[jeffy]

This is in Sonoma County. Some pictures of the Kilns, the tasting is in a former kiln.
http://www.hkgwines.com/estate/


I've been there.  They have some hops growing for decoration at the front entrance to the building.

[Stevie]

Plenty of hops were grown in the East Bay as well.

http://www.hopyard.com/history.html

[morticaixavier]

yup northern cali was hop haven for a while before it moved north more. still a lot of wild hops growing around here. I actually just 'scored' 3 oz of random wild Sacramento river bank hops the other day. I've yet to use them or even open the bag and whiff.

[S. cerevisiae]

Yes, it depends.

Have you ever read the "Hop Atlas" from Barth-Haas? The wife got it for me through the interloan program through Michigan State, had to read it in 2 weeks and return. At $200+ it was a little spendy for me. It was pointed out that there were large hop growing areas south of San Francisco, around Sacramento, and in Sonoma County (the town of Hopland got it name form hop growing). Those went away when the land was more valuable for housing, or grape production.

This is in Sonoma County. Some pictures of the Kilns, the tasting is in a former kiln.
http://www.hkgwines.com/estate/

I know about hop growing in the Russian River Valley, which is in Sonoma County.  That's where OY1 was selected by E.C. Horst.   OY1 is the male parent of OB21 (Brewers Gold x California Cluster), which is the male parent of Northern Brewer (Canterbury Golding x OB21), which makes Northern Brewer 1/4th California Cluster. 

At 38.9731° N, 123.1164°, Hopland, California is basically at the 39th parallel.

So from your post, get the right variety for you latitude and climate. Correct?

Climate pretty much determines if a hop cultivar will grow.  Photoperiod determines the extent to which many of the prized cultivars will flower.  North Carolina lies at the 35th parallel, which the furthest south that hops can be grown profitably.  North Carolina has its own hop research program. 

www.indyweek.com/indyweek/is-there-a-future-for-north-carolina-hops-farming/Content?oid=3100964

In the article linked above, the author mentions importance of the 16-hour photoperiod.  The closer one gets to 16 hours of daylight during the summer solstice, the better most hop cultivars produce.  It's a big part of the reason why Yakima can establish hop cultivars quickly. 

Yakima 2014 Summer Solstice

Sunrise 5:09am
Sunset  8:59pm

Day length: 15 hours and 50 minutes

I know guys who grew hops fairly successfully in SC. I have talked to ones who said their hops died in Florida. The latitude can't be ignored, for sure - none are grown in the tropics.

I am willing to bet that the guys in South Carolina are growing less photoperiod sensitive cultivars such as Cascade and Chinook.  I am also willing to bet that they do not get pounds of cones out of each plant.

[hopfenundmalz]

Yakima has rich well drained soil - they grow just about everything in that valley. They drip irrigate. They also have long days as you note, and most of those are sunny being in the rain shadow of the Cascade mountians. There are now hop farms in northern MI spitting distance from the 45th parallel, the yield is about half of what it is in Yakima Valley. The latitude is important, but there are reasons the hop farming ended up in the PNW, as you are aware I am sure.

 

[S. cerevisiae]

Soil is important, but soil can be amended.  Yakima is basically high desert.  The arid climate greatly reduces, if not completely eliminates the threat of hop downy mildew, which I understand is now a problem in Michigan.  Yakima's climate does not protect growers from powdery mildew and pests.  The downside is that agriculture in Yakima is completely dependent on irrigation.  The East Coast can get as much rainfall in one strong storm as Yakima gets all year.

You know what is weird is that I thought that the hop industry was driven west by hop downy mildew.  However, the industry was actually driven west by the "blue mold" (which is a regional name for powdery mildew) and economics.

[hopfenundmalz]

Soil is important, but soil can be amended.  Yakima is basically high desert.  The arid climate greatly reduces, if not completely eliminates the threat of hop downy mildew, which I understand is now a problem in Michigan.  Yakima's climate does not protect growers from powdery mildew and pests.  The downside is that agriculture in Yakima is completely dependent on irrigation.  The East Coast can get as much rainfall in one strong storm as Yakima gets all year.

You know what is weird is that I thought that the hop industry was driven west by hop downy mildew.  However, the industry was actually driven west by the "blue mold" (which is a regional name for powdery mildew) and economics.

The farms in MI have the local thing going for them, and it is good to get a beer grown with local ingredients (there are some barley farms and small scale maltsters too). The agronomics for a small scale start up hop farm is daunting, especially when competing with farms in the west that get twice the yield.

Hops were commercially farmed in Michigan a long time ago, and the molds and mildews forced the crop out. One of the farms on the Lelanau has their own registered hop, Empire. The story was that it was found in the area and was left from original go round. The strain was thought to be from Finland - so the story goes. I got some from a local pro, and brewed a batch. It smelled similar to Cascades, but the pale ale brewed with it has a black pepper flavor. Might be good for a Belgian next time I use it.

[Octabird]

Yes sorry I stand corrected Zone 6. I hear we are at the same parallel as Germany where they grew hops with great success.
I wish I could find a start of that experimental hop with the jolly rancher essence, some Crystal, and Columbus.
The local hop yard, Spanky's Hops, harvested 39 pounds for his first year haul. Not bad for really only having 3 of 7 strains produce.
Thanks for all the great info!


Mr. Octabird
American Made!

[erockrph]

I wish I could find a start of that experimental hop with the jolly rancher essence

El Dorado?

Right now the trend in new hop varieties is proprietary cultivars (such as El Dorado). As much as everyone would like to get their hands on the hot new IPA varieties to grow at home, it's just not going to happen. Hop breeders are all looking for the next Citra/Simcoe/Mosaic that they can claim for their own. Once they find it, they keep it proprietary and maybe license it out to a limited number of growers. It doesn't get out to the public domain.

Frankly, that's fine with me. I like playing around with the new varieties, but there aren't a whole lot of them that I'd want several pounds worth of every year.

[HoosierBrew]

I wish I could find a start of that experimental hop with the jolly rancher essence

El Dorado?

Right now the trend in new hop varieties is proprietary cultivars (such as El Dorado). As much as everyone would like to get their hands on the hot new IPA varieties to grow at home, it's just not going to happen. Hop breeders are all looking for the next Citra/Simcoe/Mosaic that they can claim for their own. Once they find it, they keep it proprietary and maybe license it out to a limited number of growers. It doesn't get out to the public domain.

Frankly, that's fine with me. I like playing around with the new varieties, but there aren't a whole lot of them that I'd want several pounds worth of every year.

+1.  If there were a Jolly Rancher hop, it'd be El Dorado. Interesting, but I agree that I wouldn't want to have to use up a large quantity.

[troybinso]

I got to visit Elk Mountain Hop Farm a few years ago. I have family that lives up there and they are fellow farmers with the A-B hop farmers. There are actually two huge plots of hops. One is about 20 miles north of Bonner's Ferry (about 48.90N) and the other - now defunct was a couple of miles south of Porthill, ID so it was at about 48.98N.

We toured the more southerly one on a school bus on a hot summer day with a cooler full of Budweiser. I have to say that Bud never tasted so good. The people who ran the place were extremely accommodating and gave us the grand tour of the farm and the processing area. I took home a shopping bag full of freshly dried A-B Hallertauer.

By the way, the reason they shut down the northern farm was because of labor shortages. They depend on migrant workers and there is just not enough other farm work in the area for them to do at the time the hops needed to be strung up in the late spring, so the farm workers just don't want to go up that way.

[S. cerevisiae]

One learns something everyday.  I thought that the reason why AB shut down that farm was because of the 2009 hop glut.  I believe that I read somewhere that AB was paying Oregon farmers not to harvest aroma hops in 2009 or 2010.

[69franx]

That sounds like a horrible tactic. Standard Bud has long been my go to if I could not find a craft beer that interested me.  I have never been find if bullies, so I may have to change that preference. Water is quite good at most places, and does not pull a lot of political sway, should be safe throwing my support behind water...


Sent from The Alpine Brewery using Tapatalk

[S. cerevisiae]

I am fairly certain that the farmers who were being paid not to harvest hops were under contract with AB; hence, AB held up their end of the deal.

[el_capitan]

I now pound my dried hops into plugs before sealing and freezing. It certainly reduces the bulk and I'm guessing that the action of a 1" wood dowel driven by a 3 lb sledge probably helps rupture some lupulin glands.

I thought about doing this a year or two ago and couldn't get it to work.  I think my hops were actually too dry and wouldn't stick together.  Martin, give us some more details of your setup!