Harvested hops at the Richland Brewhaus this past weekend. A bounty of hops is now drying nicely, ready to be added to new brews and vacuum packed for future beer.The hops smelled great when picking. One thing I didn't expect was the stickyness; the resin in the hops cones turns your hands a mild yellow and makes them very tacky.
The harvest consisted of Cascade and Nugget. A few things to note about the hops and the harvest are that hops that got more sunlight where much larger than those growing in partial shade. With the amount of heavy rain we have had lately there was no need to water the plants this year.
We picked the large hops cones from the vine and left many of the smaller cones to mature a little.
Now that the hops are drying it is a little disappointing to see how quickly they start to weigh almost nothing. Most of the weight of the fresh hops is water and after drying I realize that it is going to take a very large amount of whole hops to brew an entire beer (bittering, flavoring, finishing and dry hopping).
I look forward to testing my green thumb next year and grow my own hops.
