Thursday, September 23, 2010

Homegrown Magnum Hops!

UPDATE to the UPDATE:
The hops are finally weighed and I came in with 12oz of homegrown magnum hops! That should keep me busy for a while, I still have more to pick but I am guessing that I have about another ounce on the bine. My cascades are starting to mature and as long as we don't get a freeze I think that I may have quite a few ounces of cascades to pick as well. Only mother nature can tell, but it looks like the weather might hold out long enough for me to get a nice bounty of fresh hops. I cannot believe how well these two plants did for the first year! Also as of 10/10 my cascades are maturing and ready to be picked. I picked a first round on Saturday and I believe that I will get at least 5-7 ounces of cascades and I am only about 50% complete with the harvest. I think that I could quite possibly end up with a pound or more of the cascades. They went nuts and I will be picking them as long as the weather holds out, I am on the fast track but I am not sure if I will be able to get all of them off the bine in time...we shall see!  Cheers!!


UPDATE:
I have finished picking the magnums and with the second pick I got another bag full like you see below. I am estimating that the dried weight of these hops is around 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound! Cannot wait to see how these do next year! I showed them to Dank Brewer and he was the one who estimated the weight of the hops, once I get them weighed I will let you know the exact amount that I ended up with. Also I would like to congratulate Dank Brewer and his wife on the birth of their son which is their first child, life is about to get a lot more interesting for them and I wish them nothing but the best and I am glad that baby, mom and dad are all doing well! Cheers!

The first pick of my Magnum hops are dried! I will need to weigh them but this is what I have so far. I want to package them in usable weights so I am waiting on the vacuum sealer until I can weigh them out. I have at least another batch of this size on the bine and maybe more, I have at least twice this amount in cascades on the bine that will hopefully mature soon and hit the drying rack. I did not expect anywhere near this amount for first year bines so I must be doing something right! Here are some picks of the magnums.



Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Is there a better Minneapolis hip-hop artist?

Mind = BLOWN!  I never saw this clip before and it has everything that I love about one of my all time favorite hip-hop artists! I just love the way his songs are so personal and almost all of them have some kind of duality in them, a true master in our own backyard! 612!

NE Brew Club

Hey y'all, if you are in NE or have ties to NE and you ferment you have to check out the new homebrew club that is just starting to get its feet off the ground. We don't have an offical name but we are working on it, if you are interested you can check out the details and blog here! Cheers to good beer! I will have some pics and a tasting of the Amarillo pale posted in the next few days, I think that I will try to hook up with SIR DANKNESS for a joint tasting.

Peace!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Black IPA and Home Grown Hops Update

UPDATE:
Chalk one up to not thinking things through! The black bitter with the homegrown hops went down the drain last night. I am bummed as this is the first time that this happened, but hindsight is 20/20 and I don't know what the heck I was thinking! I was harvesting some of the cascades and I didn't dry them and just threw them into the bitter, well that is really dumb as I tasted a little bit last night and it tasted like drinking a blended up plant with some malt in it, man it was gross. Guess I will just chalk this one up and not repeat the same mistake again.

I have racked the Black IPA into secondary and I added 1 oz of Ahtanum plug hops. I also got the Amarillo pale bottled as well (I will be sure to do a tasting of this one!). I also was able to rack the black bitter with homegrown hops into secondary and I picked some of my cascades and threw those into secondary. It looks like I will have a few ounces of cascades and magnums to use up straight from the NE Mpls soil! I am excited about this and I am also excited to try the black bitter and see how the homegrown hops stack up.  Here is a pic of some of the hops that I picked last night.  Cheers!


HomeGrown Goodness!


Ghostland Observatory

SO SWMBO and I decided to head to first avenue last Friday to catch Ghostland Observatory. I can quite honestly say that this show was some of the most fun I have had at a concert.  I love first avenue and the electro-funk-disco-soul-rock that is Ghostland Observatory had both of us shaking our butts for an hour and a half.  Definitely give them a chance and DO NOT miss them live! Here is a clip from the show!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

All Grain Black IPA

I love dark beer and I love hoppy beer so why not put them together. It is worth a shot, oh to be drinking a dark but hopalicious beer in the fall time in MN! Here is the bill for the Black IPA:

12 lbs Rhar
.5 lbs carmel 80L
.25 lbs dehusked carafa III
.25 lbs chocolate malt

Hops:
1 oz Summit 60
1 oz Simcoe 15
1 oz centennial 10
1 oz cascade 5
1 oz amarillo @ flame out steeped until 140 degrees

WL001 saved/washed yeast from Amarillo Pale!

Mashed for 1 hour @ 154
Sparged a little cool ended up with 8.5 gallons of wort (Uh Oh)...

So this beer went better than the first all grain, but I still need to get my efficiency up I am hovering in the low 60's and want to get to 70-75 (barley crusher here I come), I ended up boiling the extra 2 gallons in another pot in the kitchen. I knew that I collected too much wort so I did a mini batch and used all home grown hops in this and pitched the same yeast.  I am anxious to see how that turns out! I am expecting it to be much more malty as I have no idea what the AA content of the homegrowns are, but I threw in two handfuls (getting scientific here!) of Magnums for bittering and three of cascades at flame out.

Here are some pics of the brew day:


All of the ingredients

Draining the first runnings

Look at that color!

All grain trinity, from the left, Amarillo Pale Ale, Black Bitter with homegrown hops, Black IPA

Homegrown Hops in NE...Update

My hops EXPLODED over the past moth or so. Two of the bines went absolutely nuts.  Two did not produce at all.  I planted Willamette, Cascades,Magnums, and Nothern Brewer. I did not expect this many hops for first year bines so I am quite happy. Some of them are ready for harvest and some are getting close, I think that I will pick and dry some in the near future. I used some of them on Monday in a brew which you will hear about asap.  Here are some pics of the hops.





Friday, September 3, 2010

All Grain Amarillo Pale Ale Update..

Here are some pics of the amarillo pale ale.  It is not quite ready for a "real" tasting but it is good and I am excited about it so far!
Nice Color with some chill haze but that should clear up

Nice head and some lacing

I have transferred the Amarillo Pale Ale into secondary with an ounce of simcoe for dry hopping. The beer looks and smells great and I am really excited as this is my first all grain beer. I should be bottling next weekend then 2 more weeks until I can taste the sweet nectar. One other first is that I saved the yeast from this batch. I still need to wash it, but I was really surprised at how easy it is and how much yeast I got! Since I whirlpooled in the kettle and siphoned into the better bottle I got almost no break material and very minimal hop sediment. When I checked on the yeast this morning in the fridge it settled nicely and there was a super small layer of hop trub in the saved yeast. I will decant and try to get all the yeast and use it on my next batch or the one after that. I don't want to hang onto it too long, but it is in a nice sanitized sealed mason jar for safe keeping. I am hoping to brew another all grain beer in the next 2-4 weeks and it will most likely either be the same recipe as Dank Brewers Dead Guy Ale Clone or a black ipa.  I am leaning toward the black IPA as WL001 would work really nice in that one and I will then have two really nice all grain hoppy ales to drink on for a while. We will see and I will keep you updated.  The bottling of the celebration stout went really well and I am looking forward to enjoying those with my brother in law when his new arrival comes this winter!  Here are some pics of the Amarillo in secondary!  Cheers!