2012 Hop Garden(s)

We are still expanding...

I went a little overboard on the hops this year. But I guess that is expected for someone living on the West Coast. I actually don't use very many hops over the course of the year, maybe ~ 1 lb for my 12 brew sessions. I do however really like experimenting and being able to grow your own hops is a fun thing for me (and friends).

This year we are growing at 5 different locations
- My Mom's (4 plants - 3 varieties)
- My Dad's (2 plants - 2 varieties)
- Dan's (7 plants - 7 varieties)
- Dan's Mom (TBD)
- Eric's (3 plants - 3 varieties)

Mom's

Fuggles

04.05.12

Goldings

04.05.12

Sterling

04.05.12

Dad's

Cascade

04.03.12

Tettnanger

04.03.12

Dan's

Cascade

04.15.12

Centennial

04.15.12

Chinook

04.15.12

Cluster

04.15.12

Magnum

04.15.12

Nugget

04.15.12

Willamette

04.15.12

Eric's

Cascade

04.06.12

Chinook 

04.06.12

Willamette

I'll post updates through out the year (~ once a month). And we should have a good number and variety of rhizomes to give out next spring. Leave a comment if you are interested in some rhizomes and I will contact you when they are ready.

The Great Wood Aging Experiment: 7 Varieties

This experiment was inspired by a post I read at local beer blogger site, Lewy Brewing. He bought some oak "honeycomb" inserts to use in his beers. I took a look through the Black Swam Barrels website and the below paragraph caught my attention:

I decided to buy one 5 gal honeycomb insert of each (except Hickory, not a big fan) and at $2/piece. You have to email them (heidi@blackswanbarrels.com) and then they will reply with a quote. They sent my samples within the week and then I mailed them a check.

I received 7 individually wrapped honeycomb inserts. For this experiment, I thought my Scottish 80/- would be a great base beer to test the flavors on. It has a nice malt backbone, but is not too strong to let us taste the difference in wood varieties. I made a 10 gal batch (5 in a carboy, 5 in a keg) and then transferred .5 gal from each fermenter into 7 - 1 gal jugs (the leftover was kegged and is in the fridge).




I had to cut the 5" sticks into a 1" cube so that it is the right dose for 1 gal. Then the cube was microwaved with filtered water for 3 min and allowed to cool before pitching the whole thing into the 1 gal jug. This process took a while, but I was catching up on episodes of Brewing TV.

Now, it is time to wait 6 weeks (suggested extraction time) and then the next chore of bottling 7 individual gallon jugs begins. The plan is to get a small group together to taste the beers and make some notes on each type of wood to see if we agree with what Black Swan Barrels described.

 So stay tuned for a future tasting post.

Homebrew Tasting - Muscat Confluence

I have finally got around to tasting one of my first ever dreg beers. And it was worth the wait.

Allagash Confluence was one of the first truly Brett Beers I've ever had. I remember the experience very well, my good friend Ben bought me a 2009 Confluence for my birthday. We shared it that night and I recall being blown away with how the flavor changed with each sip as the beer warmed up. I was hoping to accomplish something similar, with using a very simple Belgian Singel base wort and letting the yeast be the main focus. After about 6 months, I wasn't too impressed (with my experience now, I probably wouldn't have touched it) so I added a 750 ml bottle of Muscat grape juice. This grape is popular in sweet dessert wines and I really like the taste and aroma.

This beer is already pretty old, but I am looking forward to occasionally tasting this beer and seeing how it changes.