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Simple Hop Basket for Brewing

I love the diversity and control that all grain homebrewing gives me, and the fact that it moves me a bit further towards producer on the producer – consumer continuum.  Part of producer component comes from growing much of the hops that I use in my brewing on lines up the side of my two story house.

Construction of the hop ball from two stainless steel strainers.

Now in brewing there are a number of options on how to handle your hops – some of which are pretty pricey.  One method I’ve found to be quick, cheap and effective is using all stainless steel strainers from the dollar store.  I use two strainers and some stainless steel wire from the hardware store to effectively build a big hop ball (like a tea ball only bigger).  The far side of the handle part of the strainers is permanently wired together while the short section of wire keeping the handles together is removed to fill and empty the ball.

Fast, simple, cheap and useful – a pretty sound project endorsement.

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Propagating hops by layering and rooting

So there are a few ways to produce additional hop plants.  You can divided the rhizomes (the root mass).  That’s easy and simple and great if you have enough established hop hills.  But… if you are just starting out you probably want to give your plants a bit of time to get established before you start engaging in serious division.  So I guess you could buy additional crowns… or you can use alternate means to multiply your own stock.

Fortunately hops want to root… you just need to present then with an opportunity to do so.

The new hop rhizome created by layering exposed

The new hop rhizome created by layering exposed

The easiest way to do this is by layering.  From a good crown you’ll get a bunch of bines – the first and strongest bunch train vertically for your production but additional bines can be run through soil in a large plant pot or window box  before being allowed to grow on or  trimmed.  The bines aren’t super flexible so think big curves not tight curves – which makes running them longitudinally in the window boxes a good option.  Keep the pots reasonably watered and the result should be about one crown per bine that was run through the pot.

But if you need to increase your stock even faster then you should probably considering rooting.  Last season I took a number of bine segments, dipped them in rooting hormone, stuck them in sand and had good success getting them to root in a home built mist propagation setup.  The setup was cheap and simple and while the layering method will result in one crown per bine the rooting method can take one bine and make a load of crowns – so if you are looking to rapidly increase your plant material it’s definitely worth the extra effort.

Hops rhizomes from rooted cuttings in sand - success for the two on the right

Hops rhizomes from rooted cuttings in sand – success for the two on the right

Exposed hop rhizomes created by rooting bine segments

Exposed hop rhizomes created by rooting bine segments

So, if you brew, buy crowns for your favorite hop varieties – they use vertical space so you can probably find a spot for them –  and multiply them to increase your own yard, share with friends or even offer for sale.