Planting Hops

Today I planted two hops rhizomes. Cascad and Zeus. They are both on the northwest corner of our garage which gives them full sun and allows room to build a trellis and attempt to train them. Photos will follow as they develop! I suspect it will take a couple of years for them to fully establish themselves. We shall see. If they grow and produce a hop crop I will share the results with my beer brewing friends - and see what they can do with them.

Here is some info:

Zeus Hops, although genetically different, gets shuffled into the CTZ group of Hops. CTZ stands for Columbus, Tomahawk, and Zeus. There is a brief history time line involving different hop growers with the same or similar varieties. They each got their own name, as can be seen, however they emerged back into simply CTZ as they were identified as .

After the merging of the brands it was later discovered that Zeus was in fact a seperate variety through gas chromatograph. Even still, its brewing characteristics are so bitterly close that it makes sense to simplly move forward with CTZ as the revised brand name. HUSE-CEZ, LLC is the resulting joint venture that manages the trademark for this variety.

All of the information you need can be found on the Columbus Hops Page.

Cascade Hops aroma and flavor is best summed up, as simply, American Pale Ale. There is also New Zealand as well as Argentinean Cascade. This particular variety took life in 1972 and has certainly won some hearts in the brewing industry. Bread by the U.S.D.A in Oregon, Cascade Hops can be found overwhelmingly in a number of commercial U.S. beers.

Cascade hops contains moderate alpha acid content ranging from 4.5% to 7%. Its real strength is in the aroma, as it was the premier aroma hop developed in the U.S. This mettlesome grower bears a verdant, botanic bouquet. It carries some spicyness to it as well. The aroma of Cascade also comes with citrus, sometimes compared to grapefruit. This no doubt comes from the higher levels of myrcene. Farnesene also registers fairly high in Cascade, which is used in the perfume and food industry.

Cascade is fairly resistance to disease and fungus, but its inability to store well, makes it lose some hops points. Its parents include Fuggle and Serebrianker, which is a Russian Variety. Cascade is one of the most accessible and ritual hops (in the U.S.), and rhizomes are readily available as well.