Hop plants and choosing the right one

We have been growing plants for around 50 years so we have allot of experience. All our hop plants are top quality, grown under strict conditions to produce the best quality we can. All are female, so they should all produce hops for brewing or medicinal purposes.

If you brew beer at home, then this is the cheapest way to produce FREE hops for very little effort. A single hop plant will produce lots of hops, and in August onwards, pick them and dry them. If packed properly they will survive years in the freezer. Hops need free drained soil, and if you don't poccess this, then a raised bed of 6 feet x 4 feet and 18 inches high, will easily grow 6 plants. Add some free quality compost from your local council recycling area, add some fish, blood and bone meal. Top up with FREE rotted horse manure from your local stable every late Autumn, is probably is all you need to do to maintain soil quality. make a wooden, high framework to support your plants, and you will have years of FREE hops for making beer at home!

We supply all our plants in 9cm pots, ready to be grown on or planted outside. We only supply plants that show growth, early on in the season. A common problem is to supply a "bare root" or 9cm potted product late in the season (Winter) as they do not guarantee surviving winter. It is best to wait until ours are actively growing.

We only charge one fee for postage, so you can mix and match varieties.

Hop Plants are available as "Dual Purpose", "Aroma" or "Bittering" varieties. Some may disagree with our descriptions, and the way to use them, but this is a personal thing.

Aroma hops are added mostly in the last 10 minutes of a boil, or as late hopping, to give beers aroma. The smell you get when you drink from the glass.

Bittering hops are added as the wort starts to boil. This takes between an hour or 90 minutes depending on the recipe, and extracts oils from the hops in order to add bitterness, so that it balances the sweetness.

Dual Purpose hops are those that are suitable for use as both Aroma and bitterness. This makes growing them very economical for home brewers. However, some recipes call for hops that use different varieties, so it's a balance thing when growing. There is no reason why you couldn't sell your spare hops on the net. There are ways to estimate the amount of oils are present in your hops without expensive alpha acid tests. Most home brewers do a test brew if buying a large qty of hops and will adjust their recipe accordingly.

Hops do have different tastes, subject to where they are grown. This is down to soil types, weather, drying techniques etc, so who knows what your plants will produce ?

All Hops in 9CM Pots

All our plants come in 9cm pots, for guaranteed great root growth.

Plants need protection from early frosts, so do not plant outdoors until after the first week of May. In the mean time, pot up your plants into 5 litre pots to encourage more root growth, and feed weekly, before planting, and keep in a greenhouse, conservatory, or outdoors, in the pot, but bring indoors overnight if there is a chance of cold weather.

Your plant will be winter hardy after planting, and the first year of winter.