Tag Archives: hops

2016 hops are fully stocked!

All of our 2016 crop is available to purchase in our online store. Each comes in 1oz, 4oz, or 1lb sizes. All of our packaged hops are purged with Nitrogen and vacuum sealed.

  • Neo1 – An experimental neomexicanus breed with a very potent lemon-citrus character. 8.41% Alpha Acid – SOLD OUT
  • Columbia – All purpose breed with crisp pineapple with bright, lemony citrus notes. 9.41% Alpha Acid – SOLD OUT
  • Centennial – A bittering hop with strong floral and citrus aroma. Often referred to as “super cascade”. 8.6% Alpha Acid    – SOLD OUT
  • Southern Brewer – A bittering hop with earthy and woody tones. Originating in Africa and a spin-off of Fuggle. 8.8% Alpha Acid  -SOLD OUT

All of our hops are quality tested at Karslab and AAR Testing.

Wizard Spring 2015 Update!

It’s been awhile since we last updated so, sit back and enjoy…

Well shortly after we got the greenhouse up and running, we built our planters benches. Got all of our fruits and veggies growing nicely. We also started a handful of hops early

greenhouse hops

Just when we thought it was break time, a delivery of 140 new poles arrived. They ended up getting bundled wrong so, it was a chore loading them off of the semi!

pole delivery

We waited until the field was somewhat dry to start putting them up. Thankfully we had Alex’s help with the installation. Got them all up in about a week!

more poles poles 2

Oh yeah, we also installed about 1000ft of drainage too…

drain

 

The hop wagon got completed.

 

 

wagon

 

And today…. despite the rain, we picked up 1,300+ hop plants from Great Lakes Hops.

hops2 hops1

 

Stay tuned for another update!

~Mr. Wizard

Brewing Trip Up-North!

We took the trip up north this Labor Day weekend to visit my son, Brian. We ended up doing some home-brewing with our freshly processed, whole leaf, hops. We brought two ounces of Centennial and three ounces of Cascade. Brian ended up choosing an American IPA to brew up (see recipe).

processing4

brewing2

Brewing Trip

We brewed this using an all grain recipe that included 2-row malted barley and 60L Crystal malt. Mashed in at 158 degrees for 90 minutes. Then boiled for 90 minutes, adding hops at different intervals. Our original gravity measured in at 1.059 and we’re shooting for a final gravity of 1.018 – leaving an abv around 5.4% (tasty!)

brewing4

We will be doing another 5 gallon batch with our Cascade and Magnums very soon too!

The Beginning

We acquired our Cascade, Centennial, and Goldings in early march of 2014 and proceeded to plant them in 20 planting containers. Each container had three rhizomes planted in them. We kept them in an enclosed back porch area that received plenty of sunshine. We constructed our poles, selected the area to plant them, turned the soil, installed and set four poles with coir yarn for our twine in sections of four. We kept the base mulched and weed free as much as possible. Soon they were trained to grow up the twine and at this time are approximately 6-8 feet tall. Since we lost a few due to excessive heat, we replaced the empty spaces with Magnum plants. These have filled in quite nicely and seemed to have caught up with the others. Continue reading The Beginning