Urban Hop Harvest

This spring, I wanted to make my homebrew more… homey. So I decided to grow my own hops.

In late May, I buried a Cascade rhizome an inch deep in a plastic container filled with potting soil and put the whole thing out on my apartment's fire escape landing. After a week or so, a tiny bine broke the soil surface and inched upward, wrapping itself around a piece of twine that led diagonally to the fire escape above.

I was surprised how quickly the bine grew in the following weeks, stretching up the fire escape railing before doubling over on itself and climbing back down the twine.

I watered every two to three days and dispensed a dose of Miracle-Gro for Flowers and Vegetables early in the season. Tiny cones appeared in early summer—bright green, wet, and smelling a little like garlic.

 They multiplied and matured into mid-October until they were dry, papery, and gave off a citrusy aroma.

 When harvest day rolled around, Sarah and I picked about 75 cones and put them into a mesh bag to dry in front of a box fan. The final dry yield was a little over an ounce—not too impressive, but enough to dry hop a waiting IPA (post to come).

 I trimmed the bine to about an inch above soil-level and am patiently waiting until the spring when I hope my San Francisco fire escape will once again become an urban hop farm.