Friday, July 20, 2012

Hop Crop Report: July 2012

Hop outlook for 2012 not great.  As of right now I have two plants growing.  A third year Fuggle is over in the corner of the yard strung up on a wooden trellis with some clotheslines while a first year Nugget is growing close to house and simply strung up to the window with some string that will need to be replaced next year.  

The Fuggle:
Not even sure I really like these hops but having them laying around in excess this winter seemed like a good chance for me to get more acquainted with them.  I'm sure in some combination they could be complimentary rather than just tasting like dirt on their own.  But perhaps I won't get the chance; the aphids got after these guys good and after trying soap and water and a chemical spray it looks like I may be too late.  They are wrinkling up and dying just as some lovely buds are starting to form... 

The Nuggs:
These fellas are doing much, much better than the Fuggle being in another corner of the yard.  There were some aphids early on but I hit them with the spray and they seem to be doing fine.  They have grown up to the house so I'll need to string up somewhere else for them to grow.  I was thinking about pulling them horizontally underneath the windowsill so maybe I'll try that out.  Not sure if they will produce anything this year but maybe I'll get lucky and snag a few latter on.


Fuggle
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Almost everything near the top of the trellis has withered away by now.


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A closer look. More and more are getting brown and dying.




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And they were doing so well. Probably about 15ft long I'd guess.


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And the saddest part....the buds are coming in but the plant might be dead before they can grown up to be made into wonderful, delicious beer....

Nugget
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These Nuggets leafs are much more promising though.


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They're growing nicely and starting to wrap a couple more shoots up the original one.


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Going crazy near the bottom. Maybe I'll trim some of that back in hopes that the main vine can get some first year production.


Thursday, July 19, 2012

I have read about malt conditioning a few times in the past now but have never really felt the need to try it until now.  My next brew is going to be the second coming of my Redheaded Rye-child which uses a bunch of rye (27.3%) which is making me nervous about lautering.  I've heard that there are several advantages to conditioning your malt including: increased efficiency, a lower chance of a stuck sparge and lower tannin extraction which all sound good to me.  

After doing some research on these two websites:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/2010/01/16/malt-conditioning/
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Malt_Conditioning
I have decided to go ahead and do it.  The rule of thumb seems to be adding water equivalent to 2% of the weight of the grainbill.  My grain bill is eleven pounds which means it is 176 ounces which when multiplied by 2% equals 3.5 ounces of water so I guess I'll go with that.  Not sure but I think I'll do it fifteen minutes before crushing.