I dug up one of my Northern Brewer hop rhizomes a couple days ago to split it into two pieces and replant it. I need some hops of the same kind, from the same rhizome stock, for an experiment this year. Here's a picture of how big this rhizome got in one year:

This was planted a year ago from a roughly large-softball-sized rhizome. I split three other rhizomes of the same age the next day and they were all a little bit smaller.

My experiment deals with testing a method to grow good quality hops in the south. The capsule version of the method is to force the hops to come to fruition after the hottest part of the summer. In the south, hops sprout early and the cones form and mature early -- sometimes as early as July. Perhaps as a result, most southern homebrewers who grow hops report that their cones have a grassy smell to them. I'll have much more on this during the growing season and especially around harvest time.