Halfway home from Chicago this week I paid my first visit to the Theil family for a visit with their new boy, their first boy, the "hop farm", and a little beer swap. I left behind a Bell's Expedition Stout and Bell's Cherry Stout, and took home a Great Divide Titan IPA, Green Flash IPA, and two bottles of the illustrious Cranberry Ginger Bitter our resident brewmaster had imagined up a couple months back. Tonight, I relaxed at home with one of the bottles:
The Pour
I selected my Jameson wide-mouthed stem glass for this operation. Cracked the swing-top bottle and poured it out. Deep mahogany, a little cloudy, about an inch of foamy, tan head that soon left only a small line behind.
The Nose
The first hit is brown sugar, chased quickly by those cranberries. Diving in a little deeper I pull sweet ginger, reminiscent of ginger ale moreso than pure spice. It's the brown sugar coming through strong, though, and it's a very appetizing aroma that gets me excited for phase 3.
The Taste
This is one complex brew! Everything promised in the name is quick to arrive, notably those cranberries and a good dose of hops. Not as sweet as I anticipated base on the aroma with the hops and cranberries double-dosing the taste buds on IBUs. Not to say it's overwhelming - sweet malts and brown sugar are evident as well, but definitely take a back seat to what becomes a ruby red grapefruit flavour. Looking for ginger? It's there, and treated well as a subtle note, as it should be. I'm told it's 8% and it's not hard to believe, this one will keep you warm whether you want it to or not. ;)
As It Warms
The alcohol actually calms while the sugars move forward, leaving a very well balanced brew behind. Smooth sipping and well rounded. Excellent job!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Hop Trellis
Two years ago I started growing my own hops.
I planted six rhizomes and only two survived - Willamette and Galena.
My first harvest was a meager 10 oz, but it was fun to watch them grow up to my second floor bathroom.
I enjoyed it so much that I started studying hop production methods.
After getting permission from SWMBO, and inspiration from BYO magazine, I worked with my father to design my own trellis system.
Rather than buy a ladder, or have to cut down the hops for harvest, we opted to use clothesline elevators. They'll allow me to lower the hop bines bit by bit for harvest and then raise them again for the greenery. I may even get two harvests.
The 6x6 posts are 15.5' in the air, supported in 12" diameter postholes 4.5" deep in 5.5 bags of Quickcrete each. That's almost 300 pounds of concrete each, before water. I'll be paying my friend Darren in beer in perpetuity for his labour. What a tonne of friggin' work!
...I hope that's enough to support them. If the hops acts like a sail and pulls at the posts in high winds, I suppose I can lower them temporarily.
Each hop rhizome will have two bines, and in their second year should produce three pounds of hop flowers, dry weight.
Some have already sprouted: (2) Magnum, (1) Chinook (2) Galena (2) Stirling (2) Willamette plus my original Willamette and Galena.
I planted six rhizomes and only two survived - Willamette and Galena.
My first harvest was a meager 10 oz, but it was fun to watch them grow up to my second floor bathroom.
I enjoyed it so much that I started studying hop production methods.
After getting permission from SWMBO, and inspiration from BYO magazine, I worked with my father to design my own trellis system.
Rather than buy a ladder, or have to cut down the hops for harvest, we opted to use clothesline elevators. They'll allow me to lower the hop bines bit by bit for harvest and then raise them again for the greenery. I may even get two harvests.
The 6x6 posts are 15.5' in the air, supported in 12" diameter postholes 4.5" deep in 5.5 bags of Quickcrete each. That's almost 300 pounds of concrete each, before water. I'll be paying my friend Darren in beer in perpetuity for his labour. What a tonne of friggin' work!
...I hope that's enough to support them. If the hops acts like a sail and pulls at the posts in high winds, I suppose I can lower them temporarily.
Each hop rhizome will have two bines, and in their second year should produce three pounds of hop flowers, dry weight.
Some have already sprouted: (2) Magnum, (1) Chinook (2) Galena (2) Stirling (2) Willamette plus my original Willamette and Galena.
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