Harvest Time!

The 2010 harvest is almost done!! We will be posting an update in the next week or so about the available varieties, prices, and how to order our hand-picked whole hops. Stay tuned...

2010 Early Summer Picture Update

As promised, summer 2010 pictures! We'll keep it short and sweet and get to the good stuff. The old plants are flowering and some even have a few cones already. The new plants are just starting to take off. A few more weeks of warm weather and they'll be reaching for the top of the trellis.

Tupelo and Summit, the new farm guard dogs, are happy with the progress so far...















The older plants reached the top of the trellis in mid to late June.

































Look at those flowers!!



























































A few Chinooks are starting to form cones already.



























































A ways to go for the new plants, but they're off to a good start.














































Tupelo approves.














Summit says "where are the Summit plants??"














What a way to end the day...

2010 Early Summer Update

The 2010 growing season is off to a great start. We've been busy building the new trellis, tying up the strings, training the bines, weeding, mowing, weeding, mowing, weeding. You get the point...

The new plants are starting to take off now, and the older plants are already starting to flower. It's always exciting to see the new buds for the first time. We're experimenting with a few different methods of training the bines and pruning this year. There are a lot of different opinions out there as to the "best" way so we're going to see what works best around here.

It's been a while since our last post since we've been so busy at the farm so we'll come back soon with a bunch of pictures to make up for it. The wait will be worth it!

2010 Plantings

Big weekend at the farm. We planted over 200 new plants, split some of our existing plants, and layed out the location for the new trellis system. Next weekend, the new poles are going up and the last of the new plants are going in.

With assistance from our new friend Ryan (a.k.a. Jr. Sod Cutter), setting up the new rows went pretty quick. And with a little help from a lot of friends, we got a lot done.

We posted a few highlight pictures below - check out the rest of the pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hopfarmer/sets/72157623714494169/ or click on the Flickr photostream on the right side of the page.

Spring is in the air...

The new rhizomes are in, the existing plants are starting to break ground, wood and cable for the new poles are being ordered...ahhh it's finally spring. We've got a lot going on at the farm over the next couple of weeks but we'll be posting pictures soon to show the progress. 2010 should be a big year for Ocean State Hops!

Also, a lot of people have been asking if we have rhizomes for sale. We don't have any available this spring but we should starting in 2011 so mark you calendars!

We're moving!

But not too far, so don't worry. The Ocean State Hops website will be trimming off a little extra baggage and will become simply www.oceanstatehops.com. Even more official, Joel and Matt can now be reached at joel@oceanstatehops.com and matt@oceanstatehops.com. It's a big day folks - big day.

So update those bookmarks and get ready for the move. We'll see you on the other side.

Free hops giveaway is over!

Thanks for all those who participated. We gave away a ton of hops (well, maybe not a ton literally) and hopefully everyone was able to make some great beers with our hops.

For those who participated, we'll be sending the questionnaire soon. It should be relatively painless.

Ocean State Hops Interviewed by The Business of Beer

Ocean State Hops got together with John over at The Business of Beer to talk about the process of starting a hop farm as part of their new series "The Startup Dialogues". Make sure to stop by http://thebusinessofbeer.com/ and check it out (or just click on the picture to go right to the article).

We still have a very limited amount of hops to give away. They won't last much longer so get your requests in ASAP!