Mmmmm, Beer.....

We spent a little time drinking our beer last weekend, introducing some lucky entrepreneurs to our craft, and then drank some more of our beer while people we didn't share our beer with looked on.  A satisfying experience.

Seriously, though, Tom, Jay and I met with a local restaurateur who's interested in developing a "house" brew that can be his consistent tap.  We brought along a growler full of our Double IPA that had just gotten off the 4 week primary / 4 week dry hopped secondary / 3 weeks in a keg cycle - dude, this is the bomb!  Hopped, fruity (cascade hops), beautiful color and very clear.  Needless to say, they were impressed.  We still feel the Sonnenwende (Kolsch) would be a better "light hybrid" beer that would pair well with his menu, but we've got a little equipment upgrading to do before we can start banging out 15 gallons a week so there's still time to push them in that direction.

Recent 10 gallon batch of Sonnenwende aerating before fermentation

 The hops are growing beautifully - we've had a spell of very wet, unseasonably cool, weather through the first half of June.  This might set us up with some powdery mildew, but for now the plants look good and are growing fast.  Bob has been busy adding more rows for the 160 plants he and Joyce (Ma) just picked up in Rochester!  So, we'll have 190 hills in the ground by the end of June - with propagation next year we should be up to 500 next spring.

Growing fast!

After reading an article in the Northeast Hop Alliance newsletter about a bigger farm out near Rochester (Whipple Brothers) investing in a pelletizer I reached out to them to let them know we'd probably be showing up at their door a few weeks after harvest this year!

Let us know if you want to stop by and check out the yard - it's a sight to see!  If you're lucky we might let you sample a little Limestone Creek Brew!

Trellis Cabling? "Check"

So, Bob graciously pointed out to me that Jason, Tom and I have full time jobs and finding time to work with him on many of the agricultural aspects of the hop yard might be a bit unrealistic. Not to mention he has a full time Jack-of-all -Trades, Charlie, who can provide some brawn and brains to make it all come true.

Charlie and Bob providing the muscle for the cabling of the hop yard trellis

The weather had been really warm and dry for about 10 days leading up to the week before Memorial Day and the hops responded by growing like gangbusters! Of course, so did the weeds. It switched to warm and wet the beginning of last week, but we're back to March like (wet, chilly, windy) for our holiday weekend.

Now that the bines are on a more stable, and tall, trellis system they seem to be ready to get to the top. We only lost one of the 60 trellised bines to frost that occurred on May 7th - the rest bounced back nicely thanks to the following days warm up. They also survived some intense thunder storms that rolled through earlier this week - just like many of those in Moore, Oklahoma we're all thinking of, the hop bines seem to be made of pretty tough stuff.

Yes, new rows for more hops! It's gonna be a busy harvest next year...

On the brewing front we submitted our two outstanding creations, an American Pale Ale (APA) and a Kölsch, to the NYS Home Brewers Competition. We brewed a Double IPA way back when that's been fermenting for about 2 1/2 months - it's in the keg as of last week and we just have to try some tonight. I think no more than two will be recommended :-). Jason, Tom and I are getting together to recreate our APA all-grain in a 10 gallon batch tonight.

Now we just keep 'em mulched and watered and watch them climb!

Currently, we have 15 gallons kegged - 10 gallons of the Sonnenwendt (Kölsch), and the 5 gallon Double IPA (name to be determined).  That's an abundance of beer and we need to organize our first official tasting since we're adding another 10 gallons in about 3 weeks.  Any takers?

Happy Spring to all, soldier on soldier boys and girls, and relax....have a home brew!
Andy

Climbing Bines

The hops are growing fast this spring - a bunch of warm dry days and cool nights seem to be just what they need.  We have 30 plants (10 Cascade, 10 Fuggle and 10 Newport) that were planted last July and I'm really impressed how mature they look coming out of the ground.

Fuggle variety supported by temporary jute twine trellis.

The Fuggle emerged last, but seems to be growing the quickest, although with the fewest sprouts per hill.  The Cascade and Newport both have an abundance of sprouts, but a little less height in the highest bines.  This weekend I pruned all growth other than the healthiest 2 bines in each hill so they can put all their energy into growing up the trellis.

We've got a couple of cools days and potentially frosty nights - we'll hope for the best!

On the beer brewing front we're submitting our Kolsch and American Pale Ale beers into the NYS Home Brewers Competition this week.  Both bottled really well off the keg and I'd say we have a chance to win in either category.  We'll let you know ASAP!!!

Sprouts of Love

Nikki and I recently went out to the hop yard and I was reminded of that famous Shakespearean stanza,

"Hark, sprouts of love,
 Yon distant yard groweth
 Whence thou was bare.
 Oh, ye bitter brew made
 with hops so beauteous."

Okay, I made that up; and I didn't have any thoughts of Shakespeare when we saw this glorious sight:

Mmmmm, future aroma and/or bittering hops!

Spring (or so the calendar says) 2013

Back into growing season in CNY and looking forward to watching our young bines make their climb!  We still have a fair amount of work to do - irrigation, weed management and completion of the trellis systems among them.  We'll also be planting 40, or so, new plants to increase our yields and round out our test hop yard.  These'll be more mature plants with one or two more varieties to add to our collection.

Tom, Jay and I continue to perfect our brewing techniques and equipment.  We've had some very successful all-grain batches and are feeling that the American Pale Ale and Kolsch styles will be consistent menu items.  In fact, we're submitting these two beers in the NYS Home Brew Competition in May - awards will be given out at the NYS Fair in August.

Our rudimentary "brew-house" for all-grain brewing -
hot water tank, mash tun and boiling pot

We continue to have lots of discussions with others who've been working toward a "farm brewery" in the area and will hopefully learn from their mistakes.  The Limestone Creek Brewery business plan is complete and we're talking with investors.  This year we're focused on getting our larger, 10+ acre hop yard site set up for 2014 planting.  We also hope to have a test site for barley planting and malting set up this summer.  

Is anyone interested in working as a taster?  We really need to find an objective source to perfect the 3-4 styles we're going to focus on.  I guess I'll find out who's reading my posts by how many responses to my taste-tester plea I get.....

And now I lay me down to sleep...

Now that we've had a couple of "kill" frosts in Upstate NY it's time for our baby hop's to go to bed for the winter.  Fortunately, a 65 degree Sunday came along to make my life a little more enjoyable and the job a little easier!

Winterized Hop Yard - Fall 2012

A shovel full of the Miller Gold compost mix (yard waste, coffee grinds from the office, and Miller food scraps) followed by 8-10" of wood chips and the hop hill's are nestled in nicely.  We didn't cut the hop plants back this year since they were put in so late in the season, but in coming years we'll have harvested the main bines and cut back the plants a bit.

I visited a local hop farmer on Saturday who's actually trying to get out of the business due to a variety of reasons.  He's got about 5 acres of 4 year old hop plants in a number of varieties.  He claims 2012 was a very bad year for local hop farmers as a result of the ridiculous warmth we had in March this year followed by freezes.  He claims 60% losses this year; not as much loss as others due to some precautions he took.

The covering of the hills that I did last weekend should prevent any problems associated with early growth.  I won't pull back the wood chips until early May.  I'll then cover them with some dried horse manure to give them that spring boost!

We keep brewing some great batches and are close to choosing our "top 3" that will be the first larger batches.  Now we need to invest in some big brew pots and fermenters!

Thanks for coming by!

Practice, Practice, PORTER!

Let's talk about brewing beer.

My brewing partners, Tom and Jason, stopped by after a trip to the brew supply store to cook up a London Porter. This is a style we haven't made before, but we were looking for a full bodied beer that will pair well with the falling leaves and cooling temperatures. The recipe is a partial grain/partial LME (Liquid Malt Extract) variety that lets us have a little flexibility (grains) while saving a bit of time (LME).

Tom enjoys a little left over grains - fiber-licious!

The process takes just over 3 hours not counting the trip to the store. Steep the grains, add the LME, bring to a boil, add hops over the course of an hour, cool it down, dump it into the fermenting vessel, "pitch" the yeast, cover and your done.

During the process we have a little time to discuss our next purchase - a kegging system! Bottling isn't that difficult, and it does make it convenient to split our batch among one another, but putting the beer into a keg allows for only a few days wait to drink. And, lets face it, having a keg of homebrew is just plain cool!

A peek at the Porter once it's been transferred to the secondary fermenter -  notice the hops and "trub" that the siphon helps filter out.

This batch will be very tasty. How do I know? Well, one of the benefits of being the one to transfer to the secondary is that I get to take a little sample to measure the specific gravity. A calculation of the difference between the specific gravity reading before pitching the yeast (OG) and at the time you bottle it (FG) gives you an approximate alcohol content.

Since we're going to put this batch into our new 5 gallon keg system it should be ready to drink a few days after we transfer it. We'll tip one for you!