View of (and from) hop trellis hammock, Summer 2011.

I have been growing hops in the backyard since 2005, and I built this trellis in the front yard in 2008. Now in their 4th year of transplant, the Centennial hops at the left are doing quite well. A year or so ago I also planted some on the right side. They have yet to really mature. Maybe in 2012 this will be totally covered in hops. Harvest time is coming up soon! I'm going to make a wet hop beer for the first time. I will try to take some vids. cheers.

http://www.donosborn.com/homebrew/growinghops_2008.htm

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Entertainment

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• homebrewing
• homegrown
• hops
• growing
• hop
• beer
• brew

[AgileHProductions]

That's great. I was thinking about building a pergola in my backyard. Maybe I'll have hops grow over it. What do they do in the winter? Do they lose all their leaves?

[donosborn]

@AgileHProductions Yeah I cut them down in the fall, down to the ground. The shoots pop up in the Spring and you are off again. The plants would die if you left them "up" but they are perennials so I think most people just cut them down to pick the hops. That is how commerical hop farms do it too. cheers.

[MattToffolon]

Glad to finally see a vid of your frontyard hops you have been speaking about all these years! :) Do you find they grown well horizontally like that rather than completely vertically? Keep up the great vids as always P.s. I still owe you an Aussie care-package of brew :)

[donosborn]

@MattToffolon Good question. I would say they prefer to go straight up. They can be trained to grow horizontally but you have to keep winding them around the twine. And they seem to lose interest in growing that way after a number of feet (as you can kind of see in this vid). But if you don't have the option of growing them straight up, it works. Thanks for the comment and I await that shipment. :)

[HokieHomeBrew]

How many oucnes/lbs do you get out of a typical year?

[donosborn]

@HokieHomeBrew I don't get as much as I am told I should get (like 1 lb/plant). But I end up with maybe around 1 or 1.5 lbs total from my plants, and frankly, that is as much as I want to use anyway. They are not quite the same as store bought ones (not as potent or bitter I find) so I like to use them, but I also mostly like to use commerical ones. cheers.

[Dactat]

epicly awesome!

[kennapop3]

Great vid. Now I need to plan mine.

[HokieHomeBrew]

that's awesome, don. I'm looking forward to getting a place where I can grow some hops!

[homebeerbrewery]

Realy cool place to nap:) cheers!