Act I, Scene I

And so it begins.  An adventure of insurmountable proportions.

Okay, maybe not insurmountable, but definitely something that may take years of work, a little luck, and a lot of fun!

My goal is to document the development of our "Hop Yard" and subsequent hop house (Oast), beer brewing operation, tasting room, and retail sales location.  Want to come along for the ride?

"Hop Yard" - a little more than 2 acres of previously farmed land on the "Oot" property Bob bought recently

Phase 1 will be the development of the Hop Yard.  The cedar and larch poles were delivered today by John and John Patane and their logger, Kenny, who picked some poles off their property in Peterboro, N.Y.  We hope to get those in the ground and the trellis system up in the next 7 days.

The hops going in the ground this summer include Cascade, Fuggle, and Newport varieties that we purchased through Steve Miller (Cornell Cooperative Extension) and the Northeast Hop Alliance (NeHA).

Our Virus Indexed baby hop plants - the future of our company!

So how long 'til we're picking hop cones to brew in our beer?  Probably about 2 years before we'll get any real production out of these babies.  We may buy some stock varieties that are 1.5 years old from Zerillo's nursery (Cicero, N.Y.) so we have a harvest sooner.  I'm thirsty!

I have to thank my father-in-law, Bob, for pushing this thing along.  His land, heavy equipment, vision, and financing will help this all become a reality.

Also, looking forward to continued brewing with Tom Otis and Jason Fridley developing more recipes and brewing larger, Larger, and LARGER quantities of beer!

I look forward to posting future information and pictures.  Thanks for stopping by.

Andy