Where can a lady buy a hop rhizome in this town?
March 15, 2011 9:30 PM Subscribe
Where can I buy hop rhizomes in Philly or NYC?
I'd like to try growing some hops in the rooftop garden this year! Alas, I have waited until the zero hour! Are there any brick and mortar shops in Philadelphia or NYC that carry hop rhizomes? No car, so the suburbs are sadly out of consideration. Thanks in advance!
I'd like to try growing some hops in the rooftop garden this year! Alas, I have waited until the zero hour! Are there any brick and mortar shops in Philadelphia or NYC that carry hop rhizomes? No car, so the suburbs are sadly out of consideration. Thanks in advance!
try hopsdirect.com - to me, it always seems like a better idea to buy them from a grower rather than a retailer/middleman.
I've bought a bunch of hops from them in the past and always been quite happy with them, whole hops as well as pellet.
posted by dubold at 2:24 AM on March 16, 2011
I've bought a bunch of hops from them in the past and always been quite happy with them, whole hops as well as pellet.
posted by dubold at 2:24 AM on March 16, 2011
I think I will grow barley along with hops this year, so I can hand people a beer and say "here, have a home grown beer on me" and they will be like "don't you mean home brewed" and then I can say "I mean BOTH..."
wow, that's ambitious. I considered doing this as well, and here's what I found out: Barley that's used for brewing needs to be malted, which means that the barley is partially germinated, then kilned, to stop the sprouting. Seems like it would be easy to miscalculate somewhere in there and end up losing your crop. However, space is gonna be a bigger concern.
You need to plant a 10x10 area to get 1/2 to 3/4 a pound of barley; I would think you'd need to aim to grow at least 20 pounds of barley to have enough for a 5 gal batch by the end. And then there's the threshing... I guess you could do that on the roof too, but I just had this vision of the dedicated homebrewer trying to turn the bathtub into a threshing floor...
man, i do love homebrewing though. Totally sympathize with the idea.
posted by dubold at 2:33 AM on March 16, 2011
wow, that's ambitious. I considered doing this as well, and here's what I found out: Barley that's used for brewing needs to be malted, which means that the barley is partially germinated, then kilned, to stop the sprouting. Seems like it would be easy to miscalculate somewhere in there and end up losing your crop. However, space is gonna be a bigger concern.
You need to plant a 10x10 area to get 1/2 to 3/4 a pound of barley; I would think you'd need to aim to grow at least 20 pounds of barley to have enough for a 5 gal batch by the end. And then there's the threshing... I guess you could do that on the roof too, but I just had this vision of the dedicated homebrewer trying to turn the bathtub into a threshing floor...
man, i do love homebrewing though. Totally sympathize with the idea.
posted by dubold at 2:33 AM on March 16, 2011
dubold, I grew a test batch last year, I did not want to have a barley only garden just for one batch of beer. Yes malting is a pain. A huge pain. Its not something that you can do in an afternoon.
Your yield is off, I only have about 40sqft of space to plant, so I plan on planting tight and hopefully will harvest around 15-20lbs. Last year my test patch did really well. If my yield is light I will roast enough for 10 gallons and only extract whats left.
Just the idea of back yard estate beer makes me want to roll up my pant leg to take a spin on a fixie with my chrome bag. I even if the beer sucked it would still make me feel on top of the world.
... More advice on hops, plant them where you can leave them. They develop delicate root structures and have to stay in the same place for several years to have a nice yield. Its the worst feeling in the world to find out you ruined a years worth of waiting by moving something six inches.
posted by Felex at 2:50 AM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]
Your yield is off, I only have about 40sqft of space to plant, so I plan on planting tight and hopefully will harvest around 15-20lbs. Last year my test patch did really well. If my yield is light I will roast enough for 10 gallons and only extract whats left.
Just the idea of back yard estate beer makes me want to roll up my pant leg to take a spin on a fixie with my chrome bag. I even if the beer sucked it would still make me feel on top of the world.
... More advice on hops, plant them where you can leave them. They develop delicate root structures and have to stay in the same place for several years to have a nice yield. Its the worst feeling in the world to find out you ruined a years worth of waiting by moving something six inches.
posted by Felex at 2:50 AM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]
Best answer: This weekend I plan to remove a large amount of Cascades rhizomes from my backyard garden in DC. They grow like weeds here. If you mefi-mail me an address I can send you some.
posted by exogenous at 6:28 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by exogenous at 6:28 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
Freshops has a better selection and pricing than Hops Direct. I haven't placed my order yet so I can't speak to the quality at this time, but their website is a great source of information on varieties and growing too.
posted by elsietheeel at 7:17 AM on March 16, 2011
posted by elsietheeel at 7:17 AM on March 16, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
Starting them a little late is not a huge deal, you will most likely not see flowers for another year.
I think I will grow barley along with hops this year, so I can hand people a beer and say "here, have a home grown beer on me" and they will be like "don't you mean home brewed" and then I can say "I mean BOTH..."
and as a bonus I get to be the most pretentious human on earth.
posted by Felex at 10:42 PM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]