A couple years ago, somebody gave me some hop roots (rhizomes?) and I planted them. Not much the first year, but boy did they take off this last season. A bunch of nice, full hop cones. Not exactly sure what kind they are, but Cascade was the original thought. I hope that’s they are, 'cause I use them in my favorite recipe.
So, I harvested them, dried them, stuck them in the freezer and last month whipped up a batch of my Partial World Famous Pale Ale (nicknamed ‘Snapper’) using these home-harvested whole hops. Used about 3 oz. during the boil and a full oz. dry hop in the secondary. First time I’ve ever brewed with whole hops. And I got them from my own back yard. I’m mildly excited for the outcome.
Bottled it today. Should have done it a couple days ago, but didn’t get around to it. Should be fine.
I’ll update this in a few weeks if anybody cares.
I’m enjoying a Christmas themed Chocolate-Raspberry Stout as I type this. I used too much raspberry (the difference between a half ounce and three-quarters ounce is incredible!) but I’ll get through the 14 liters I still have lingering around. It’s pretty damn good, but not as subtle as last year’s.
I just finished up a batch of Irish Dry Stout that I pumped up with a little extra malt (added a bit of Marris Otter to bring it up to something like 6.5% abv), and finished it in the secondary on some charred French oak staves that I bought at the Makers Mark distillery as a souvenir (it’s from their Makers Mark 46.) It’s tasty, and I can taste some vague vanilla-y oakiness, but I’m not entirely sure it made that much of a difference.
The one I’m really curious about is in primary now. I took a Belgian dubbel extract recipe (I just don’t have time or energy for full grain right now), added 3 lbs of wheat malt to it (taking it from an OG of 1.068 to 1.080–I also added an extra gallon of water, because the OG was 1.090 with my addition of malt, and I didn’t want it quite THAT alcoholic), and am fermenting it with the Wyeast Weihenstephaner Weizen yeast, which for German wheat beers. Oh, and a little bit of leftover blackstrap molasses, too, I had laying around.
Then I have three gallons of cider going in the secondary from October, but that’s going to sit around until at least March before I think of bottling. That was made with apples from a Michigan apple orchard, but I also added an 8 oz bottle of concentrated cranberry juice (the no-sugar stuff that puckers your mouth like a mofo because it’s so tart and tannic) to balance out and add complexity to the apples, because they’re just sweet juicing/eating/dessert apples (I can’t remember what varietal), and they alone make a fairly insipid cider on their own. This was also fermented with the Weihenstephaner Weizen yeast.
Wow! I know enough to know I don’t know nothin’ about brewing as compared to you! I doubt I’ll get to Chicago anytime soon, but if I do, I wanna drink with you, Cowboy!
Bummer. Sorry that didn’t turn out 'cause it sounded waaaaay cool. You can always buy a case of IPA from somewhere, and mix a bottle of your beer with the IPA and probably reach a happy drinkable medium. Certainly the mix will be better than Coors.
I’d like to throw some hops in the backyard but hope it doesn’t turn out to be disappointing.
i found brewing with the whole hop plugs to be quite good. You get the convenience of something that keeps freshness for a fair amount of time combined with whole hops. Might be worth checking out if you don’t have any other experience with whole hops.
I probably just didn’t use enough in either the boil or the dry phase. While waiting for the hops to mature, I also may have fooled myself into they were ready. I should do a little more study, but maybe two years ain’t enough for them to really be ready to use.
It was a fun experiment. I’ll keep on keepin’ on!
I will say that the batch is at least “drinkable”, but not great. I won’t share it with others, but I’ll swill it down in the garage behind the drum kit.
When you use fresh/green/wet hops, you have to use 3-6 times the volume you would use with dried hops. I grow hops and last fall made a 5 gallon amber ale. I used 2 POUNDS of hops! And it tastes amazing.
Well, I bottled the cider and the Belgian dubbel-wheat hybrid has been bottled and drinkable for the past few weeks (I’m enjoying one now, in fact.) The beer that came from the dubbel recipe is probably best described as a some kind of dark hefeweizen rather than a dubbel, but it’s a tough call, since it’s really neither. The nose and initial flavor is very heavy on the banana from the yeast. It’s got a reasonable amount of residual sweetness. I like it, but I’m not sure I’d make it again. I don’t think the hybrid really is giving me anything that wouldn’t better be satisfied by either a dubbel or a dunkelweizen.
The cider I’m quite happy with. I just bottled it last week, so it hasn’t had time to carbonate yet, but I’ve kicked back a bottle or two, anyway. The cranberry concentrate really did help to give some backbone and character to it. The Weihenstephaner yeast left behind a reasonable amount of apple flavor (like it did last time I used that yeast. It’s my favorite for cider so far, besides naturally fermenting them, and I couldn’t do that with a pasteurized cider.) I wish I had made more of this. It’s got a little hint of funk to it, dry and crisp, some tannins (and a little blush color) from the cranberry, and apple on the nose. It’s what I like in a cider–nothing sweet or overly appley, but nothing so dry and fermented out that you couldn’t tell what fruit it was supposed to be originally.
Next up: bottled five gallons of a Bohemian pilsener recipe made with San Fransisco lager yeast. I started this one a couple days after my last post in this thread. Fermented it at around 50-55F, a week in primary, rest in secondary. Came out crystal clear at bottling and tasted nice and clean. I’m excited about this one when it carbonates, too. I’ve never tried a “clean” beer like this before.
I planted some hop rhizomes last year - nugget, east goldings and cascade. They grew OK, produced quite a lot of small hops, but not enough to brew with. Long term project really, take a few years to get established.
Back brewing after a bit of a hiatus - I use the brew-in-a-bag method of all grain. Had an ingredients clear out into the last ale which turned out ok, nicely drinkable but nothing special. Looking to get the IPAs rolling now.
I’ll let you know how the Homegrown Hop batch turns out. I marked them with an “H”.
