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| This is what boiling bananas look like. |
Other news - Konigsbock, our Maibock, is lagering in the bulkhead after spending some quality time in my bedroom carbonating. Our beleaguered brown ale, Catch Me If You Can, is finally in the fridge, after taking a long long time to reach any semblance of respectable carbonation. That one should be ready to roll by Marathon Monday at the latest, though I feel like such a hearty beer will feel well out of season in the Spring. I'm sure it'll be enjoyable, but it's almost certainly going to be a brew to have with a big meal.
We are also endeavoring to grow our own hops. Dana's family has large... tracts of land and we have ordered a half dozen rhizomes to plant in about a month's time. I can't remember for the life of me what varieties we chose, but it was a pretty good balance of bittering and aromatic hops. Dana, if you could, post the varieties in the comments. Someone out there might care.
Past that, we are generally formulating plans for the summer brewing season. We could definitely use some ideas, so if any of the 4-7 of you who read this have any crazy ideas to throw at us, we're all ears. Lastly, keep your eyes peeled for news about our first ever tasting party. It's a ways out, but it's in the works.
Like Coco said, we purchased a half dozen hop rhizomes to further the quality and the variety of the beers that we will be able to brew.
ReplyDelete"Why do you need to grow your own hops? Can't you buy those?" Simply, yes, we can buy the hops when we buy ingredients. However, there's a certain pleasure that you get from making things as much from scratch as you can, and this is another attempt for us to be a "true home brew." We're growing our own hops because it's fun, cost affective, and allows for a greater variety of flavors and aromas for our brews. Also, it's arguable, but we think that the whole-hop may generate better and smoother flavors and aromas. So we said, why not? But that's enough rambling, let's get to the hops!
We bought 6 rhizomes of 4 different varieties
1 Kent Golding:
England’s finest hop. Balanced bitterness. Mild, very pleasant floral aroma. Some spice.
Use: Traditional, and (many feel) that it's the best hop for bittering, aroma and dry hopping in all British ales.
2 Nugget:
Nugget is usually used for bittering, but the bitterness it carries is, "pleasant, and not too harsh." Its aroma has been described as "heavy," as well as "spicy-herbal."
This hop is a great choice for American ales and lagers.
2 Cascade:
Cascade hops are an all-American hop primarily whose primary use can be seen in the American Pale Ale and IPA styles. They are primarily used as an aroma hop in the last half of the boil.
1 Sterling:
Sterling is an American hop variety bred to be similar in flavor and aroma to the noble Saaz hop variety. Sterling has a noble and somewhat spicy (but not overly spicy) and even a little floral aroma.
We are both excited at the prospect of this new endeavor. We will certainly keep you updated on the progress of our rhizomes, and how we plan to integrate the whole hops into our brews!