Earlier this year, I began a hop experiment. The hypothesis was that Southern US hop growers could produce better quality hops if they cut their vines back in early May.  This would delay development so that the hop cones would mature after the peak temperatures of summer. Unfortunately, the experiment is not going to yield any usable data this year.

The part of Texas I live in has been experiencing record heat and almost no rain. We just sailed past 50 days of 100+ °F highs and are experiencing an exceptional drought. [The US Drought Monitor catagorizes droughts as -- in increasing severity -- moderate, severe, extreme or exceptional.]

If you guessed that hop plants don't like this kind of weather, you're right. Even though I thoroughly water the plants every day, the heat is getting to them. None of the plants have died, but on two, the main vines are dead.  These plants still have a "bush" of short vines near the base, but they won't yield any hops this year. The remaining hops have stopped growing and are showing signs of stress, primarily browning at the edges of leaves.

One preliminary result of the experiment was a confirmation that cutting the vines back in early May would delay flowering. The control plants -- which were allowed to grow without being cut back -- flowered in late June through early July and produced hop cones in late July. The yield was the worst I've ever seen, about a handful or two of cones per plant, and the cones all turned brown very quickly.

The experimental vines did not flower when the control plants did. Right now, one Cascade plant has a few flowers, but the rest of the plants are not growing and aren't producing any flowers. If the weather cools down -- even to normal annual temperatures -- these might start to grow again. My current goal is simply to keep the plants alive and try again next year.

Here are a few pictures of the heat-blasted hops. The first is of a dead Cascade vine. This vine gets the most sun of any of the plants. The second picture is of a stressed Northern Brewer leaf. The third picture is of the hops at the side of my house. They are alive, but have stopped growing and are not anywhere near as vigorous as they have been in past years.

My malting plans have stalled somewhat. I've got a 10-gallon Brute garbage can full of plant material -- mostly kernels and the little spikes from the "tassels" of the barley. I had been waiting for a windy day to help me separate these, but we haven't had any wind to speak of. On the plus side, with all the dry weather, I don't see any signs of mold on the grain. It is stored indoors, where it is air-conditioned (which also dehumidifies the air), but I still want to get moving with malting. I may have to hook up a big fan and use that as a source of wind. 

This year, I have both Robust (6-row) and Conlon (2-row) barley and I am going to plant them both. Based on last year's growing notes, I hope to improve on yield and quality. Plus, hopefully I'll (eventually) get some good practice malting this year's crop and be able to apply that knowledge to next year's barley.