Construction in Pole Barn 2 is underway and Progress continues in the Hop Yard!
Beer Bombs are in stock!
Mr. Wizard’s official Beer Bombs are in stock!
ATTENTION HOP HEADS! You will want to pay attention to this.
What the hell is a Beer Bomb™ you ask? Well, it’s pretty simple – it’s a tea bag packed full of our hops, that you drop in your favorite pint of beer. These bombs will extremely intensify any beer you choose to drink. Hop aromas and flavors are off the charts!
Our beer bombs feature hops that we grow right here on the farm. Cascade, centennial, perle, and Neo1 – each has very distinct flavors.
If you’re interested in seeing what these bombs are all about, please head to our online store to purchase some. Each pack comes with 6 bombs.
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
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!
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!
Oh yeah, we also installed about 1000ft of drainage too…
And today…. despite the rain, we picked up 1,300+ hop plants from Great Lakes Hops.
Stay tuned for another update!
~Mr. Wizard
A quick Wizard Update
Here’s a quick update from the Wizard.
We are finishing up the cedar benches for the greenhouse. It’s been a long process but, we’re completely happy with how things have turned out.
More poles have been ordered and delivery will be soon. We’re going to install them as soon as the weather breaks. Thinking about going with a v system for these poles.
We will be spending time with Great Lakes Hops in Zeeland, MI for some valuable research and learning soon. Also planning on visiting a few other hop farms in March.
It’s time for classes at Michigan State. If you’re interested growing hops, these classes are for you. Very educational and a great source to meet some of the best hop growers in the state.
We have a new phone number for Mr. Wizard’s Hops. You can now call us at 734-868-0171
Keep watching us as we Grow!
Kickoff Party
Our official company kick off party will be November 28th in our brand new greenhouse on the Stahl Farm. We will have homebrews featuring our hop varieties, snacks, and good hop growing conversation. Here’s the beer list:
1.) IPA : Brewed with Wizard’s Centennial and Cascade hops. Using 2-row and Crystal 60 malt. Dry hopped with Wizard’s cascade hops. ABV 4.8%
2.) Pumpkin Ale : Brewed with Wizard’s Magnum hops. Using 2lbs of fresh Michigan pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. ABV TBD
3.) DIPA : Brewed with Wizard’s Centennial and Cascade hops, along with fresh Citra and Galaxy varieties. ABV TBD
Please RSVP here: http://on.fb.me/1xadjyR
New Wizard’s Logo!
We finally received our new logo! Check it out 🙂
Greenhouse Almost Complete
We’re nearing completion of our brand new greenhouse. Perfect timing because the weather is getting pretty cold (it snowed up north on Monday). The gas and water lines are already in place – ready to warm this beauty up all winter long. We’re expecting 300+ more hop rhizomes for next season. The greenhouse will play a big part in getting them prepped for good yield.
Brewing a Pumpkin Ale with our Magnum Hops
We had an ounce of Magnum hops to use up and with it being so close to the fall season, brewing a Pumpkin Ale was a no-brainer. The Magnum hop variety is typically used to provide a slight bittering to lagers and some ales. We chose to use it in this pumpkin ale batch because we don’t want a hop forward flavor but, we still wanted a hint of bitterness.
This specific Pumpkin Ale recipe is an all-grain batch and can be found here. We just simply replaced the Mount Hood variety with our Magnums. We did end up using our own Cascade variety as well. Enjoy the photos!
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).
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!)
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