Ahh.. I love the smell of hops in the morning. It smells like..... Beer! ;-)

The other thing you can do with your hops besides making beer, is trade them with home brewers. So your shade plants become a useful trade good.

With the growing number of home breweries becoming established you should have a good market for the hops at the end of the season.

I spent a summer picking hops in Kent, in the south of England. I could tell some stories about that time, but I doubt anyone would believe them ;-)