The Ballad of El Centennial

Short post today - El Goodo is this year's fall-run batch, and I gotta get on cpf'ing this guy cause the trip is hours away. Let's just chat briefly about hop combos, shall we?

Centennial (homegrown) + Citra (not homegrown) = magic.

Notes on a Brewday: Harvest Season

We are in the midst of harvest season. In Minnesota, it comes earlier than elsewhere. Hop cones are flourishing, grapes are ripening. For us homebrewers, it means one last big warm-weather brew day.

Thunderbolt Pale Ale: Hop Substitution Experiment - UPDATE

Thunderbolt, the pale ale

Tasting notes for my Thunderbolt Pale Ale, using a blend of hops to approximate the profile of Simcoe: 

7/11: 1.5 weeks in primary - 1.009 gravity. Hop bitterness is nearly the same as the original recipe. Centennial & Mt. Hood flavor totally unabridged. Hop aroma seems to be leaning toward pine, though at this early in fermentation it's not all that different from the aroma profile of the original recipe. Secondary transfer 7/12.

Thunderbolt Pale Ale: Hop Substitution Experiment

So far, it's been a hot summer and a short summer. And that's to say summer hasn't officially yet begun. As manic as winter had been, summer crept around the Twin Cities like a lurking radioactive monster. From windy to above average hot, that was only after the tornado season began in north Minneapolis.

Hops You're Not Using But Should Be, pt 2

From the lofty vantage point of my office chair (Ikea), I can see which hop varieties are the current Shiny Object, and which deserving little pellets and cones get unfairly passed over - the ugly ducklings and Cinderellas of the Humulus lupulus world, if you will. And from the lofty (ha! well, I'll call it that and maybe it'll stick) vantage of this blog I can exhort my fellow homebrewers to quit missing out.

Today's sermon: Horizon.

Amarillo Slim

In case you haven't heard, there is a bit of a hop shortage going on for some of the most popular American varieties. Some of the newer varieties that craft breweries and homebrewers love so much, like Amarillo, Simcoe, Ahtanum, and Citra, simply didn't have enough acreage to meet demand this year. Here at Northern Brewer we decided to look into an alternate source of hoppy goodness: Amarillo HopShots.

Short on Supply, High on Concepts

I've had a couple years' run wherein my brewing has been a gently purring animal.

Tastes have become recipes. Those recipes have met practices on brewdays, and then found their way through the cell membranes of various yeasts, until the whole was poured into pint glasses. Those glasses were emptied into dozens of parched mouths; occasionally, a few of those mouths gave coherent, positive feedback. My three & some odd years of homebrewing have led me to a fine place where the only limits have been my imagination, palate & budget.

Beer Engine vs. CO2: Dry-hopped Death Match

The same, and yet not the same.

"Beer engines: cool as hell, but what do I get for $450? Tangibles, I mean. What does it do for my beer?"

A worthy question! Let's try the exact same beer dispensed with CO2 and "on cask" side by side and drink critically!

A toast to the oast

AKA, the place where at you dries your hops.

I wish you guys could have smelled my garage last weekend. 

2010 Hop Crop Report (for my backyard)

First-year Horizon rhizome has sent up a single bine and is now competing adequately with spousal peony bush.

The Great Hop Harvest 2010

At NB Milwaukee, we've got hops on the mind.

Ode to my hop vines

Apologia: 
Even my dog can forgive me this doggerel
on account of how it's NB:TB's poetry inaugural;
if you're rolling your eyes instead of trimming your side shoots back,
get thee out to your hopyard and cut me some slack. 

Experiment: Shipping beer and hop profiles

Could it be that homebrewers have the advantage over pro brewers when it comes to keeping hop flavor in your beer?

Get Hip to (Your Own) Hops

As a homebrewer, there are certain things you can do to save money and there are certain things you can do to increase your ownership of the beer. Growing hops is way to do both.

Hops, and saving some money on your brews

So I was doing some reading in Jean De Clerck's Textbook of Brewing with respect to dry hopping.

NB brews w/ MNHS 'n GNG @ FC

Wow. That's a lot of acronyms. LMAO? Perhaps an explanation would help.

American IPA

There's a foamy meniscus in an imperial pint that divides bitters from pale ales.

Hops you're not using but should be

Palisade. Palisade Palisade Palisade.