Hops Harvest

While we should likely update you on the last round of brewing, but because the topic of this post is time-sensitive we have decided to tackle this one first.

The last few weeks we have been busy collecting and harvesting hops.  This includes some from our yard, some from the yard of a friend who grows them purely for aesthetics, and some from Ocean State Hops - a farm in Rhode Island that specializes in... you guessed it... Hops!  (If you are within driving distance to Exeter RI, there will be one more harvest this weekend!!  This will be the last chance for the season.  See their site for more details.)

The weekend started out with Kevin harvesting the hops directly from the bines on the side of the house early in the day.  Traditionally you cut down the bines and pick off the hops, however we wished to use the bines later for decoration and kept them planted to that we could cut them fresh when we needed.   The hops pictured include Cascade, Nugget, and Tettnanger.  They are first year plants so the harvest was relatively sparse.

Taking notes

Later he accompanied a friend to the yard of a buddy of his where the the collection included Hallertauer Mittelfruh - a big score!  Sorry, no pictures as the official brewery photographer was attending other duties.

Now that we had harvested fresh hops, we wanted more.  That is when we found Ocean State Hops, and their hops harvest.  Cascade and Newport are their varieties.  We fell in love with the spicy notes of the Newport and went back for more the following weekend.  Don't be surprised if we start using Newport more and more in our offerings.

What we didn't use in a wet hopped ale we dried to preserve for future use.

These hops from Ocean State Hops were used in a wet hopped ale.

We are excited to find and use such a great variety of hops in our brews!  Stay tuned for more updates and if you are interested in PYO, go see the good folks at Ocean State Hops in Exeter, RI!