick.
After all that, the most I ever got into a bag was about 3-4 oz, probably
less. So if you DIDN'T go to these lengths to cram the hops into the bag,
you're in the ballpark I would guess with 1-1.4oz.
--
John Heubel
remove the obvious for replies
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