Don’t forget to string your hops!

It’s that time of year again when I nearly forget to string my Hallertauer hops at the allotment. Looks like I only just managed to catch then this week before they got a bit too keen to work their way up the posts. The weather has really seen them shoot up: There are far too many bines so the aim is to train […]

That was quite the break

I have been away from blogging for a while, but thought that now would be a good time to get back into the habit – start of a New Year and all that. It might be best to summarise what has been going on over the last few months and pick up from there:   Growing Hops My last post […]

Harvesting Hops 

It’s nearly harvest time and the hop cones are getting papery and yellow with lupulin. I’m really chuffed with how well the Hallertauer has grown for its first year. I’ll definitely have enough for a brew day (either green hopped or I may try to dry some). I’ve tried 10 cones in a hop tea leaving them steep for an […]

Beer, bread and buses

Recently (i.e. as of about 10 minutes before winding up the PC to write this) I thought about the cultural and social aspect of beer blogging and beer appreciation and was struck by how there didn’t appear to be any similarity with other ‘good’ food or beverage categories at the moment. Good beer appears to be blazing so many trails at the moment. […]

Wylam Brewery Tour

We have just got back from a great weekend up in the North East over the half term hols and I managed to fit in a Brewery Tour and Tasting. Well it did coincide with the start of Manchester Beer Week (more on that in another post) so I was feeling left out. Wylam Brewery have recently finished relocating to the Exhibition […]

Hops Update

Well, the Hops have come on since the last post: They have climbed the height of the upright, and with a little coaxing they are starting to go across the coir to the other support. We even have what look to be a few side shoots, which I think are the fruiting spurs for the cones: There has been plenty of sun and […]

Hops growing update

Oh dear…  mixed results on the hops growing front at the allotment. The First Gold / Prima Donna has rotted!  We had a wet couple of weeks and I may have planted it a bit deep which probably allowed it to rot. I dug the grown up and some of the thicker roots seemed ok so I cut them into […]

Growing Hops

I have an allotment and at the suggestion of my dad, I have just ordered and planted two hop rhizomes to take up the space from the raspberry plants we had taken out (too leggy and a bit past their best). I decided on one Hallertauer and one First Gold / Prima Donna. I really like the German noble hops […]

Mash Tun Envy

I caved in at last and went for a mash tun. There were a number of factors in this decision: Every home brewer / hobbyist in general has a deep seated desire for new and better equipment; I was a bit tired of constantly watching the mash temperature on my BIAB set up which was, I suspect, affecting my efficiency; […]

Black Cat Porter

Well, what a great Christmas and New Year that was! To help celebrate, I kept good on my promise and made a shorter all grain brew to have a Porter ready for Christmas drinking    The Boil and Hop Additions   This was based on a recipe I had done back in May 2015 for a partial mash: part all grain – […]