This is ‘part one’ of my hop growing series, so grab a pint and enjoy…

To grow hops you’ll need a few bits of kit, these are:

* A 90 Litre ‘Extra Large’ Plastic Container Pot
Make sure you use a container pot with at least a 20 inch diameter
I got mine from: www.thegardensuperstore.co.uk

* A large wooden stake, for example, 1 inch by 2 inches by 8 feet high

* A saw

* A hammer

* A pair of scissors

* A hook and eye screw

* Some garden twine

* Some good quality potting soil

* A hop ‘rhizome’ (hardy pieces of the root stock or ‘crown’ of the hop plant)
or young hop plant, also make sure you get a ‘dwarf‘ variety hop that grows to a
maximum of 8-10 feet high)

In these photos I’m planting a young hop plant which I got from:
www.aplus-hops.co.uk

It’s a dwarf English ‘Prima Donna‘ hop variety, which is also known as First Gold.

This type of hop variety is known as a ‘Dual Purpose Hop‘ which means it can be used
as either a bittering or aroma hop.  In my case, I’m going to use this hop for both
aroma and for bittering because I want the full flavour and aroma of this hop going
into the final ale (I intend to brew a Pale Ale).

This hop variety is also disease resistant and has a fairly high Alpha Acid range of 6.5 to 8.5%.
It’s also an ideal choice for late and dry hopping (due to its delicate and spicy aroma)

Okay, let’s get started…

Start by sawing off a 5 inch piece of one end of the wooden stake (place it aside for now)

Take the remaining length of wooden stake and hammer in the ‘hook and eye’ screw
into one end of it.

Now position your container pot in a sunny spot of the garden and fill it up with potting soil (fill it almost to the top).

Next, insert the long wooden stake until it touches the bottom of the container pot. When you’ve inserted the stake, move it forwards and backwards and side to side, then fill in the holes this creates with some more potting soil, this will help to give the stake some extra support.

Now plant the hop rhizome (or young hop plant) by creating a 3 inch deep hole and gently placing the hop plant/rhizome into it, then fill in the hole with some more potting soil.

Then cut a long piece of the garden twine (approx 6-7 metres) and thread it through the ‘hook and eye’ screw that’s now on the top of your wooden stake.

Now insert the ’sawn off’ piece of wooden stake into the soil and tie one end of the garden twine to it, leaving the other end dangling downwards to ground level behind the container pot. Now pull the dangling end of twine to tighten up the slack a bit (but not too much).

The idea here is for the hop vine to grow upwards and curl itself around the garden twine. Eventually the hop vine will grow so high that it almost touches the top of the wooden stake, but that’s the point where we will loosen the slack on the twine and pull the hop vine back down to ground level.

Using this technique means that the hop vine will always be growing upwards. Eventually you will have a long length of hop vines that are curled around the base of your container pot but don’t worry, this should not effect your final crop of hop cones (the hops don’t seem to mind)

Finally, water your container pot well (i.e. really drench it, until you can see water leaking out through the holes in the bottom of the container pot).

That’s it, I’m off for a few pints, talk to you later!

It’s only been a couple of weeks since I planted my hops and they have already started to sprout!

I’ve just taken the photograph below…

Next week I’m going to plant some more hops in a container, I’ll also be constructing a hop trellis.

Good brewing,

Dan Nelson
www.hardcorebrewing.com

This is a very important blog posting for all home brewers who want to grow their own hops.

The best time to plant them is right now in April, don’t wait until May or you could suffer some serious hop growing problems!

I include full details on how to grow your own hops as a free bonus to all purchasers of my
How To Brew Lager…from Scratch DVD.

I planted my own hops a few days ago and will publish updates on their progress on this blog.

Good brewing,

Dan Nelson
www.hardcorebrewing.com

This morning I received delivery of the official Hardcore Brewing T-Shirt.

It looks great!

These 100% cotton T-Shirts come in Black and will be available in 2 sizes, L (Large)
and XL (Extra Large).

Since I’ve been drinking quite a bit of home brew lately I’ve gone for the XL version!

I’ve just taken some photos…

To order the Official Hardcore Brewing T-Shirt, select your T-Shirt size below and then click on the ‘Add to Cart‘ button.

T-Shirt Sizes

L (Large) XL (Extra Large)

Please note, L (Large) T-Shirts will fit a 40 inch chest.
XL (Extra Large) T-Shirts will fit a 42-44 inch chest.

Good brewing,

Dan Nelson
www.hardcorebrewing.com

I’ve had dozens of requests for an official HardcoreBrewing T-Shirt!

To be honest, I hadn’t given this much thought, I mean guys, what do I know about creating T-Shirts for brew’s sake!

Anyway, not one to disappoint I’ve sorted this out, so look out for the T-Shirt coz it’s on its way!

Good brewing,

Dan Nelson
www.hardcorebrewing.com

I’m also going to use this blog as an opportunity to answer any brewing related questions (just make sure they are easy ones

One guy (Alan) has asked me…

“Can you recommend any good ‘All Grain’ brewing software that I can use on my iPhone?”

Yes, I use and highly recommend the following iPhone (or iPod Touch) application:

BrewMath (available from www.kentplacesoftware.com)

Good brewing,

Dan Nelson
www.hardcorebrewing.com

I thought it would be interesting to give you a bit of background information concerning my motivation for producing my DVD on how to brew lager.

It’s creation came about simply because it really frustrated me to see so many other home brewers struggling to fully understand the whole process and especially the science behind it all. I was absolutely determined to put this right.

After 5 months of very hard work I finally managed to complete the DVD and I’m very pleased with the final results. On the DVD I assume absolutely zero brewing knowledge or past experience. As the DVD progresses I cover intermediate and several advanced brewing techniques too, so there’s something for everyone.

Good brewing,

Dan Nelson
www.hardcorebrewing.com

I intend to cover lots of brewing topics but the focus will be on All Grain methods and recipes only.

I’ve also decided to grow my own hops and I’ll be including updates on how that goes.

All the best,

Dan Nelson
www.hardcorebrewing.com