RedViper 21 Jan, 2021 @ 12:04pm 

You cannot ignore the keg production time because the wine takes longer to produce than the pale ale, also you have the option to place both wine and pale ale on casks to increase their value. If you go for iridium quality you are doubling their value.
Besides, having longer production times are sometimes better than shorter ones because they require less attention. You just harvest ancient fruit once a week instead of daily, the same goes for the wine since it takes roughly 6 days to produce instead of the pale ale 1-2 days.
And doubling the value of something that is already expensive is more valuable than something that is cheap, that is why you want to age wine instead of pale ale.
Pale ale
420g -> 840g (it takes 34 days to upgrade it to iridium quality)
840-420=420 (difference between normal quality and iridium quality which is doubled)
420/34= 12.35 g per day
Ancient fruit wine
2310g -> 4620 g (it takes 56 days to upgrade it to iridium quality)
4620-2310=2310 (difference between normal quality and iridium quality which is doubled)
2310/56= 41.25 g per day
Edit: Nvm im dumb, you can ignore keg production time with enough kegs to process everything.

Last edited by RedViper; 21 Jan, 2021 @ 12:16pm

Nakos 21 Jan, 2021 @ 12:08pm 

Hops are kind of a fussy crop to be in the Greenhouse. I personally prefer crops that don't need to be checked every day. Maximizing wealth production is one thing, but time and labor intensity is another issue. (I do grow a lot of Hops in the Summer though).
I also tend to actually use the Greenhouse for what greenhouses are traditionally used for: To prepare for the upcoming season. Having a variety of key crops you intend to utilize in up coming seasons allows you to accumulate a stock of seeds without paying anyone. Strawberries are the best example, but you can do it with most of the crops.

Wolfsmaul-GER 21 Jan, 2021 @ 12:25pm 

harvesting and selling hops as it is with basic fertilizer seemed very profitable, sadly i only bought 2 and it was already too late to plant more when i realized how good they actually are

Pixel Peeper 21 Jan, 2021 @ 12:43pm 

Hops is a highly profitable crop, but between the trellis and having to collect and process every day, it's a bit of a pain.

Quizzer 21 Jan, 2021 @ 12:58pm 

In my experience hops don't scale as well as AF and Starfruit. They take too much time to harvest and barrel. They are awesome for first year summer, though. I try to grow as many as I can with my first sprinklers, then focus on building 100 or 200 barrels through winter. By year 2, all those barrels demand much less fuss and bring in plenty of dosh with other crops.
Also your numbers are off for 2 reasons: 1st, Starfruit harvests in 9 days, not 10, with DSG. 2nd, as RedViper mentioned above placing them in the cellar (I think it's 15 bottles/week cycled over 8 weeks) adds considerably to their profit, making them comparable for much, much, much less work.
I currently have 250 barrels (I consider this a medium amount) and am done processing everything by 2pm, 12pm if I ignore my animals. That leaves me a half-day to work planting several hundred more on Ginger Island, and gathering mats for more barrels. I usually don't buy mats, that feels like it makes the game downright trivial to me.

Crapmanch 21 Jan, 2021 @ 1:13pm 

yes casks change everything, and the pain of daily harvest is a thing... but just the profit with kegs is insane

josseriot 21 Jan, 2021 @ 2:12pm 

Really the best way to make a profit from hops, if you don't want to drive yourself bonkers harvesting them every day in the greenhouse or on the island, is to wait until you can afford jumino huts and devote a huge portion of your summer crops at the farm to hops, as you can plant them side by side and the juminos can harvest them even if they would be blocked for the player. Just stockpile a ton over the summer and then process them in the kegs in the following seasons.
Otherwise, invest in ancient fruit, pineapple and starfruit. Maybe not as profitable by the numbers but they allow you to do other things in-game besides harvesting them all the time while still earning you a really good profit with kegs.
In my current playthrough, i haven't really bothered with hops that much because I didn't want to deal with jumino huts. I haven't been hurting for gold, especially thanks to my pineapple plantation on the island.

Tristin 21 Jan, 2021 @ 4:53pm 

Hops is too much work. Its worth in beginning of the game to grind some profit, but you want to move on to other fruits time to time, and then finally ancient fruit. Doing hops all the time will really limit your activity outside of it.

Last edited by Tristin; 21 Jan, 2021 @ 4:53pm

estehmanis 22 Jan, 2021 @ 5:15am 

There's no way of saying what's best without factoring playstyle and your goals. If you're talking money alone, I guess it's hops?