Thursday, March 29, 2007

Growing Hops: Is it that time again?

Have you bought your hop rhizomes yet? It is that time of the year. There are plenty of places to get them these days. Homebrew shops, the Internet, friends, your Mom... ;-) If you were around last year, you know we grew hops for the first time. We planted four varieties of hops including Cascade, Chinook, Hallertau and Willamette. (would be nice to figure out which are which) They were planted late. The Cascade took off and yielded five ounces (green not dried) by the end of the summer. I used those hops when dry hopping an IPA which has yet to be kegged. It does taste good... been sneaking tastes from the carboy. I'm thinking it is the perfect beer to celebrate the first hop bine sprout poking through the earthy crust. So, what is in store for us this year? Maybe those bines will go nuts and cover our entire yards! We'll keep you up to date on their progress this year. Who know maybe we'll shoot another time-lapse video and take a few pictures of the harvest and drying. Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. For now I'll have to settle for kegging the IPA, sitting in the back yard and waiting....and waiting...and waiting. I hope I have enough beer ;-)

No comments: