For about four years now, my fiancé Dan and I have been talking about growing our own hops. Not only did we want to control a whole new aspect of our home brewing experience; we wanted to have the freshest hops any homebrewer could ask for. We even daydreamed about the possibility of fueling the ongoing hop shortage!
Because Dan and I are living the apartment life, we don't have much space to plant the things we would love to grow. Therefore, we persuaded Dan's parents, who live in San Diego, CA, to allow us to utilize their backyard as our hops-growing workshop.
About a month ago we planted the hop rhizomes. We planted two of each: Magnum, Nugget and Chinook.
After one month, the Nugget hops are growing strong!
And the Magnum hops are sprouting:
Unfortunately, one of the Chinook rhyzomes has not shown her pretty little leaves yet, but I am holding onto hope...
We planted the rhyzomes in a circle around an 18' pole. Once the hops are a little bigger, we will string rope from the pole for the hop bines to climb. At peak growth, hop shoots can grow 8 to 20 inches per week! I can't wait!
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