Homebrew Report #250988

[HomeBrewerDude]

HipHoppityAle

9 lbs 2 row pale malt
1 lbs CaraPils
1 lbs Special B

1 ounce Nugget hops at 60 minutes
1 shitload of homegrown Cascades at 2 minutes

Wyeast's London ESB Yeast

hops.JPG
hops2.JPG
hops_and_brew_asst.JPG

 

[Cattlegod]

kick ass how hard is it to grow your own hops?

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

very easy. they need water, sun, and something to crawl on

 

[j00fek]

any guides on hop growing? and strains?

 

[Kelemvor]

So how was the beer festival thing the other weekend? Did you go? Sounded like fun.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
So how was the beer festival thing the other weekend? Did you go? Sounded like fun.

Yeah it was a blast! I had a a lot of great beers, though this year I didn't keep any notes at all so I don't remember specifics. I tended towards belgium-style offerings and enjoyed almost all of the beers I sampled. I had a couple of stinkers; one was flat out BAD...it was a coffee stout that had picked up way too many of hte bitter oils from the coffee they used.

Lots of great beer, even more women than in the past, and weather was pretty good too.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: j00fek
any guides on hop growing? and strains?

there is a lot of information out there on the web... lots of good books too.


http://www.ratebeer.com/Story.asp?StoryID=186

 

[Beattie]

Let me know how those cascades work out. I got a bine of them growing by the side of my house.

*edit = Mine are first year. I am not expecting much.

 

[broon]

How long did you dry the hops? I'll be interested to see how it turns out. I have tons of home grown cascade but have never used them.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: broon
How long did you dry the hops? I'll be interested to see how it turns out. I have tons of home grown cascade but have never used them.

i didn't have much patience with the hops... they were not dry yet, though I aired them out a bit in the over very low heat with the door open - which apparently you're not supposed to do since the oven can get too warm and boil off some of the oils. I've heard that a putting hops in brown paper sack, and putting them up in the attic is a good way to dry them.

basically:
too hot = bad
sunlight = really bad

Once your hops are dried, a gallon ziplock baggie stuffed to capacity is supposedly going to weigh about 1 ounce.

As you can see in the pic, I didn't realy worry about any of the details.


Edit:: the aromas coming from the airlock are very good.... I may dry hop too since I still have a buttload of cones on the vines.

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude


As you can see in the pic, I didn't realy worry about any of the details.

That's basically my homebrewing philosophy as well. People take it far to seriously

 

[broon]

Sounds good. I made a bastardized Hop Rod Rye recently that turned out pretty good. Monday I'm going to do an Arrogant Bastard clone...10 gallons and 24 lbs of grain.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: broon
Sounds good. I made a bastardized Hop Rod Rye recently that turned out pretty good. Monday I'm going to do an Arrogant Bastard clone...10 gallons and 24 lbs of grain.

sounds good!


what do you use for a mash tun? i can't remember if you do the old converted keg trick, or an converted cooler.

i've got a relatively unused 60qt cooler i could convert for brewing.... just need to assemble a filtration gadget.

 

[broon]

I have both but use the cooler mostly since it retains the heat better. I bought a false bottom for it which works pretty good. This is going to push it to the limit though. I will probably cut back on the grains and maybe add some DME to the boil to get the target OG. It's supposed to come out to 7.8% with 24 lbs but I'm capped at about 20. 5 lbs of DME should do just fine.

 

[rbV5]

I saw the link to this thread in another thread. How old are those hops plants? They look like trees! The other thread got me interested in the homebrewing, looking at your pics, I'd like to try and grow some hops also. I have pretty extensive gardens already and the hops look to be a cool addition.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: rbV5
I saw the link to this thread in another thread. How old are those hops plants? They look like trees! The other thread got me interested in the homebrewing, looking at your pics, I'd like to try and grow some hops also. I have pretty extensive gardens already and the hops look to be a cool addition.

ahhh. i think you're mistaking old branches for vine stem. When i built the trellis, I wove finger sized, 6 ft green sucker branches (apple) through the metal frame.

my plant is about 3 years old. I train it on the arched trellis that is about 4 feet wide, 4' tall. I train the vines to criss cross and they seem to like the structure. It keeps the cones very accessible, and creates a play space for the kids.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude

Originally posted by: rbV5
I saw the link to this thread in another thread. How old are those hops plants? They look like trees! The other thread got me interested in the homebrewing, looking at your pics, I'd like to try and grow some hops also. I have pretty extensive gardens already and the hops look to be a cool addition.

ahhh. i think you're mistaking old branches for vine stem. When i built the trellis, I wove finger sized, 6 ft green sucker branches (apple) through the metal frame.

my plant is about 3 years old. I train it on the arched trellis that is about 4 feet wide, 4' tall. I train the vines to criss cross and they seem to like the structure. It keeps the cones very accessible, and creates a play space for the kids.

OK, good then, I don't have to wait too long for a mature plant to harvest. Looks like I'll be looking for a nice spot in the garden