Peel back the layers of a hops cone and you can literally see the flavor – a sticky gold dust that coats your fingers with a magical, grassy, citrus smell. It’s a fresh, clean scent that dedicated beer drinkers seek out and home-brewers experiment with like alchemists. Best of all, it’s surprisingly easy to grow, right in your own Northwest yard – and local growers say it’s worth every foot of vine.
“I got the idea (to grow hops) when I was driving though Eastern Washington and saw it,” says Tacoma home brewer Matt Park. “It’s a beautiful plant ... it’s pretty low maintenance, and it’s fun – when you give your beer away you can say, ‘it’s my own backyard hops.’ It’s a talking point. And I love the hoppy flavor!”
Hops (the female flowers of the perennial vine humulus lupulus) began to be grown in Germany in the Middle Ages. Before that, sweet malt beer was bittered with herbs and flowers such as dandelion or marigold; the hops improved on the herbs by contributing an antibiotic that encouraged yeast growth and prevented spoilage. Now, Washington state produces 77 percent of America’s hop crops, more than any other region according to Hop Growers of America – all of them nestled in the sunny Yakima Valley.
A longtime home brewer, Park’s been growing hops for eight years now with great success. His vine of Cascade hops spirals up from a side fence along five ropes leading up to his back porch roof. Their lime-green, one-inch cones (flower buds) hang like fresh-smelling Christmas ornaments ready to be picked – and when you do, you can peel back the papery layers like an artichoke to reveal the golden resins whose alpha acids give beer its bitterness and whose essential oils add aroma. Lush and leafy, the vines provide excellent shade for Park’s late-summer peas and lettuce.
Park harvests his hops in late September, before it rains. It’s a pretty simple process, just plucking off the cones, laying them out to dry in his garage and packing them into bags to freeze for use throughout the year. When he gets a home brew going under his carport, he goes through the same process as any other brewer: boiling grains several times for hours until the starch turns to sugar. At that point, though, most brewers would add store-bought hops, which come dried in pellets, for different levels of bittering. Park, however, can add his own, and the flavor, he says, definitely is better.
After the mixture cools, the yeast is added and the whole thing begins to ferment, after which Park can rack it into small bottles.
Some breweries add different kinds of hops every five minutes of the bittering, Park says, but he only adds two at the start and one at the end for aroma. “I’m not a fancy brewer ... I wouldn’t mind having a couple more varieties, though. But it’s a space thing.”
Space isn’t an issue for Paul Rezentes – the challenge is constructing a support that his hops vines won’t tear down. Rezentes has five varieties of hops in his Ruston-area backyard, ranging from the milder Willamette and Magnum through the citrus-smelling Chinook and Cascades to the strong, bitter Centennial. He’s just pulled the Cascades off his garage roof, and the others have already taken down a support structure. Now they grow up one fence, along a wire and up to a rake lashed to another fence like a post-modern maypole. They need daily water and lots of food.
“They grow fast, two inches a day,” says Rezentes. “Next year I think I’ll build a pergola. When you walk underneath them it’s like being in a jungle, it’s really neat. And it makes it easy to pick.”
Rezentes actually starting growing hops on a whim from a neighbor’s clipping, though he’s since ordered rhizomes from Lakewood store The Beer Essentials.
And the fun of it, he says, is experimenting with which variety to add when in the flavoring process, whether pale ale, stout or big IPAs.
“Cascades is the classic, and Centennial is more bittering, like lemon verbena,” he says. “I add Chinook and Magnum toward the end for a floral aroma. The beauty of it is that you can do whatever you want!”
Having his own hops saves him trips to the store, supplying him with fresh hops on demand for the brew parties he likes to hold for friends. It also helps when there’s a regional hops shortage, as happened a few years ago.
“It’s becoming a bigger thing (among home brewers,)” says Rezentes. “Growing your own hops is cheaper per glass, and having the creativity to control what you do – that’s where craft beer comes in.”
HOPS 101: Q&A
If you’ve never grown hops, you’ll find it fairly easy, with these tips from local growers:
Q: What kinds can you grow?
A: There are five main varieties that do well in the Northwest: Cascades has a strong, grassy flavor; Centennial is more bitter than floral; Willamette is milder; Chinook is strong and citrusy; and Magnum is grassy, with pretty variegated leaves.
Q: When do you plant?
A: Rhizomes (root sections) are available online and from local store The Beer Essentials (2624 112th St. S., Lakewood; 253-581-4288, thebeeressentials.com) in the spring. Vines will flower in the first or second year.
Q: What do they need?
A: Hops vines need lots of sun, support, water and food. Plant where you can support around 25 feet of fast-growing vine in full sun (up a wall or trellis) and still reach the flower cones to harvest. Fertilize once a week while it’s growing, and keep well-watered.
Q: When do you harvest?
A: Around mid- to late September, depending on the weather: The flower cones need to be loose enough to peel, but you don’t want to wait until it rains or you’ll get mildew.
Q: How do you store and use?
A: Spread the cones out on window screens in a dry warm place for a few days, then pack into airtight ziplock bags and freeze. Use as needed for bittering when you home-brew beer.
Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568
rosemary.ponnekanti@thenewstribune.com
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