I think I sense two seasons approaching and how I will treat this blog. I think it's quite obvious that baking in the Summer time is just, well...dumb. Why would you want to turn on the oven anyway? So, in the Summer a young-old man's fancy turns to brewing (and gardening.)
I am tending to my hops in the back, pictures to come either tomorrow or Thursday. They are turning out wonderfully. They have grown tall and I've started to trim them back so that they will grow more bushy. There's already little buds on them.
Andi turned to me today and indicated that she was ready to give up on the Silverlace. That would be the piss poor excuse for a vine on the West side of our house. The vine is all on one side of the trellis, and the leaves are small and not pretty. To my glee she "told" me to order some hops. After all, they get really big leaves, grow bushy and do smell nice when blooming.
To my horror, I've discovered a world wide hop shortage. Not sure on what the deal with that is, so I think some more research is necessary. I then though to myself, "can I reclaim the rhizomes I have now?" I started to do some research and found little. But then, I did call my favorite gardener (Nana-M) and asked her what I could do? As I found the answer, she told me to try and root it from a cutting.
I had just trimmed a bunch of vines, so I cleared off the leaves, and buried the vine in a nice pot of fresh potting soil. If we're lucky I'll have a duplicate of my Hallertauer. This also brings up a bit of a problem for me. I have three types of hops, but I only know one of them, since the label disintegrated. I know which is the Hallertauer, but the Kent Golding and the Cascade are kind of a mystery. I found a website that has pictures of the cones, and it looks like there is a difference in the kinds that once ripe, I should be able to tell. Go to the bottem http://www.brewjobs.net/beer/hops-gardening.html
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, I got a kit and brewed it up on Monday. This is amber from Northern Brewer, in fact a Phat Tyre Amber. I'm going to come up with a name for myself, so we'll see.
3 comments:
My friend made that one and it turned out very tasty.
Excellent! I can't wait to see your pics!
I planted Fuggles and Cascade rhizomes in March. The Fuggles has really taken off, but the Cascade didn't quite make it.
Washington State produces 75% of the hops consumed in the US...but because of the shortage my local homebrew shop has had to start importing them from New Zealand.
Thanks for the blog. I bought this book and have been making great bread. I just googled batch bread to learn more about it and found your blog. The yeast I use is bulk fresh from Costco. First you get a huge quantity for like 6 bucks. It has worked well for me. I use one full tablespoon for most breads. Everything so far has worked for me. I recommend the croissants, WOW. Looking forward to the batch bread. Thanks for the info.
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