Magnum, Indeed

Check out how tall the Magnum hops are already (taken yesterday):

That horizontal piece in the V is just about six feet above the soil. It grew at least another six inches today while I was at work! That's a Deodar Cedar in the background. We planted it in 1996. Here's another angle:

And finally a look at all three:

The Cascades (middle) are doing fine. The Nuggets are just getting started. Spring has arrived, so we've turned on the irrigation to the garden. Those bines will really take off now.


a.d. III Kal.Mai

Hops!

It is spring time here in the State of Jefferson. Take a look at my hops:

Those are Cascades. I had to cut back several sprouts--they are doing very well. All the varieties are rhizomes from Freshops in Oregon. The twine is for the bines, which like to climb. They grow in a spiral, hence they are bines, not vines, which grow by suckers or tendrils.That's cocoa bark, which is an excellent mulch and also keeps the neighbor's cats out of the bed. It smells like chocolate, which I love. The shadows are the A-frame trellis I originally built for peas and beans.


The Magnum are the tallest so far:

Sorry for the lousy picture. The last set are Nugget hops. They have just begun to emerge:

Beautiful plants, don't you think? I hope to have some nice stuff this fall. I would like to try using some "green," or "wet" hops in a brew. Typically the cones (the unfertilized fruits) are dried before they are used in beer, but you can add them when freshly harvested for some different flavors.

I started the garden project at the end of March of last year. Things were 'Comin' Up' by early April. I'll keep you posted.


a.d.XI Kal. Mai

World Series Stout

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

I fired up the burner today and brewed a batch. I call it WORLD SERIES STOUT in honor of the 2012 San Francisco Giants, the World Series champions.

I used eight pounds of dark extract but steeped a half pound of roast barley in the liquor while it was heating. One ounce of whole Ivanhoe hops boiled for one hour completed the formulation. I got 13 ºP on the refractometer and pitched two sachets of Safale-05 in the carboy. It was a fun and easy brew, and we had just enough sun and relative warmth (40 ºF) to make it a pleasant day on the patio.

Doesn't that look yummy? The last batch fermented out in less than a week. Add a week, maybe ten days of conditioning and then to the keg for at least two weeks, maybe even a month. The beer is always better when I'm patient. It should be perfect by St. Patrick's Day.

MacBeth: Act IV, Scene I

 

Happy Fridge

The Pennant Porter is ready for the New Year. Should be plenty of excellent quaffing in the offing!! Now I'll have to get to work on a World Series Stout. The 2012 San Francisco Giants are the World Champs. That's a better reason for partying than 1999 or the goddamn Mayan Calendar cluster-fuck, don't you think? I certainly do.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

a.d. III Kal. Ian.

Pennant Porter II

The beer fermented out quickly as I used two fresh packs of yeast. It never got below 1.020 and showed no more signs of fermentation so I decided to keg it up. I primed the two 2-1/2 gallon corny kegs with about 50 grams of dextrose each and filled them both with plenty left over. There was a lot of volume in this batch! I figure they'll need at least a week of conditioning, maybe more like ten days as the closet temperature hovers around 65 ºF. Then a week or two in the fridge and Pennant Porter should be ready by New Year's Eve.


a.d. V Id. Dec.