Hops Grow (1st year)

Over the winter I was reading up on people growing their own hops, so I thought what the heck, I should give it go. So I pre-ordered 2 cascade and 2 Centennial hop rhizomes from www.northwesthops.com. I lucked out and received them nice and early (March 10th) and planted them the following week!

I decided to plant them in a cut in half plastic barrel I had at work. I filled each barrel with a mixture of planting soil and sand from around my work.



After about 2 weeks of the rhizomes being planted, I began to noticed little sprouts popping up.

 

        Cascade                                        Centennial

A few weeks later, the vines began to shoot up towards the sky!

5/3/11- Hops update

Cascade growing a bit faster then the Centennial, but so far happy with the growth!!!


Cascade



Centennial

1st Annual "Brown Off"

Do you hear it?  The rolling thunder of a perfect boil, the faint
   sounds of excitement from all over San Diego as homebrewer's hit
   that magical O.G.  As we all cross our fingers hoping this brew will
   be the best a challenge is born.

   The 1st annual "Brown Off" is going to take place at Big P Brewery, May 21st. 
   The best from local homebrewers will be on draft
   for a competition of homebrewing skills, recipe formulation and
   plain old fashion luck.
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   THE EVENT DETAILS:

ALL FAMILY AND FRIENDS ARE INVITED!

When: Saturday May 21st, 2011

Where: Pastore's Pad... 910 Harry St. El Cajon Ca 92020  http://maps.google.com/maps?q=910+harry+st+92020&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=910+Harry+St,+El+Cajon,+CA+92020&gl=us&ei=Vdi5TbeaNebbiAL5sI01&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ8gEwAA

Beer check in- 11:00 am till....

Food: Hots Dogs and Burgers will be thrown on the bbq at some point during the day! Water and Lemonade will also be provided!

Pool Party: Bring your swim suits! The pool will be nice and warm and in full swing for your enjoyment!

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HOW IT WORKS:

Beers/Kegs will be given a number and kept secret from brewers and drinkers!

Drinker/Judges- Everyone attending and drinking will be allowed to judge the beers.

Judging- Each tap will have a the number assign to it with its correlating keg connected to it. Judges/Drinkers will be given a score sheet for every beer number. Judges/Drinkers will put their name on the card and can fill out the sheet as they drink the beers.

Scoring- The score card from the brewer who's name coincides with his brew, will be thrown out. Scores will be totaled and averaged. The beer with the highest average will be deemed "Best of Browns" 

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Please RSVP and let me know who's all participating and who's coming! Feel free to bring a side of some sort to share with everyone!

Btw... Kids are welcome!!!

Double Brew Day (Evening Glare IPA/Lava Rock Pale Ale)

Saturday 4/23/11 (Day before Easter)


Evening Glare IPA

Got a later start (10:00am) on today's brew sesh then I really wanted to, but wasn't to worried about it since I had all day!

Decided I was going to try my hands at an IPA today! Came across a recipe on www.homebrewtalk.com  that look really interesting and thought I'd put my own twist on it. Loved that included Amirillo, Cascade and Centennial hops, along with a high AA% bittering hop (Nugget) and totally off the wall dry hop addition of Glacier (which I ended up using Williamette).

The brew went pretty good! Hit 73% Efficiency and ended up with an OG of 1.070. Cooled down to 72 degrees in 25 minutes and pitch WLP001 yeast!

Really Looking forward to trying this beer! 

So now that Cracker has converted her kegerator from a sanke keg set up to a corny keg set up, she's been really interested in making her own beer!

So after my Evening Glare IPA was cooling, Cracker came over with the ingredients for a batch of my Lava Rock (Kona Fire Rock Clone). I was really stoked she was able to head to Home Brew Mart,  measure out the grains and grab the yeast all on her own! ( Being her first time and all! I know how hectic that place could be on a saturday!)

We started the mash around 1:30pm and was converted and boiling by 3:30! By this time, my IPA was pitched and nice in safe with a towel around it! :)

I had Cracker do most of the switching of the hoses, turning of the valves and also the whole hop schedule addition! I must say, she's catching on fast!!!

We hit an OG of 1.057

The Lava Rock Pale Ale was cooled in record time, 20 minutes, and the yeast was pitched at 75 degrees! 

Everything done and cleaned by 6:00pm!

Long, but great day of brewing! Looking forward to both these beers out by the pool this summer!

Brew Stand Build

So I came up on some uni-strut that I can use to build my brew stand. I drew up some quick sketches of what I wanted and made my cuts today!

Basically, it's a 6'x2'x2' cart with 2 burners (one on each side) and a place for my Mash Tun Cooler in the middle. I still have to purchase all the hardware for the keggles and mash tun so I can attach hoses to them, that in return, will be attached to a pump with cam-locks.
Looking forward to getting this project started!
Follow the progress here:
Brew-Rig Build