Thursday, February 14, 2008

Rhizomes!!!!

I just ordered some Cascade Rhizomes. In light of the worldwide hops shortage I'm going to take a shot growing some myself. I don't have a ton of space in the backyard, but hopefully I can get a couple vines going. More of an experiment more than anything. I don't expect to grow enough for all my brewing, but if I can make one or two batches with my own fresh hops, that will be fulfilling. Once I get them growing I'll post some photos.

I also ordered one of those 6 gallon plastic "Better Bottles" to add to my fermentation equipment. Now I can have a couple different brews going at a time. It is ported at the bottom so I can do away with cumbersome siphoning.

Coming up on tap soon is going to be a honey-blonde ale. I'm using pilsner extract with some honey malt specialty grains, and a whopping 3lbs of white sage honey!!! Will be done by springtime and will be a good lawnmowing beer. (OK, it takes me about 5 minutes to mow my tiny lawn, but that's enough to earn a beer isn't it?)