Growing Hops – Part 5 – Training (Week 4)

From here on in I will forgo the “Part” editions and just post updates on a weekly basis. So, week 4 saw some more growth.  Of the several bines that initially poked up through the soil, only one has really taken off.  Perhaps this is because I the planter is too far from the window [...]

Growing Hops – Part 4 – Week 3

I was very surprised when I came back from the long weekend to see this.. I have a feeling that “very vigorous” is going to be a constant theme with this plant.  I’ve seen pictures of leaves as big as 12″ diameter!  This could get interesting..

Growing Hops – Part 3 – It’s Alive!

Small update.  Its alive and growing well.  One leaf and what looks like the start of 4 bines.  I have a 42W (150W incandescent) Daylight fluorescent bulb a few inches away from the growth, on for 14 hours per day.  Seems to be enough light to make a happy humulus.  I’ll post another update when [...]

The Belgian Bomb

This is a big one. A huge one to be exact.  The starting gravity was 1.130!  With a projected final gravity of 1.034 this brew will be roughly 12.5% abv.  If I play a few tricks I can probably get the final gravity down a bit more which will reduce the perceived sweetness and boost [...]

Growing Hops – Part 2 – Planting the Rhizome

So I had a chance to plant my Mount Hood rhizome.  I got one of the biggest plastic pots that I could find and reasonably get away with in my office, filled it with organic vegetable and flower soil, dug a hole and planted the rhizome vertically.  There is so much debate about the orientation [...]

Cracked Malibu – Lagering

As I mentioned in my previous post, the fermentation schedule for this beer was… Primary:  3 Weeks @ 10C Diacetyl Rest:  3 Days @ 19C  (Raises the temperature briefly so the yeast can clean up any remaining diacetyl funkiness in the beer) Lager:  4 Weeks @ 2C …. So the Primary and Diacetyl Rest had [...]

Growing Hops – Part 1 – Arrival of Mount Hood

A few months back I placed an order from Left Field Farms in British Columbia for a single Mount Hood Hop Rhizome.  $6.50 for a 4″ piece of a root – Sure!  Why not!  I didn’t really have a plan when I ordered it, but I did anyway.  Well, it finally arrived yesterday (May 2nd [...]

Clean the Cupboards Ale

Before I ever got the crazy notion of making a Lager, I decided that I should do a little bit of spring cleaning (in February).  I decided to use the leftover grains and hops that have been kicking around for a while to make a nothing special drinking ale.  I shot for 5% IPA-ish brew [...]

Good News, Bad Brews

Obviously I haven’t been up to nothing this whole time.  It really looks like Beer for Breakfast has taken a turn from consumer to brewer.  Is this because we have sampled every single beer ever created (or that the LCBO permits us to try) and yearn for more?  Or perhaps we desire beers that have [...]

Harvesting Yeast from your Favourite Brewery

*Not my picture, taken from Google Image Search. Requested by Jesse, this is a basic set of instructions for harvesting yeast from your favorite brewery for using in your own batch of homebrew. There are a few things to consider if you decide on going this route: – Some breweries filter the yeast and sediment [...]