New Years Strawberry Ale

Well, as the hops season wore down, so did my motivation to write up here. That is, until two weekends ago. I was in the Springs over the Black Friday weekend, and Ryan and I decided it was time to use some of those hops we ordered in bulk. Using both Bravo and Cascade Hops we brewed a beer similar to Ryan's first pale ale. All ingredients equal aside from the hops. Furthermore, Ryan has intentions of dry hopping the pale ale to get as much Cascade as possible into it. I left exited to brew again as I haven't since the failed all grain we made in the summer.

I figured I'd get back to something that I not only felt confident in, but knew would work. When Matt and I started brewing we were fresh into college and had received the oh-so-horrible Mr. Beer kit. You know, the can of goo and packet of dry yeast? That year, I took whatever the light can of goo was added strawberry jam and created something not completely terrible. In addition, it was super boozy and ready just in time for New Years. Although I usually brew the Blackberry Stout for New Years, I thought that I would try to brew something up that most people would drink instead of just a few dudes.

So, last Friday evening, with a growler of Cream Ale from Fort Collins Brewery, Matt and I brewed up the Strawberry Ale. I'm praying it's better than Mr. Beer. Unfortunately I spilled a bit of yeast after waiting an hour and half to pitch it. I figured I'd have to go get another vial, but after about 36 hours it finally started taking off. When I left the house this morning the air lock was furious with activity. Ahhhh what a relief! At 8 bucks a pop, I'm starting to think that yeast is a bit overpriced. Might try to save what I have and get a starter going for the stout.

I sent the invitations for New Years out this morning promising an alcoholic beverage, so no matter how the beer turns out, I don't think I can be called a liar. Here's the recipe if anyone cares:

.5 lbs Pale Ale Malt
1.5 lbs Crystal Malt
.5 lbs Munich Malt

7lbs Light Liquid Malt Extract

1 oz. Cascade @ 45
1 oz. Cascade @ 15

6lbs Smuckers Brand Strawberry Jam @ 30

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale - Pitched at 75 degrees Farenheit

Guesstimated ABV. 8-10%

This was easily the thickest and stickiest Wort I've ever made. I worry that by adding the jam at 30 minutes into the boil, that a lot of the strawberry goodness may have been steamed out. Also, the pectin in the jam may be of concern, but as long as it's fermenting, I'm gonna go with it!

Hops Season Over

Well, I guess we're calling the hops season over. We ended up getting a usable amount, and threw them into a pale ale we brewed at Ryan's house a couple of weeks ago. Ryan already has the beer on tap, and said it turned out really well.

Realizing that hops are the most considerable cost when brewing I decided to seek out a cheaper alternative than purchasing them at my local brew store. It doesn't help (the store) that the employees of the shop are yuppie assholes either. Anyway, after doing some mild searching on google, I found a farm in Oregon who sells hops by the pound at a considerably lesser price than the local brew store. Bingo! I bought a pound of Cascades which seem to be a good hop for just about everything, and a pound of a high alpha bittering hop. I'll let you know how my experience goes with them. It ended up being about $1.60 an ounce or so, which to me is a huge difference.

If I get the hops this week, I'm gonna try and brew at my house this Sunday. I'm torn between doing an IPA or something a bit more seasonal. I wanted to do a pumpkin beer, but that seems like a tired idea. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to comment with suggestions. Also, if anyone is interested in my blackberry stout for Christmas time let me know. Debating if I should make 10 gallons as it was consumed very quickly last year.

It's Been Too Long

Well, A lot has happened over the past month. There was brewfest in Fort Collins, which was, despite the super long lines to get in, a ton of fun. My goal initially was to only drink beers that I had never had before...but that kind of went out the window. In fact, the opposite happened and I only drank beers that I like. Whatever, I'm open minded but it's hard to lay off beers you KNOW are good. So I had 808 from Greeley's own Pitcher's, 1554 from New Belgium, Compass IPA from Bristol, and a couple of other beers I normally enjoy. Overall, I'd say it was a blast and will be excited to do it again next year.

Ryan's Colorado Springs Pale Ale was a hit and is now gone. I didn't get one! That's how it goes though. I also helped friends Claire and Adam brew their first beer (an amber) which has since fermented and been bottled. After talking with Adam I fear that the wort may not have been stirred enough and burned a bit at the bottom. Alas, they've name their beer 'Burnt Children' (in a good way). I guess the slight burnt flavor is a positive.

I have the igredients in my fridge to attempt our 2nd all grain beer, just need to find a good day to do it. It'll be a belgian wit and contain a slurry of inappropriate ingredients. Speaking with Ryan I found that the hops' growth has remained pretty stagnant. I guess that was to be expected eventually and since neither of us know a ton about hop farming we're both telling ourselves this is normal.

The good news is that 4 of the plants have hops growing on them. Even though they're quite small, this is exciting stuff. In addition, the brewers gold plant (one of the 3 late additions) has been growing quite hardily.

Here's some pictures and I'm also going to put a link to Jake's Deck Blog over on the right hand side:

1st Brew of Summer & 8 Functioning Plants

Since I wrote last the hops have continued their awesome first year progress. All three of the replacement plants have broken ground and appear to be healthy. Colorado Springs has, like the rest of northern Colorado, gotten crazy amounts of rain, hail, and tornado warnings over the past few weeks. No matter. The hops still look great and the southern most Chinook is nearly 6 feet tall. With no reference point, I'm unsure as to whether this is as amazing a feat as I make it out to be, but (!), I think for this being their first year they're doing quite well.

Two weeks ago saw the first brewing of the summer (a pale ale) and just shy of two weeks later it's going into Ryan's newly purchased Corny keg. He said it smells great and I don't doubt that. I'm really excited to try it next time I get down there. Also, this past weekend saw the second brewing of the year. We tried our hand, with Jake, at brewing an all-grain beer.

Last year, Matt's dad helped (read: completely built) us build a freezer conversion tap system. It holds 2 cornys comfortably and maybe 3 if pushed. He likes Hefeweizens, so that's what we did brewed. Ended with an O.G. around 1.032, which was a bit low for our grain bill, but hell, it was our first all grain beer. Give us a break. At last check ferentation had completed, so I will probably try to get it kegged tonight or tomorrow. Here are some pictures I got from Ryan yesterday:

E-Rod's E-Rock E-Rocked. Beer Time!

It's been a while since the last post, and you can thank the Elephant Rock Ride for that. But after recuperating on Monday, Ryan and I brewed a pale ale. His first homebrew and my first out-of-town homebrew so it was a pretty special moment. Hopefully it turns out well and we can get it into a keg. Trying to use a hop bill that could be replicated with our own once they start producing, we used 2oz. Cascade (still have one plant left in Greeley), 2oz. Chinook (winning the race to the top), and 2oz. Centennial (not planted). We went with a partial mash and used an American Ale yeast. We'll see how it turns out.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Bristol Brewery for beer and shuffleboard. It was sweet. After brewing a pale ale, I wanted something hoppy so I tried their Compass IPA which is brewed with 6 different hops. Bristol is cool enough to have a large chalk board hanging up showing what hops, malts, and adjuncts they use in each of their beers. The Compass was good, and I wish I had brought one of my Cornys when I saw some dude getting his filled up. If ever in the Springs, go check out Bristol Brewery.

After not having seen the hops in a while I was super excited when I finally did. They have grown like crazy. The Hoods are bushy and the Chinook is tall. The Fuggle that's left isn't struggling, but definitely not as prolific as the others. Ryan is doing a killer job and treating them like they are his own children.

Two of the three replacement rhizomes (replaced cascade and 1 fuggle) have broken ground which is great. Hopefully they do ok this year and kick ass next year.

Here are some pictures from 6/9/2009:

Mt Hood #1

Fuggle

Chinook #2

Mt. Hood #2

Chinook #1

Hood and Chinook Race to the Top

Well, since the last post just earlier this week, the Mt. Hood and Chinook have come quite a ways. The Hoods were introduced to their climbing lines, took hold, and have begun to wrap themselves! Sweet. I'm way too excited about this I think. The three replacement rhizomes came yesterday too and are now in the ground. Not expecting much from them, just want them to get a little growth and establishment. Hopefully they can kick ass next year. Here are the pics:

Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood

New Rhizomes

Chinook

Weed Free and oh so Close. Oooowheee!

Just got some more pics of the new and improved weed free C-Springs garden. I spoke with Ryan and he thinks they will be on the lines by the end of the week. Starting to get pretty exciting.

Also, I made it to the Greeley garden yesterday and am proud to announce that the Galena hops have broken ground (after being quite confused and growing downward). The Cascade plant in Greeley doesn't seem to be growing too much at all which concerns me, and something is eating it...bugs. It's all a bit weird because 5 feet away the Nugget plant is doing awesome. Like really awesome. Not as good as the Mt. Hoods but I suspect It'll be on its line also by the end of the week.

Here are some pics of the improved garden I just got from Ryan.

It's about bine! err....time?

Pretty horrible pun. I'm sorry. I just got some super hot pics from the Colorado Springs garden today as Ryan rushed out during a pause in the rain. It's been a pretty rainy weekend up here in Fort Collins and Greeley. No pictures of the Greeley plants but let me assure you that the Nugget is doing awesome. I also have planted Cascade and Galena in Greeley.

After no signs of life from the Galena I finally dug up the rhizome and to my surprise there were tons of shoots coming off of it. It was almost as if they were growing downward though. Not sure how this is possible. Anyway, I flipped it and anticipate it should break ground this week.

There were also three plants in the Springs that didn't grow. I thought that 6 had come up but was mistaken. We lost both of our Cascade plants. Luckily, the Cascade in Greeley are growing.

I ordered three more plants from freshops and am hoping that they arive this week. I guess I fear that the order may go for next season and not this one so I'm keeping my ears open as to whether they are received on Tuesday or Wednesday.

It looks like we ran into some weed issues too. I'm not sure if there were weed seeds in the mulch I bought or what, but I feel pretty crappy about it. The only place that is growing weeds is in the hop garden which is why we're thinking it was the mulch. Ryan has vowed to pull them which is super awesome, but I still wish I knew the root cause (no pun intended). Here's some pics. As you can see, the Mt. Hoods are getting close to needing the line to climb.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but we used clothesline for the diagonals.

Hops update! More Pictures

Well, I got some more pictures from the garden in Colorado Springs. Not all of the hops plants have broken ground, but so far I'm delighted with the progress of the Mt. Hoods. Next year should be better as the plants will be allowed to come up when they want to and not when I let them.

Here is a shot of the garden. It might give a better idea of the setup. Those are Jalapenos and Radishes in frontTwo good shots of the Mt. Hoods rockin' it


Bella the guard dog

The Fuggle Are Up

Got word yesterday that the one of the two Fuggle plants broke ground. The Mt. Hoods are progressing niceley as well. No pictures for this post. Maybe later in the week.

The Hops Are Up

Well, since no one is really writing for this anymore...I figured I may as well use it to track the growth of my Hops plants in Colorado Springs. Now, I know some of you don't care about this...but I bet that this is checked so infrequently, that it won't really matter.

The hops were planted three weeks ago and broke ground yesterday. Four varieties were planted: Fuggle, Cascade, Mt. Hood, and Chinook. The rhizomes were purchased from freshops out of Oregon. The Mt. Hood rhizomes were 'jumbos' and the rest were 'normal'. I purchased 2 of each not knowing what to expect.

The soil was tested as having a ph right around 7 using a cheap $5 soil tester bought from a local nursery. Steer manure was added for fertilization purposes and the top layer was mulched as was read to be a best practice.

Marigolds were planted around the hops (although they're struggling) as a means to naturally minimize the potential damage of pests. I read about someone doing this and thought it was a neat idea. I have no idea if it actually works.

The garden itself has southern exposure and should serve as a great location for growing hops. Here's a Microsoft Paint design of what the climbing system looks like:

And here's the Mt. Hoods breaking the soil...