Well Then

it's been a long time since writing in. sorry about that. anyways... the pictures bove should give yon an idea of what's going on...oh. so the neighbor's tree became too tempting for jacob, and he began growing into it. so i trimmed the tree back, so this may not happen again. or at least for a couple of years.

All Bottled Up

so we bottled up the wheat brew, and then moved on to a virtually all malt beer (used only .5 oz of dry, whole hops). the wheat brew had a load of hops dumped into it and tastes bitter, but in a good way.

Rabecca is doing well, she has 7, yes, SEVEN, stalks, the tallest about 6 inches in length. jacob has 3, two of which are at least a foot and a half tall. andrew is not doing so well. he only has one, tiny one. and i mean tiny. like not even 2 inches, and it hasn't grown for at least a week. will post with more pics soon.

The "Lowdown"

ok. so they all have sprouts now. it's raining so i have no more pictures. rabecca and andrew are still tiny, but that's ok. i know they'll still grow strong.

also, although i was sworn to secrecy, -ish, i can now confirm that i have officially began brewing. i don;t think very many people (if any) read this blog so it won't really matter too much. we are brewing a wheat beer, using the ingredients that came with the kit, and also my hops and the grains i got over in humboldt. it should be done fermenting and ready to bottle next week, and then be ready to drink in about a month.

so that's what's new.

2010 Has Begun!

so although they've had sprouts for weeks, i just havent said anything yet. my hops are growing fine. jacob (above) is the first to have sprouts. Rabeca does too, but very tiny.

in case you were wondering, no i have not brewed yet. the person i gave them to had pipes burst due to freezing and damaged some of his brewing materials, and he hasn't gotten new ones yet.

hopefully more will be on the way, and i will try to keep you posted.

Final Results

And the results are in:

Jacob and Andrew combined gave me 4.5 oz Dry.

And Rabecca gave me 1 oz. Dry.

that's the official report. check back in to hear the results and/or testimony of the brewing experience.

Final Harvest

So today i made my final harvest, plucked everty hop off the vine. here's the results:
Rabecca: 2 0z. wet.
Jacob: 12 oz. wet today, 13 oz wet total.
Andrew: 8 oz. wet total.

so in order to dry them all, i had to expand the table setup, and i t is completely filled as shown above. i am currently researching the brewing options i have. will let you know soon.

Harvest

So it appears i have been battling it out on the football field so much this week that i have had time to harvest and dry my hops, but have had no time to inform you all about it. i harvester one ounce of wet hops on last monday, the tenth, and dried them out. my methods for drying were a bit... unconventional, to say the least. seeing it as i had no screens laying around my house, i took two tables the same height, put pvc pipe across them, and laid weed blocker over the gap, anchoring it with drill guns and their batteries on either side of the tables. (as pictured above) so yeah. i have some hops in the freezer, not hardly enough for a full batch though. my dad's employer also does some homebrew, so we're thinking about giving some to him to see what he can make. i plan on harvesting again very soon (school starts monday :( , and that will hopefully be the last harvest, seeing it as they are all looking big enough, but are they dry enough???...