Another Hopfengarten Update

Here is another quick Hopfengarten update. These bines continue to amaze me. All three varieties are growing well. I started watering them with plant food weekly. It's only been two weeks since I started and there has definitely been an improvement. The Galena is shooting up quickly. The Newport is following behind nicely after starting to climb the twine without any help. The Willamette has finally started to grow well. I need to move the anchor for the twine soon so it'll have a place to climb. Thanks for stopping by and Cheers!

 



Another view from the yard.
All three varieties are growing fairly well now.



Galena

The Newport bine started climbing the twine all by itself.



Willamette is growing well now after lagging behind.

I need to move the twine anchor so it will start climbing.



Father's Day Brew Day

Happy Father's Day 2013. I spent the day with my father helping him brew his first batch of homebrew. He's been talking about it for a while, so I finally pushed him to brew it. This is a brown ale clone of Moose Drool from Big Sky Brewing in Montana. We elected to do a partial mash recipe, so we used a more advanced brewing method than extract brewing. This step adds more grain, which we mash in for 90 minutes in 150° water. We then sparge (rinse) the grains with 170° water and then bring it to a boil. The brew went well, except we might have pitched the yeast into 82° wort. I did read online this morning that the yeast should be fine, but I'll keep an eye on it as it ferments. Take a peek at the pics and cheers! 



The Father's Day brew day
Hanging out with the family



The 4 hop additions

DME and Maltodextrin mix

Bringing the Moose Drool brown ale back to a boil



Semi-artistic photo of the thermometer



Flavoring addition going in

Wort chiller working it's magic

Ahhhh, a well deserved beer

 This is the SNPA we brewed 3 weeks ago

Hopfengarten Work

I put up the twine stringers for the bines to climb. The Galena and Newport are growing. Willamette is lagging behind. I watered all 3 with plant food this morning, so i hope that'll give them a boost. 

Twine is in place

Galena is growing well

Newport has some activity

Willamette is lagging

Homegrown Hops Update

Quick update on the hops. Glenn and I transferred them to the planter Saturday afternoon. We were able to get some decent top soil and I mixed in some Miracle-Gro planting soil and potting soil. The wooden slat arbors on the sides of the planter are repusposed wood pallets. It adds a nice look and will support the lines to allow the hop bines to grow up and eventually over the yard. I hope to dose the plants with plant food in the next few days. I'll update everyone again soon.



New planter with re-purposed pallet arbors





Galena is growing

 




Newport is growing too

  



Willamette is growing. One sprout has broken the surface, but there is also several more we found when we transferred it to the planter.

 



A view from the backyard.

 

Homegrown Hops

Last week while I was at Maltose Express picking up brewing supplies, I also bought some hop rhizomes to plant. These rhizomes will grow into hop bines so we can brew with our own hops. I bought Willamette, Newport and Galena hops and planted them in pots. They will be transferred to a planter this afternoon. The Galena and Newport already have active shoots. The bines will grom to over 18 feet tall if allowed. We/re gonna start with an 8 to 10 foot trellis and then run them our over the yard. I'll post more pics once we plant them and update them as they grow.

The three planted rhizomes

Galena has shoots started

Newport has some shoots too

Hops planter that I built. The bottom has already been removed

SBBC Brew Day. 5-25-2013

Good Morning Everyone. Our next brew day will be Saturday, May 25th, 2013. 12 noon start. I'm thinking we should brew a pale ale for the summer months coming up. Please feel free to bring food and beer with you. Please RSVP so we can get a head count for food.

Call or email me with any questions. Thanks.

CT Beer Week 2013

Good afternoon beer lovers. I just want to send out a hello and pass along some very, very important info along. May 11 through May 18 is the first annual CT Beer Week.

This is a big deal people! This is YOUR week. This is your week to get out there and drink some local, CT brewed beer. So get out there and get some!

CT Beer Week

Here is a link to the list of associated events: CT Beer Week Events

This week is also Cask Wednesday at Cavalry Brewing in Oxford. I'm sure Mike and Justin will have something special planned for CT Beer Week.

For anyone with Untappd, there is a CT Beer Week 2013 Untappd Badge. You have to check in at two of the listed venues between May 11th and May 18th.

Here is a list: Untappd CT Beer Week Venues