We’re about to enter the high holy days on the craft beer calendar — the annual hop harvest in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It’s always a time of the year when we like to reflect on one of our four favorite ingredients in beer — hops — which are easily the most unique. There are a lot of things you can make with water, barley and yeast, but if hops are in the recipe, chances are about 99.6 percent that you’re brewing beer (we did the research).
Considering how important hops are to beer, it’s surprising how little we know about how they’re grown. So our friends at Craft Brewing Business asked us at Rogue Farms in Independence, Ore., to show its readers how the life cycle of Humulus lupulus really works. After all, Rogue has been growing its own hops since 2008, so we’d be the perfect candidate. SO, let’s head to the greenhouse.
The Greenhouse
This is where it all begins. Rogue Farms started their 42-acres of hops in the greenhouse. Hop rhizomes, or cuttings, are planted in small pots and growers have control over temperature, moisture and nutrients. This gives hops the best start possible before they’re transplanted into the hopyard.
Planting
Every year’s a little a different, and lately, Rogue Brewmaster John Maier has been wanting a stronger aroma profile for the beers brewing Rogue-grown hops, so Rogue Farms switched from growing Newports to Yaquinas hops. That’s the example we’ll use here. Regardless of the variety, the right time for planting depends on the location. Growers in warmer climates can plant sooner than growers further north. The rule of thumb is to wait until there’s no chance of frost killing the young bines.
Rogue planted its newest variety, Yaquina hops, during May, the first month of the prime growing season in Oregon. Newly planted hops need two to three growing seasons before they’re mature enough to produce a harvestable crop.
The Hopyard
Once a hopyard is established, hop growing has six seasons — winter, early spring, late spring, summer, harvest and fall. Each marks a different stage of growth or dormancy.
Winter
This is the time of year that hops take a break. They’re underground, dormant, saving their energy for the growing season. But hop growers can’t afford to rest. Winter is time for repairs, fixing trellis wires, replacing poles in the hopyard. Old and dying bines are pulled up, and new rhizomes split from younger plants take their place. A well-maintained hopyard lasts for decades.
Early Spring
Longer days and warmer temperatures are the cues that signal the growing season has begun. Bines emerge in early March and will grow 18 feet or more within a few months. None of this would be possible without farmers. Hops need something to climb, so every spring Rogue Farms starts from scratch, stringing the hopyard, staking the strings and training the bines.
Crews ride high through the hopyard, tying one end of a piece of twine to the trellis wires and letting the other end fall to the ground. Rogue Farms uses 63,637 strings, or pieces of twine, every spring. Each of those 63,637 strings is tied by hand.
After the stringers have moved through, they’re followed by another crew that stakes the strings deep into the soil. Just as before, all 63,337 strings are staked by hand.
Training, the final big chore of spring, is usually finished by mid- to late-April at Rogue Farms. Bine growth remains slow, but not for long.
Click “Next” to continue reading this story, or you’ll never see how hops actually become big and beautiful (and beer!).
Late spring
Hops crave sunshine, but only at certain times of the year. And when they’re hungry for sun, you better make sure they get as much as possible. Ideally, hops want 15 hours (or more) of sun every day during the growing seasons. At Rogue Farms, that begins around May 20 and lasts for two months. This is also the time when the clouds and rains of winter have finally faded away. It’s all about location, climate and soil. In other words, terroir.
During late spring, hops put all their energy into growing leaves and climbing the strings. By late June, they’re growing a foot per day. You can literally watch your beer grow.
Summer
Hops are photoperiodic, which means they’re highly tuned to how much sun they’re getting. After the summer solstice has come and gone, with the days getting shorter, hops have something like the botanical version of a panic attack. It’s as if they’re saying, “Holy cow, we better start growing cones before we run out of sun!”
Sure enough, within days of the solstice the first flowers appear. From now until harvest, hops are focused on growing cones and producing the wonderful yellow lupulin that gives beer its amazing bitterness and aroma.
Harvest
It’s the day we’ve been waiting for, the start of the month-long hop harvest. Crews and machines roll through the hops rows, trimming bines from the trellis wires and mounds and gathering them into large trucks or trailers. Just a few feet away is Rogue Farms’ onsite processing facility. The bines are loaded into a series of stripping machines, conveyor belts, dribble belts, fans, kilns and a baling press. The place looks like it was designed by a deranged engineer. Some have compared it to a medieval torture device. But despite appearances, it’s very efficient. When the work is done, you’ve got a whole year’s worth of hops pressed into 200-pound bales.
Fall
Fall is the season when the hops prepare for their winter sleep. No longer chasing the sun, the uncut bines slowly die off and transfer their energy to the rhizomes beneath the soil. The bines, shoots, leaves and strings left over from processing are mulched and returned to the hopyard to protect and nurture next year’s crop.
The harvested hops are in cold storage where they await the call of Rogue Brewmaster John Maier (above) to become a future Rogue ale, porter, lager or stout.
The End
Rogue Farms will be open every day during the 2015 hop harvest, which is expected to begin in mid-August. But the exact starting date remains a mystery. The timing is in the hands of Mother Nature. Come see how Rogue grows beers and spirits from ground to glass!
This information was all provided from the fine folks at Rogue Ales & Spirits and the Rogue Department of Agriculture. Big ole thanks to Rogue Farms for letting us reproduce this.
