Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider

Welcome! This is why I love homebrewing - there's so many paths to explore that you never get bored unless you really want to.

I've limited knowledge on hop growing, I seem to recall however that some hop varieties may be under patent, so might be difficult to source for growing purposes.

I myself am quite partial to Simcoe since it has a relatively high alpha acid content so you'd use less for bittering than for example Saaz. I also like the flavour of Simcoe when people use it for aroma and dry hopping. I might be mistaken but I think it may have gone out of patent protection.