August Hops Update

The hops have done well this year! I've really only been displaying half of my crop, the other half is nearly as big and is on the opposite side of the house (to the left of the air conditioning unit). They have actually climbed across the strings that I placed between the two arbors, and have intertwined.

If you go back to one of my earlier posts you can see how much they have grown and filled in now.

I have also seen several "Hop Guardians" climbing around on my plants too. Praying Mantis and various spiders. These are very welcomed as they are natural pest control for my hops. Early on in the growing season I do need to hit them with a dose or two of Seven Dust, because the natural predators haven't hatched as early as the plant devouring Japanese Beetles do. And believe me those beetles can do some major damage in a short amount of time! On a sad note though I fear that one of the best of these guardians has fallen pray to a bird. On Sunday I came out to check on the hops and there was a huge "Garden Spider" (Orb Web Spider) You know the yellow black and white abdomen spiders that spread their legs out in pairs and sit waiting for something to land in their web http://www.spiderzrule.com/orb.htm right in the center of the arch. She must have been 6" diameter leg span, and was in the center of her perfectly orb shaped web. She was beautiful, but of course I didn't have my camera, and wasn't able to get back to the hops until last evening to get a shot. When I went back she was gone and there was a huge hole in the center of the web where she once was. Bummer! I'm pretty sure that a bird flew up and plucked her out of the web.

I wanted to try to get several angles so that you could see how healthy they are. In this photo you can see some of the cones that will be harvested within the next couple of weeks.



This is a close up so that you can see the size of the cones (flowers) of the hops. They are bigger and better than ever this year.

This plant was put into the ground here about 4 years ago, and the other plant (not pictured) was put into the ground 3 years ago. Next year they should be even better!

I watered them pretty good last night because we haven't had rain for over a week now, and don;t have much chance of rain over the next week either. I'm actually hoping that they will be ready to harvest within the next week because they are so close and I'm scheduled for another business trip, out of the country, just after Labor Day. If I don't harvest before then, I'm sure I will miss the optimum time while I'm gone.

Oh well like I've said before, I really grow them because they are such cool plants, growing from 3-6" per day at peak growing season, and that if I actually get any of the hops to use in my brewing then it's a bonus!

Brewing like the Big Dogs!

Through the courtesy of my friend and fellow brewer, Ted, I now have a "Big Dog" brewery!



This is Ted and I standing in front of the new brewery. Ted constructed the system a few years back, but is ending his brewing career so he has passed it along to me.

I met Ted during my short stint in Lima, OH. He, Major (now Lt. Colonel) Danner, and I restarted an old brewing club up there called "The Hawg Creek Brewer's". I already had experience as I was one of the founding members of CMI: Cincinnati Malt Infuser's. But enough of the back ground let's get to the brewing!
As you can see it is a three tiered system, fabbed up with old, discarded, yet modified, 1/2 barrel kegs. The top keg is the hot liquor (water) tank, the middle one is the Mashton/Lauterton, and the final one is the brew kettle. It's actually just as easy to operate as my single batch system, but I can get a double batch (12 gal) out of it for the same effort.

Here's the basic process:
Hot Water - You fill the hot liquor tank with water (please use a food grade hose, or you'll end up with "garden hose" beer) Don't ask how, I just know! Then you crank up the propane and get it up to temperature (around 170-180F to start).


Grist - Next you grind the "Grist". This is actually a process of cracking the grains (barley malt). For this system it takes about 20lbs of grain per batch. In this case we're making a Swartzbier, a German style black lager. The grains don't look that dark do they, well it only takes about 1 lb of black malt to get the results we want.







Mash - Once the water gets to temperature you start adding it to the mashton, until you cover the false bottom (sorry no photo at this time), with about a gallon or two. Then you start adding the grist. Once all the grist is in the mashton, you add more hot water to it to just cover the grains. Checking temperature to make sure you're at mash temperature. For this batch we wanted to get to 150F. We'll allow it to sit at that temperature for about 1hr and then we'll check to make sure the starches converted to sugar!




Sparge - Once the mash is completed you sparge(rinse) the grains to remove all of the sugar water, which you catch in the brew kettle. The sparging arm looks a little like a miniature irrigation system doesn't it!










The Boil - Once you've collected all the malt sugars, you bring the wort (hot sugar water) to a boil. Then you can add the hops. I chose some classic German varieties (Hallertaur and Tettnang) to give it a true Swartzbier flavor.
A typical boil goes for about an hour. This not only extracts the flavors from the hops, but also serves to boil off some unpleasant volatiles and denatures some of the proteins, which will settle out in the trube (sediment). This is a photo of Ted's batch during the boil, it was already dark by the time we were boiling the big batch.

Chilling- After the boil you chill the wort, either with an immersion or reverse flow chiller (sorry no photo, possibly due to beer consumption while brewing). Ted has an immersion and I have a reverse flow chiller. They both have advantages and disadvantages which might be the topic of a future post.

This of course is a photo of Lightnin and our friend Scott displaying a different type of chilling!


It's also important to note that this all took place on Lightnin's birthday(Friday July 28th)! What a wonderful wife I have to suggest that we brew a big batch in honor of her birthday! I'm telling you she's one of a kind, and I don't know what I'd do without her! Of course she informed me that the rest of the weekend should be considered "All about Lightnin Weekend", to which I humbly obliged.


Back to the brewing lesson:
Pitch the Yeast - Once the wort has cooled, to between 70-80F, you can add your yeast. I used a tube of liquid German Pilsner style lager yeast.
The photo shows the beer in an actively fermenting primary. In about a week I'll transfer it to the secondary (another clean glass fermentor) and then slap it into the lagering fridge to sit at cold temperature for about 4 to 8 weeks. This is the lagering process. It allows the beer to slowly ferment at a cold temperature to allow for a smooth, dry quality to the brew. It also allows more of the fine sediment to settle out for a more clear appearance.

Kegging - Once the beer has completed lagering it will be transferred into two 5gal soda pop pre-mix canisters (again no photos at this time, but maybe when I go to keg it!) to be carbonated and then served.


Since Ted was sort of coaching me as we went along, the brewing lasted a bit longer than normal (10hrs, from 2:00PM -12midnight). So of course we had to show off the power of my jet cooker to the crowd of brewing fans that were present!!! (Ok, I tried to pass it off as a large birthday candle, but Lightnin didn't go for it!)

Believe it or not the flame is actually shooting over 6ft into the air. The camera man was staying back at a safe distance!


I hope you enjoyed the brewing lesson. I'll try to get some additonal photos as I complete the rest of the process.

If you're interested in learning more about brewing, I'd be happy to share my knowledge and experience. I can also suggest several books that could help to get you started.