We planted 4 varieties of hops in the early spring 2014. The first two years…well, let’s just say we were not very elegant hosts…The hops were draped over the fences and didn’t really fruit. In 2017, the new hops growing system was installed and we were able to enjoy seeing the hops tower to over 20 feet. With the new pulley system, it was easy to gently pull down the “bines” to harvest.

 

So now that we can properly grow and harvest them, we have to admit we don’t know which hop is which variety (we lost one of the plants early on, and we also moved one of the plants due to the bees in 2015). The original selection was optimized for lagers and could be one of the following: Mt Hood, Willamette, Centennial, Liberty (I’m pretty sure Liberty is the one that didn’t make it).

2017 hops harvested in September.