Hop Stringing Time – the Beer Year Begins

Hop stringing has begun in the hop gardens which means the start of a new beer year for hop growers. The season starts with hop stringing and ends at hop picking when the crop is safely gathered and dried. The hops in this area are mainly strung using ‘Umbrella Work’ but other growers will use […]

learning to string a hop garden

Learning to String a Hop Garden

Learning to string a hop garden is pretty straight forward once you learn the basic pattern and if you can knit this could be an advantage. Our mystery stringer this year is Rosie. It is unusual for us to have a lady hop stringer but not for any sexist reason.   On farms traditionally the […]

2019 Hops for Home Brewing

2019 hops for home brewing begin with stringing, getting it  in place ready for them to climb up in April.  Hop stringing is like the first page of a new notebook.   Who knows what 2019 growing season will be like, all we know is it is ahead of us, it’s a clean sheet and […]

A New Hop Growing Season Begins

A new hop growing season begins. In this area hop stringing has just started. I love this fresh ‘new-page-in-a-note-book’ feeling, with the accompanying expectation that as a new hop growing season begins, this is it, this year there’ll be a perfect hop crop! Of course we know reality will not be like that! Each season always turns […]

Seconding at Hop Training

I have been asked to explain exactly what ‘seconding’ at hop training is.  During hop training each year you will train each hop plant at least 3 times, normally starting in mid April and working throughout May until early in June. For ‘hop training’, ‘hop twiddling’ or even on occasion ‘hop tying’, these three visits […]

root crop fork

Hovering Up Hops when Drying in an Oast House

It has been a week of unexpected treats, the foremost is that I have been given a hovering up fork and I am chuffed to bits. This was a super practical surprise gift from a very special friend and I could not be more delighted. This is the fork he had always used for hovering […]

First Gold hop Setts being planted

The First Gold hop variety which Ashley chose in the ‘Be A Hop Grower for a Season’ draw arrived earlier this week. The laid back feel of the outdoor winter work for the hop grower  suddenly ended, stringing and banding are underway but with the delivery of the new hop setts, its all change and […]