I think the hops are ready for harvest. The centennial almost seems to be developing some kind of a rust on the cones. Looks like I might have to do an emergency brew session on Saturday to take advantage of the centennial hops. And vacuum seal up the rest for a later date.

The centennial hops are in bloom, but not ready for harvest. They are still a bit moist, and just starting to get that hoppy smell. So I’ll check again in mid-July, to see how things are progressing in the drying process.

Oh baby, do we have some cone production happening on the centennial hops. I had very low expectations for hop cones this year. But man is the centennial cranking out the cones. To the top 2′ of the centennial vines, there is copious amounts of cone production. As you get closer to the ground you start to get less and less cones. I am definitely going to have enough centennial hops this year for at least a couple of 5 gallon batches of beer. YES!!! Continue reading →

Now that the centennial hops are really starting to fill in. I thought that it might be a good idea to replace the two year old twisted poly-string holding up the hops with a 3/8” braided rope. Well I came up with this idea just a tad bit late.

After I lowered the hops to the ground, the plan was to use the old string to pull the new rope up and through the top shackle. Well about half way up the trellis the old string broke in mid-air. So now I have to put on my thinking cap to come up with a solution.

The trellis is about ~18’ tall and I can’t lean my 20’ ladder against it, since it won’t hold that kind of weight. And when I stand on top of the multi-ladder that I own, I’m short at least 4’ from the apex. So with those two options gone. I had to run a couple of scenarios in my head about how to get that rope threaded through the shackle at the top of the trellis. And the only one that made sense was to take off the top part of the pyramid. After about 10-15 minutes of muscling off the top part of the pyramid (the easy part), then putting it back on (the hard part), I got the new rope threaded. Now that the new rope is run for the hops, let hope that it holds up.

By popular demand, some more pics of the hops. You can really see the difference now between the leaves of the centennial and the golding leaves. The centennial even seems to be getting ready for some cone production. Bring on the hops bitches! Continue reading →

As predicted, the centennial is growing like crazy. In fact the centennial has sent out a running, so now I’ve got two centennial vines trying to grow. I’m tempted to cut the running and move it to another spot in the hop garden, but I haven’t decided.

The golding is finally starting to grow, though not as vigorously as the centennial. Right now the golding has one vine that is about mid-chest in height. I’ve got a feeling that most of the cone production this year will be from the centennial. But who knows.

Once again the centennial hops is crushing the golding hops like it is no ones business. When I took some measurements today 5/3/09, one vine of the centennial has already reached 6′, while the golding is barely an inch off the ground. The difference is almost shocking.

I guess that I’m glad that I made the hop trellis A-frame close to 20′ tall, because the centennial is going to need it this year. In just one day from 7pm on 5/2 to 7pm on 5/3 the centennial grew a whole foot. Yikes!!

Well the Centennial hops seem to be bursting with vine activity since last month. Which should bode well for the harvest this fall. But on the other hand the Golding only has about 3-4 buds emerging from the ground. So lets bring on the hops!