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