Plucking Hops Like in the Old Days

3 days hop harvest experience in the Hallertau

• 2 nights in a guesthouse or hotel including breakfast

• Plucking hops like in the old days • Plucking hops • Tying the wreath of hops

Plucking hops like in the old days

Up until the 1960s harvesting hops was hard manual work. Every year around August 24th, up to 70,000 seasonal workers from all over Bavaria came to the Hallertau to help with the hop harvest. During this experience you will be able to "pluck hops" yourself: harvest and pluck by hand. That sounds fun! But you will notice how exhausting it was back then and how much team spirit it took.

What happens during the hop harvest?

Until harvest, the very fast-growing hemp plant grows in the hop gardens along wires up to a height of 7 meters. The hop harvest begins around the end of August or the beginning of September, depending on the weather. The hop vines are harvested together with the wire. A tractor with a special picking device drives along the row of hops. The wire is cut off at the bottom and torn off at the top and carried to the rear of the trailer. When the trailer is full. it goes back to the yard. There the cones are mechanically picked from the plant in a separator. The processing of the hops by the farmer is far from over.