It may seem quaint and old-fashioned, but Will Tatchell swears by it.

"You want to hear a raspy sound, like fine sandpaper," the Van Dieman Brewing owner said.

"We listen for the noise of them blowing in the wind - that's when you know they're close to ready.

"Obviously we go down and check them as well - there's a mixture of ways to tell when they need to be picked."

Once they sound right, Mr Tatchell will check the lupulin levels - the glands within the hops that contain the sought-after oils and acids.

Then it was time to cut down the vines and bring them to the brewery where a team of about 40 of his family and friends were ready to harvest them at the brewery at Evandale on Monday, picking them off the vines like strawberries.

They were hoping to harvest 300 kilograms of wet hops, a record number.

Between 50 and 60 kilograms will be brewed immediately from tomorrow, while the remainder will be pressed and packed for later use.

The dry conditions had made it more of a challenge than usual, but a lack of high winds meant it was a decent season for hop production.

Mr Tatchell said it was helpful to be able to keep an eye on their own hops and to have complete control over their own production.

"Not too many breweries are growing their own hops," he said.

"Most are commercial and have mechanical pickers to strip the hops from the vines.

"We're not on the scale of needing that."