Post by Gruesome on Nov 26, 2012 19:14:04 GMT -5
Since this is in no way an academic research project, I feel that it is not only appropriate but nearly 100% necessary to use Wikipedia as a citation source.. (All information is obtained from Wikipedia unless denoted otherwise.)
History and Background
Hops (Humulus Lupulus) are the flowers of a viney, ivy-looking plant and are a primary bittering, aromatic, and flavor agent used in beer. Beyond this purpose, hops are virtually useless except as ornamental vines. Hops were originally grown in China, and migrated from east to west. The first known cultivation of hops was recorded in 786 A.D. in the Hallertau, Germany region and were first used in brewing near 1079 (in Germany).
Information regarding the economic impact of hops is largely uncharted; however, Germany reigns as the word power in hops production generating nearly 35,000 metric tonnes. The United States is a distant second with nearly 24,000 metric tonnes.. (All 2010 statistics).
Hops are typically grown in the northern latitudes and thrive in sunny, temperate climates where irrigation and natural rainfall keep the ground moist but not saturated. The vines (sometimes called "bines") typically grow up to 20 feet in length and up to one foot per day during intense growing seasons. This aggressive growth necessitates the construction of tall, weight-bearing trellises with some sort of rope or twine mounted near the crown or base of the plant to allow the bines to climb. Just Google hops or hop vines/bines and look at the images (super cool stuff!!)
Growth
The trellis requirements and the intense growth of the plants make small scale growing difficult, but not impossible. Homebrewtalk.com is an online forum to discuss all things homebrewing, and leave it to the innovation (and reluctance to deplete capital resources) of homebrewers to devise a space and money-saving design and system for hop growing.
www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/texas-hop-garden-26406/ This link is to a remarkable thread put together by the user EdWort over at HBT. Fortunately for my (our) purposes, EdWort lives in Bee Cave, TX (just outside of the Marble Falls area) and has seen some relative success. This design for a hop "trellis" (tee pee as I prefer to call it) has an outstanding design and great upside in that several plants can be grown in a small area with little to no major work required.
Implementation and Acquisition
I plan on putting two of these tee pees in my nearly fully-sunned yard. One will have 3 separate varieties of plants which will allow for 2 bines to grow from each plant. I plan to only use one plant on the second trellis and attempt to grow as many bines as possible from a single crown. I believe that having 3 plants on one trellis will produce usable hops but will not produce large enough quantities to make more than one 5 gallon batch of beer. On the other hand, attempting to grow 3 or more bines for a single plant may require more energy than the plant can provide. Let it be known at this point that hop plants are perennial and die back to the crown every year, therefore, plants that have gone through several growing seasons are more likely to produce more bines and more flowers which would increase their overall propensity of production. That simple logic says that the young plants that I would acquire may not have the capacity to produce more than a few bines in their infancy. Nevertheless, this is an experiment.
While I'm at it, let's address "hop plant acquisition." Hops can be grown from rhizomes (subterranean roots) which can be purchased online for approximately $5 per rhizome; however, growing from rhizomes (although effective) may not produce a harvest in the plant's infancy and may take years to produce a harvestable crop. Secondarily, hop rhizomes are only available seasonally (typically January-March) as products are available. The good news comes in the form of Great Lakes Hops, LLC www.facebook.com/GreatLakesHops. These guys (according to reviews) kick metric tonnes of ass, and have one of the coolest business models I've ever seen. Rather than simply harvesting the rhizomes of plants and providing them seasonally, they maintain greenhouses throughout the year and actually sell entire plants (crowns and rhizomes) with a year's growth under their belts. No other company (that I can find online) sells whole hop plants. Not only do they provide nearly 30 varietals year-round, their plants are much more likely to produce a harvestable crop in the first growing season in this application! They are somewhat pricey at $10 per plant, but this is a small upcharge to pay for quality and harvestability.
Unrelated Scientific Beer MumboJumbo
A quick note on the science of hops...
Hop flowers contain a number of oils which are extracted through boiling or near-boiling temperatures. These oils are measured in alpha acid. (Hops also produce beta acids, but these are of least concern for this application.) Anyway.. Through some formula that some scientist formulated somewhere once upon a time, a brewer can calculate how many "International Bittering Units" (IBUs) a certain hop will impart during the boil in beer production. Alpha acid ratings range from 3% to upwards of 15% but rarely more. Typically, high alpha acid hops (those 8% and north) are used as "bittering" hops and are often put in the boil early. These bittering additions are termed such because they produce a perceived bitter flavor in the beer. Lower alpha acid hops (4% or so and lower) are used as aroma additions, and those inbetween can/are used as "flavor" hops. Just because a hop has a high or low alpha acid rating does certainly NOT eliminate it from being used out of traditional context.
All that to say that for all intensive purposes, a middle of the road multi-faceted hop would be ideal for this growing application. However, since we are using a number of different candidates for this experiment, there really is no limit for what is grown. We simply want to see what varietals will survive/thrive in Texas.
Medicinal Uses For Hops
An interesting aspect of hops that I have always found intriguing is the plants innate and natural ability to preserve. In fact the India Pale Ale (IPA) beer was created in response to demand for preserving beer in long journeys. During the time when the British occupied India it took many weeks if not months to transport supplies to the troops. The long delivery time of supplies meant that many perishable foods could not make the journey (beer included); however, the British realized that by using excessive amounts of hops during production and packing hops in the barrels used to ship beer they could actually preserve beer longer. The preservation quality of hops made it possible to get beer to the boys in India!
I once saw that 98% of all hops produced are used in beer making or the beer industry in some capacity, but it never dawned on me to actually discover (or at least research) what other medicinal properties the plant has. According to this link www.wisegeek.org/besides-beer-what-are-hops-used-for.htm, hops were used as a sleep aid in herbal applications such as teas. Herbalists would also make pillows stuffed with hops to further help patients sleep. Scientific evidence has proven that consuming hops can improve gastrointestinal problems and has even been proven to help prevent/fight cancer (but what doesn't?). The preservation and antibacterial properties of the hop flowers were discovered by the Ancient Chinese who used the plant to fight bacterial and viral infections.
Young hop sprouts are high in fiber and are actually an excellent nutritional source if the pickings are slim. The woody stalks of the bines can be beaten into fibers and used in textiles or to make paper.
This thread will be be a work in progress and updated frequently!
Peace, love, and beer!
History and Background
Hops (Humulus Lupulus) are the flowers of a viney, ivy-looking plant and are a primary bittering, aromatic, and flavor agent used in beer. Beyond this purpose, hops are virtually useless except as ornamental vines. Hops were originally grown in China, and migrated from east to west. The first known cultivation of hops was recorded in 786 A.D. in the Hallertau, Germany region and were first used in brewing near 1079 (in Germany).
Information regarding the economic impact of hops is largely uncharted; however, Germany reigns as the word power in hops production generating nearly 35,000 metric tonnes. The United States is a distant second with nearly 24,000 metric tonnes.. (All 2010 statistics).
Hops are typically grown in the northern latitudes and thrive in sunny, temperate climates where irrigation and natural rainfall keep the ground moist but not saturated. The vines (sometimes called "bines") typically grow up to 20 feet in length and up to one foot per day during intense growing seasons. This aggressive growth necessitates the construction of tall, weight-bearing trellises with some sort of rope or twine mounted near the crown or base of the plant to allow the bines to climb. Just Google hops or hop vines/bines and look at the images (super cool stuff!!)
Growth
The trellis requirements and the intense growth of the plants make small scale growing difficult, but not impossible. Homebrewtalk.com is an online forum to discuss all things homebrewing, and leave it to the innovation (and reluctance to deplete capital resources) of homebrewers to devise a space and money-saving design and system for hop growing.
www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/texas-hop-garden-26406/ This link is to a remarkable thread put together by the user EdWort over at HBT. Fortunately for my (our) purposes, EdWort lives in Bee Cave, TX (just outside of the Marble Falls area) and has seen some relative success. This design for a hop "trellis" (tee pee as I prefer to call it) has an outstanding design and great upside in that several plants can be grown in a small area with little to no major work required.
Implementation and Acquisition
I plan on putting two of these tee pees in my nearly fully-sunned yard. One will have 3 separate varieties of plants which will allow for 2 bines to grow from each plant. I plan to only use one plant on the second trellis and attempt to grow as many bines as possible from a single crown. I believe that having 3 plants on one trellis will produce usable hops but will not produce large enough quantities to make more than one 5 gallon batch of beer. On the other hand, attempting to grow 3 or more bines for a single plant may require more energy than the plant can provide. Let it be known at this point that hop plants are perennial and die back to the crown every year, therefore, plants that have gone through several growing seasons are more likely to produce more bines and more flowers which would increase their overall propensity of production. That simple logic says that the young plants that I would acquire may not have the capacity to produce more than a few bines in their infancy. Nevertheless, this is an experiment.
While I'm at it, let's address "hop plant acquisition." Hops can be grown from rhizomes (subterranean roots) which can be purchased online for approximately $5 per rhizome; however, growing from rhizomes (although effective) may not produce a harvest in the plant's infancy and may take years to produce a harvestable crop. Secondarily, hop rhizomes are only available seasonally (typically January-March) as products are available. The good news comes in the form of Great Lakes Hops, LLC www.facebook.com/GreatLakesHops. These guys (according to reviews) kick metric tonnes of ass, and have one of the coolest business models I've ever seen. Rather than simply harvesting the rhizomes of plants and providing them seasonally, they maintain greenhouses throughout the year and actually sell entire plants (crowns and rhizomes) with a year's growth under their belts. No other company (that I can find online) sells whole hop plants. Not only do they provide nearly 30 varietals year-round, their plants are much more likely to produce a harvestable crop in the first growing season in this application! They are somewhat pricey at $10 per plant, but this is a small upcharge to pay for quality and harvestability.
Unrelated Scientific Beer MumboJumbo
A quick note on the science of hops...
Hop flowers contain a number of oils which are extracted through boiling or near-boiling temperatures. These oils are measured in alpha acid. (Hops also produce beta acids, but these are of least concern for this application.) Anyway.. Through some formula that some scientist formulated somewhere once upon a time, a brewer can calculate how many "International Bittering Units" (IBUs) a certain hop will impart during the boil in beer production. Alpha acid ratings range from 3% to upwards of 15% but rarely more. Typically, high alpha acid hops (those 8% and north) are used as "bittering" hops and are often put in the boil early. These bittering additions are termed such because they produce a perceived bitter flavor in the beer. Lower alpha acid hops (4% or so and lower) are used as aroma additions, and those inbetween can/are used as "flavor" hops. Just because a hop has a high or low alpha acid rating does certainly NOT eliminate it from being used out of traditional context.
All that to say that for all intensive purposes, a middle of the road multi-faceted hop would be ideal for this growing application. However, since we are using a number of different candidates for this experiment, there really is no limit for what is grown. We simply want to see what varietals will survive/thrive in Texas.
Medicinal Uses For Hops
An interesting aspect of hops that I have always found intriguing is the plants innate and natural ability to preserve. In fact the India Pale Ale (IPA) beer was created in response to demand for preserving beer in long journeys. During the time when the British occupied India it took many weeks if not months to transport supplies to the troops. The long delivery time of supplies meant that many perishable foods could not make the journey (beer included); however, the British realized that by using excessive amounts of hops during production and packing hops in the barrels used to ship beer they could actually preserve beer longer. The preservation quality of hops made it possible to get beer to the boys in India!
I once saw that 98% of all hops produced are used in beer making or the beer industry in some capacity, but it never dawned on me to actually discover (or at least research) what other medicinal properties the plant has. According to this link www.wisegeek.org/besides-beer-what-are-hops-used-for.htm, hops were used as a sleep aid in herbal applications such as teas. Herbalists would also make pillows stuffed with hops to further help patients sleep. Scientific evidence has proven that consuming hops can improve gastrointestinal problems and has even been proven to help prevent/fight cancer (but what doesn't?). The preservation and antibacterial properties of the hop flowers were discovered by the Ancient Chinese who used the plant to fight bacterial and viral infections.
Young hop sprouts are high in fiber and are actually an excellent nutritional source if the pickings are slim. The woody stalks of the bines can be beaten into fibers and used in textiles or to make paper.
This thread will be be a work in progress and updated frequently!
Peace, love, and beer!