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.
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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.....
