Summertime at Karridale Cottages and Hop Farm is spent outdoors enjoying the beautiful weather, peaceful bush lands, gorgeous beaches and the serenity of the Blackwood River. Whilst guests are busy exploring the surrounds we at Karridale Hop Farm are busy working hard making sure our hops will be ready for harvest from February through to late March.
Much time is spent throughout the summer strolling through the hop yard winding young tender hop shoots up the drop strings that the bines will eventually use to grow towards our cross-wires. After a successful winter digging up rhizomes, splitting and transplanting them, we are seeing some wonderful first year growth in our expansion bays. We have been busy in the workshop as well designing and building our own hop dryer for what we believe will deliver a superior dried product. We can't wait to put it to the test with this years harvest.
With 13 varieties growing well, we are excited once again for the harvest season to get to work alongside local brewers to create regionally distinct beers using the freshest of ingredients. At the end of January we harvested one of our early varieties, Pemberton " Wild Blend", which has quickly become our strongest hop variety and with true wild abandon the first hops to reach the drop lines and to set cones. We're excited about the possibility of working with Jarrah Jacks Brewery in Pemberton to showcase these locally grown, heritage hops in a beer they were destined to be a part of.
We continue to monitor the other hop varieties including Cascade, Chinook, Flinders, Nugget, and Perle in anticipation of a March harvest. We’re keen to once again to provide local breweries with some fresh "wet-hops" to celebrate the season! Please look out for further information about beer releases in the very near future.
Summer at the cottages, gives our customers an opportunity to get up close and personal with your local hop farm. We offer hop yard tours on the weekends as well as the opportunity to check out a hop harvest when the cones are ready to be picked and delivered to a local brewery to make a fresh local craft beer. If you’re interested please feel free to contact us on either 0430490708 (Olivia) or 0420514195 (Trey), we'd love to show you around.
Have a great summer,
Trey and Olivia