Cheese Curds

After a positive experience in my first foray into cheese making (with a Mozzarella Cheese) I have decided I would like to invest the time an energy required to make a variety of cheeses.  Eventually this will require equipment for aging cheese but I'd prefer to take baby steps.

It turns out that there are quite a few cheeses that don't require any aging which can be made using similar equipment to Mozzarella Cheese.  Cheese Curds are one of these.  I decided to give these a shot.

I will use this recipe from cheesemaking.com.  It seems a bit easier than the Mozzarella really but it will expose me to a few new aspects of cheese making:

1. Using real animal rennet for coagulation of the cheese
2. Using a culture to acidify the cheese
3. Pressing the cheese with weight to cause it to drain

I don't imagine that any of this will be particularly difficult but I'm sure I will learn a few things going through this recipe.

I was introduced to cheese curds by some friends of mine from Wisconsin maybe 10 years ago.  Hadn't had them since as they aren't sold in Arizona.  I remember that they were pretty tasty but not much else about them.  Hopefully I like these since, with a 2 gal recipe, I'll have quite a lot of them.

Ingredients:

• 2 gal Whole Milk (Pasteurized and Homogenized)
• 1/2 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 packet of Thermophilic Culture C-201
• 1/2 tsp Liquid Animal Rennet
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt

Process/Notes:

• 5/28/16 - Cheesemaking Day - Took ~5 hrs
• Added 2 gal milk to a 5 gal pot
• Heated the milk up to 96 F

• Dissolved CaCl into ~1/4 cup of water
• Added the CaCl to the milk and stirred in
• Poured in Culture, let sit for a couple minutes, and then stirred in
• Let sit for 30 min off heat with the lid on to let the culture start to do it's work
• Diluted the Rennet in 1/4 cup of water
• Added the Rennet and stirred for 30 s

• Waited 25 min - the milk hadn't finished coagulating (should have taken 18 to 25 min per the recipe)
• Waited 10 more minutes - passed the clean break test this time with a knife

• Cut curd into a grid pattern and then waited a few minutes until the whey started to rise through the cuts
• Stirred which broke the curds into smaller pieces
• Slowly heated up to 116 F.  Used the medium-low setting on the kitchen range (4).  Ended up taking 45 min (should have taken 30)
• Let sit, covered, for 45 min at 116 F.  Stirred every 5 min or so

• Drained the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander.  Started out by scooping the curds out with a slotted spoon.  Changed my mind and just poured the hole thing into the colander when too many little chunks escaped the spoon

• Pulled up the corners of the cheesecloth to form the curds into a ball.  Tied it up on the sink to drain for 15 min
• Twisted the cheesecloth to wring some more whey out
• Put a plate over the ball and then placed a gallon jug of water on top of the plate to press the cheese

• Let drain for 3 hrs
• Removed the cheese cloth.  The curds had formed a consolidated mass which was kind of rubbery
• Broke the mass of cheese into pieces (the cheese curds) and put them into a plastic freezer bag

• Added 1 tsp of salt to the bag and then tossed the cheese curds around to evenly distribute

Impressions:

• The cheese has a chewy and slightly rubbery texture which I find pleasant.  The first day it squeaked when chewing - this is apparently typical for cheese curds.  The next day there was no more squeak but the texture is pretty much unchanged.
• It tastes quite a bit like the Mozzarella cheese.  The finish may have a bit more going on which could be due to the culture.  I have gotten a small bit of funky flavor on some of the curds which is almost band aid like although it isn't unpleasant like it sounds. 
• The salt level is very nice - every piece has a small bit of salt in the flavor but none are over salted.  I think 1 tsp is a really good amount if I do this again.
• My wife didn't like them after eating one small piece.
• I've gone through quite a few of them already - probably half the batch.  I should probably slow down as it's not exactly the most healthy food in the world.  Will keep an eye on how they keep.

English Barleywine III

As I've done for the last two Memorial Days (see 2014 and 2015) I will be brewing up another batch of English Barleywine.

Like with the last batch I plan on giving this beer 1 month of primary fermentation and then 5 months of bulk aging.  I'll bottle in late November/early December and then sample it around Christmas.  I'll also do a vertical tasting with the other vintages.

I'm changing up the grainbill quite a bit from last time.  I'll be using some 1.5 lbs of Simpson's Double Roasted Crystal 120L which will make this beer a bit darker than was the goal last time.  I'll also be using 3 lbs of Rye Malt which I hope will add an interesting dimension to the beer.

The last batch fermented down to the 1.03s after a month.  It then somehow dropped 20+ points in secondary with no signs of continued fermentations.  I let quite a bit of yeast make the transfer over to secondary on the last beer.  I will fine this beer with gelatin prior to transfer on this one to try to avoid that happening again.  I have also increased the mash temperature for this round up to 158 F in hope of putting up another barrier to over attenuation.

I'll be using a second pitch of Wyeast 1335 British Ale II for this batch.  The yeast cake just fermented a Dark English Mild that I brewed up last week.  I believe this is my first time using this strain.  It's said to provide a malty character.  Only time will tell if it's prone to over attenuation with this wort unfortunately.

Finally, I'm going to skip the oak for this beer as I'd like to let any contributions from the Rye shine through.

Really excited to do another one of these beers.  I haven't really gotten what I was intending for the last two but they still turned out to be tasty and interesting.  We'll see if I'm any closer to the mark with this one.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 17 lb Maris Otter
• 3 lb Rye Malt
• 1 lb 8 oz Double Roasted Crystal 120L
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 2 oz Challenger (Pellet, 6.1% AA) at 60 min
• 2 oz Target (Pellet, 9.5% AA) at 20 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1335 British Ale II (Second Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 11 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride in Mash
• 1 tsp Gypsum in Mash
• 1 tsp Gypsum in Boil
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride in Boil
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 158 F for 60 min (Target 158 F for 60 min)
• Boil:
• 120 min (Target 90 min)
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 70 F
• Primary Duration:
• 4 Weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 5-6 months

Results:

• OG:
• 1.093 (Target 1.095)
• Efficiency:
• ~70% (Target ~70%)
• FG:
• 1.012 (Target 1.025)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 86% (Target 72%)
• ABV:
• 10.63% (Target 9.19%)

Brewing Notes:

• 5/30/16 - Brewday - 6:00 AM to 11:30 AM including setup and cleanup
• Heated 14 gal of strike water in the HLT.  Cycled through the system until everything was at 160 F
• Milled my grain while heating the strike water.  Double milled the rye as it was very hard.  I've switched to manual cranking on the mill - the rye was a lot of work even for just 3 lbs

Rye (left) and Barley (right)

• Ended up with 6 gal above the false bottom and 11 gal in the system total
• Mixed the CaCl and Gypsum with the grain
• Added the grain to the mash tun and stirred well to eliminate doughballs
• Set the RIMS to cycle at 160 F at ~2 qt per min
• After 10 min the mash was 158 F - right on target
• Heated 10 gal of sparge water to 185 F
• Mashed for 60 min total
• Fly sparged
• Collected 10 gal of wort which was more than intended
• The gravity at the grant was 6 brix at the end of the sparge.  This is 1.024 in SG which is quite a bit of sugar left.  Tough to get good efficiency with such a large grainbill
• Started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal.  Had the wort to a boil about half way through the sparge

• Added a second dose of Gypsum and CaCl to the boil
• Added the bittering hops with about 60 min left in the boil

• Added the flavoring hops with 20 min left in the boil
• Added the irish moss with 15 min left in the boil
• With 5 min left in the boil I added the wort chiller to sanitize
• Chilled down to 75 F
• Transferred on the yeast cake.  Left behind about a quart of hoppy wort.

• Moved the beer down to the fermentation chamber set to 70 F
• By the evening fermentation had kicked off strongly.  Krausen filled the 3 piece airlock and blew out the second piece.  Probably should have gone with a blow off tube but I'm lazy.  Hopefully it doesn't make too much of a mess.
• 6/23/16 - Transferred the beer to a glass carboy for secondary/aging (was too lazy to cool crash and fine with gelatin as initially planned).  I am using a vented silicon bung for this batch.  Measured the gravity as 1.030.  I was careful not to take too much yeast over during the transfer to try to limit how much additional fermentation is performed.  The beer is a deep amber color.  It has a very clean fermentation profile with very light fruity yeast ester.  It has a rich malt character along with a caramel/toffee like flavor.  There is a pronounced spicy/earthy flavor which must be from the rye.  Very light bitterness on the finish even as fresh as it is.  Balance at this gravity is definitely slanted towards sweet malt.  It will be interesting to see how far this one comes down over the next 5-6 months.
• 7/7/16 - The beer has developed a slight pellicle.  I knew this was going to happen eventually but not quite sure how it happened though.  Not too worried about the effects of this.  Probably going to drop quite a bit in gravity as a result though.

• 12/12/16 - We've been moving so I've gotten to bottling a bit later than I would have liked.  Still plan on doing a Christmas first tasting.  Carbonation levels will likely be impacted by this.  Ended up getting 5 gal of beer which I primed with 3.5 oz of sugar.  This got me 48 12 oz bottles.  Probably could have gotten 1 or 2 more if I made sure to capture the last bit in bottles.  Decided to be lazy as 48 is plenty.  Measured the FG as 1.012 which is a bit lower than I hoped it would go.  Still has a bit of sweetness and a full bodied mouthfeel.  It has a really nice caramel flavor - definitely taste the impacts of the double roasted crystal.  No brett character that I can pick up despite the pellicle.  I've moved the beer twice in the last few months and it got sloshed around quite a bit.  Happy to say that no stale oxidized flavors have been picked up as a result of this.
• 1/30/17 - Tasting Notes - The beer has a really nice malt complexity.  I think the rye was a good addition.  No brett flavor has developed that I can identify and it's definitely not sour.  I was happy to find that some hop character remained after the 6 months of aging.  I don't imagine it will still be there for the next official tasting (Christmas 2017).  I hope I like what's left.
• 2/27/17 -Vertical Tasting notes with my other English Barleywine (2014 and 2015).
• 3/9/18 - Tasting Notes (2017) - The beer has a really lovely, rich malt complexity.  Hop character is still showing up in the mix.  This one has aged well and I have high hopes that it will continue to do so
• 5/26/19 - Tasting Notes (2019):
• Aroma:  Rich caramel.  Some graham cracker.  Slight bit of overripe fruit.  Some alcohol comes through
• Appearance:  Dark Red/Light Brown.  Poured with a 2 finger head that slowly faded down to a thin ring.
• Flavor:  Really nice malt flavor.  Sweet bread and caramel.  Slight fruity flavor.  A bit of alcohol but well hidden.  Slight bitterness remains.
• Mouthfeel:  Medium bodied and fairly sweet.  Smooth drinking
• Overall:  Lovely malt flavors.  Not all that complex (as far as EBW go) but still very pleasant.  Hides the 10+ ABV remarkably well.
• 5/23/20 - Tasting Notes (2020):
• Aroma:  Very strong musty and estery aroma.  Not a great aroma although it improves as the beer sits a bit.  Maybe a bit of wet cardboard oxidation smell.  Get a bit of malt coming through all this
• Appearance:  Pours with a finger of head which fades down to a thin ring - leaves some lacing.  The beer is brownish red and clear
• Flavor:  Really rich malt flavor up front - sweet and toasty and kind of Grahm-cracker-like.  This lingers into the finish.  There is a very slight bitterness in the finish as well.  There is a bit of fruity ester that comes through up front and a mustiness that comes out in the finish
• Mouthfeel:  Medium bodied and a bit sweet.  Pretty smooth beer
• Overall:  Really nice rich malt flavor to this one - very bold.  I'm very pleasantly surprised it still has a good amount of hop bitterness left at this point.  Not quite as much going on as the others in terms of fruit ester.  Still very nice
• 5/30/21 - Tasting Notes (2021):
• Aroma:  Has a spicy yeast character along with a raisin-like flavor.  Also has a dark caramel and graham cracker aroma
• Appearance:  Dark Reddish Brown.  Poured with a 1 finger head that fades down to a think layer over several minutes
• Flavor:  Sweet bread, caramel, graham cracker and chocolate.  Pretty boozy in the finish.  Has a bitterness that is balanced by a really sweet and tasty maltiness.  Maybe has a little fruity ester in there but it is far in the background
• Mouthfeel:  Medium-full bodied and fairly sweet.  Pretty smooth drinking
• Overall:  Really nice bold flavors and a good complexity - very rich.  Malt really the star on this one.
• 5/28/22 - Tasting Notes (2022):
• Tasting Notes (40 of 50):
• Aroma (9 of 12):  Booze along with some sweet toasted malt and caramel.  A little bit of fruit in there as well.  Get a bit of wine-like character and some oak.  Maybe get a bit of herbal hop in there as well.
• Appearance (3 of 3):  Brownish red in color and very clear.  Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly fades to a thin ring.  Bubbles continue to cascade up
• Flavor (16 of 20):  Boozy up front along with some dark caramel and toasted malt flavors.  Maybe get something like chocolate in there as well.  Slight bit of fruity ester in there.  There is a fairly assertive bitterness in the finish along with more booze and a nice lingering malt flavor.  Get a little bit of grassy and herbal hops in the mix as well.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):  Medium full bodied and slightly sweet.  There is a warming sensation on the palate.  A little bit of astringency that prickles the back of the throat.
• Overall (8 of 10):  Big bold flavors in this one.  Quite boozy.  It's got a good amount of complexity - mostly focused on depth of malt flavor and not a whole lot of fruit.
• 5/28/23 - Tasting Notes (2023)
• Tasting Notes (37 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):  A bit of dark, overripe fruit along with a musty aged beer character.  Get a bit of alcohol and some caramel malt
• Appearance (3 of 3):  Redish brown in color and very clear.  Poured with a 2 finger head which fades down to a thin ring quickly.  Continues to send up cascading bubbles for some time after the pour.
• Flavor (16 of 20):  Bready malt and dark caramel up front.  A little bit of fruit in there but its fairly subdued.  There is also a bit of chocolate flavor in there.  Maybe some herbal hop too.  It finishes with a medium bitterness that is balanced by a slight sweetness.  Maybe getting a bit of oak in there too.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):  Medium-full bodied and just a bit of stickiness on the palate.  Has a slight astringency.  Pretty drinkable for a big beer.
• Overall (7 of 10):  It's a boldly flavored beer with good complexity.  Malt is the star of the show with this one with hops coming in second and fruity yeast ester a fairly distant third.  It's a nice beer

Lessons Learned:

1. I should have the homebrew shop mill my rye for me next time.  My arm is still tired from milling that by hand.

Dark English Mild - Take II

My first all grain batch was a Dark English Mild.  It turned out nicely.  It has been a little more than two years since making that beer so I've decided to take another shot at the style.

Found an interesting looking recipe in the January/February 2016 edition of Zymurgy from Charlie Papazian called "Visionary Mild".  It uses of a Caramel Malt by Simpsons called "Double Roasted Crystal 120L" which I hadn't heard of before.  I guess it's pretty new.  It was difficult to find; the major homebrew supply sites don't have it yet.  Ended up ordering from some out of state homebrew shop.  The grain has a nice flavor - it's a combination of cracker, caramel, roast, and maybe some dark fruit.  Didn't do a side by side comparison but it does seem to have a bit more complexity than you'd get from normal Caramel 120L malt.  I bought enough to try in a couple more beers.

I'm making a few modifications to the recipe:

• I am planning for a OG of 1.035 rather than 1.040 and will mash at 158 F to try to get the yeast to stop around 1.013 to get around 3% ABV rather than the 4% ABV from the original recipe.  My attempts to influence (or even predict) how far the yeast will attenuate haven't been successful of late but I keep trying.
• I am skipping the flavoring hop additions called for in the original recipe.  I want the malt to be the star of the show in this beer (it is a mild after all).  I'll also be using Challenger hops for this one as I couldn't find the Northdown hops the original called for (would like to track that one down at some point as I haven't used it yet).

I made a Pale Mild last year that turned out to be pretty bland.  Hoping this one, with roast malt as part of the equation, will be interesting even with the restrained hopping.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 6 lb 8 oz Maris Otter
• 12 oz Double Roasted Crystal 120L
• 12 oz Brown Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Challenger (Pellet, 6.1% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1335 British Ale II
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.26 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 159 F for 60 min (Target 158 F for 60 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 70 F
• Primary Duration:
• 1 Week
• Secondary Duration:
• 1 Week

Results:

• OG:
• 1.037 (Target 1.035)
• Efficiency:
• 66% (Target ~70%)
• FG:
• 1.012 (Target 1.013)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 67% (Target 62%)
• ABV:
• 3.28% (Target 2.89%)

Brewing Notes:

• 5/22/16 - Brewday - 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM including setup and cleanup
• Heated string water in HLT and cycled through Mash Tun, RIMS, and Grant until the system was at 165 F
• Milled my grain while heating the strike water
• Ended up with 3 gal above the false bottom and 7.5 gal in the system
• Added CaCl to the grain
• Added the grain to the mash and stirred to eliminate dough balls

• Cycled the RIMS at 1 qt per min at 160 F
• Checked the temperature after 20 min and found that it was a bit uneven throughout the grain bed.  Stirred to try to even it out
• Checked again 30 min into the mash and found that the temperature was a bit low.  Raised the RIMS to 163 F

• Mashed for 60 min - temperature was 159 F by the end
• Heated 7.5 gal of sparge water to 190 F
• Fly sparged
• Started heating the kettle after collecting about 3 gal
• Had it to a boil a minute after ending the sparge
• Collected 8 gal of wort.  Gravity at the grant was 2 brix at the end of the sparge
• Added the hops once the hot break cleared
• Ended up losing about half a gal of wort while draining the pump when I forgot to close one of the valves on the boil kettle - damn.
• Boiled for 60 min
• With 15 min left in the boil added the irish moss
• Added the wort chiller to sanitize with 5 min left in the boil
• Chilled the beer down to 75 F
• Drained into the fermenter.  Ended up knocking in a bit of the concrete backer board when I tilted up the kettle to help it drain.

• Pitched the yeast packet directly into the fermenter and then moved the beer down to the fermentation chamber set to 70 F
• Measured the gravity as 1.037
• 5/23/16 - Fermenter was bubbling by the next day and holding steady at 69 - 70 F
• 5/30/16 - Transferred the beer to another bucket fermenter to free up the yeast cake for an English Barleywine.  Made sure to limit the amount of yeast that transferred over to simplify bottling.
• 6/24/16 - Chilled the beer down to the 40s to drop the yeast out of suspension.
• 6/25/16 - Bottled with 3.5 oz of priming sugar (using normal granulated sugar).  Ended up with 5 gal.  This got me 50 bottles.  Measured the gravity as 1.012.  The sample has a really nice malt profile which is a mix of dark caramel and toffee as well as graham cracker.  I'll give this batch a couple weeks to carb up before sampling the first one.
• 8/20/16 - Tasting Notes - Malty, flavorful beer in a nice light package.  Been enjoying this one on weeknights and with lunch on the weekends.

Lessons Learned:

1. Good 4 hr brewday again thanks to only collecting enough wort to boil down in 1 hr
2. Getting more and more tired of my mash tun the longer I use it.  I feel like I'm not getting good cycling of the return water with the auto sparge.  Maybe not leaving enough water on top of the grain bed once it settles to get a good cycle.  It seems that the water just bores a hole in the grain bed.

Amber Ale - Tasting

It has been more than 4 months since I brewed up my first attempt at an Amber Ale. 

I had been thinking that this would end up as a pretty malty beer (hadn't read the style guide) but it's turned out to be quite hop forward.  It's definitely closer to pale ale than brown ale in terms of hop/malt balance.  Four months is a bit longer than I'd normally wait to take notes on a hoppy beer but this one has aged gracefully which I'm happy about.

I made my own candi syrup for this beer.  It was a lot of fun taking plain sugar and finding a way to get some extra flavors out of it.  I can't be sure but I think these flavors did come through as extra caramel and dark fruit in the final product.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Hops are the most prominent smell.  Less prominent than they were a couple months ago but it's still pretty hop forward.  It is a grassy/piney aroma.  The malt comes through pretty strongly as well - this is mostly caramel.  There is a fruitiness to the aroma that may be from the yeast or maybe the candi syrup.  No alcohol on the nose.
• Appearance:
• The beer is a dark copper/light brown color.  Has cleared very well.  A slow pour yields a thin white head that quickly fades down to nothing.
• Flavor:
• Up front I get piney and herbal hops along with a bit of caramel and bready flavor from the malt.  The finish is slanted a bit towards the hops but it is reasonably well balanced out by the malt.  The bitterness lingers for a while.  There is a bit of alcohol in the flavor and a bit of fruitiness.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied.  Slight astringency along with the bitterness.  Carbonation is light.
• Overall:
• As I mentioned before, I was expecting a beer more balanced between malt and hop than this one turned out.  This drinks like a slightly maltier pale ale really.  It is pretty nice regardless.  The flavors are pretty bold and, as I like a hoppy beer, I find them to be very pleasant.

Hop Crop 2016

Last year I planted two East Kent Golding hop rhizomes in an elevated bed.  Over the course of the summer they grew to be ~10 feet.  I chose not to do any significant pruning the first year under the theory that having a lot of leaves would help them build up good strong root structures which would help them in future years.  This likely contributed to the fairly low hop yield last year.  I didn't even bother harvesting the 2 dozen or so hop cones that formed.  When fall and winter rolled in I cut the vines down to near ground level and covered the bed with a few inches of shredded leaf and grass clipping mulch.  You can read more about the first year's experience in this post.

I managed to keep my curiosity in check over the winter and did nothing to disturb the hop bed.  It got very cold this year and I believe the entire bed froze several times.  The thick layer of leaf mulch hopefully helped insulate the hops from too many freeze/thaw cycles.  Spring is now here again and it is starting to warm up.  Looking forward to another exciting summer of hop growing.

This year I plan on trying to maximize the hop output by taking the following actions:

• I will prune the side arms of the hops to help them focus on growth in the main vine
• I am going to allow 6 vines from each hop plant to grow.  I will have three per string.
• Last year I didn't have a steep enough string so the vines were having some trouble winding themselves around it.  I will tie the top of the string up much higher to try to resolve this this year.  Like last year, I'll be using a partially dead tree as a trellis.
• I am going to leave the leaf much and grass clippings on the planter box to help it retain moisture and provide continued nutrients.  I would like to avoid using organic fertilizer on the bed if possible.  I will clear the mulch around the hop vines themselves to hopefully avoid any rot.
• I am going to use this product to avoid the Japanese beetle infestation I had last year.  Don't know if the beetles has any major effect on the health of the hops but I'd rather not chance it. 

I, admittedly, have never been very good with plants.  From everything I've read, hops are very hearty plants.  I will continue to do my best to keep these healthy.  Hopefully these hops will continue to thrive despite any mistakes I might make this year.

Hop Growing Log:

• 3/31/16 - It has been in the 60's for the last week or so and the nights are typically above freezing.  Decided to clear the leaf mulch away from the hops mounds.  Each mount had a couple pale shoots that have started to grow out.  I accidently snapped one off while clearing the leaves (doh).

• 4/9/16 - Got about an inch of snow this morning.  I threw some leaves on top of the hops to protect them.

• 4/10/16 - Snow has all melted.  I had some leftover soil from my raspberry patch so I put down a couple inches onto the hop bed.  Covered the hop plants with about an inch.  I cleared away the leaves while I put the dirt on and then re-covered it.  The soil under the leaves was a rich black color which smelled wonderful.  I think the leaves will provide a lot of nutrients for the plants this year.
• 4/16/16 - It has started to warm up.  It is projected to be in the 60s and 70s all next week with the nights in the 40s and 50s.  It may be that winter is finally over.  Fingers crossed.  Checked the soil under the leaf mulch and it's still pretty moist.  Will wait to give the hops their first watering of the year.
• 4/17/16 - Watered the bed with 2 gal of fish tank water.  Put most of it on the leaves.  The fish tank water is probably pretty high in nitrates from fish waste which I'm thinking will be good for the plants.  Will probably need to water a couple times a week if there's no rain.  Will plan on using fish tank water on these somewhat regularly.
• 4/20/16 - A couple shoots have broken the surface on the plant closest to the garage.  The shoots have the start of some green leaves forming.  They had been purple and white at the after the winter.  Really excited that they're starting to get active.
• 4/22/16 - Three shoots have now broken the surface on the plant closest to the garage and one in the far one.  They are thicker shoots than last time.
• 4/25/16 - Seeing some strong growth from 4 sprouts on hops nearest the garage.  They are starting to leaf out quite a bit.  Also seeing three sprouts start to emerge on the far bed.  The plants.  I'm really excited.  I put in a fourth fence post to hold line.  I'm going to let these grow out a good bit before training them to a line.
• 5/4/16 - It has been a rainy week but the hops have been thriving.  The hop mound closest to the garage has 4 shoots that have grown to about 6 inches and another one just breaching the surface.  The other mound has 6 shoots which are from just emerging to a couple inches in height.

• 5/8/16 - Put up a fourth fence post and rigged up a new trellis.  One of the lessons learned from last year, where I tied the climbing ropes to a low branch in a nearby tree, was that the vines don't readily climb up the rope if it isn't steep enough.  This time I wanted to go with a much higher branch.  I ended up using some plastic covered wire to form a crude pulley system by throwing it over a high branch and then forming a loop with it.  I then put a bite in the wire using line bolts and attached a carabineer.  I can raise an lower this carabineer by pulling on one side of the other of the wire rope.  This system has allowed me to get the top of the climbing ropes 20 to 25 feet up which makes for a pretty steep line,

• 5/13/16 - Have had very strong growth from one of the mounds with our sunny weather.  Several vines have gotten to be ~1.5 foot long.  I've trained 4 onto the growing lines.  The other mound is growing as well but not quite as vigorously.  The vines are 4-6 at this point

• 5/21/16 - Mix of sun and rain this week.  The hops have been doing very well.  Have several vines that are now winding their way around the climbing ropes.  A couple have crested the top of the first tier and are now getting started up the second tier.

• 5/30/16 - We had a lot of sun this last week.  Hops seemed to have really enjoyed it.  All the vines have now affixed themselves to the lines and all four lines have vines on the second tier.  Several of the hop plants have make their way several feed up the second tier lines.  No signs of Japanese beetles just yet thankfully but I will be surprised if we don't start seeing them here in early June.  I should also note a new bit of growth in a corner of the bed away from the current mound.  I'm going to let this one grow to see what happens - Would be neet to have additional mounds start to crop up for future years.

• 6/12/16 - The hops have progressed quite a way up the line in the last couple weeks but growth up has definitely slowed.  The upper portion of the vines are starting to put out side arms with little flower buds on them.  I think I'm going to have a decent crop this year.  No sign of Japanese beetles yet.  Now have three shoots coming up away from the main hop mounds.  I've trained one of them onto the ropes.  Not sure what I'll do with the others.

• 6/19/19 - I've had a few more new shoots come up this week.  I decided to cut them all off at ground level to help the plant focus on growing the main vines.
• 7/4/16 - The plants were attacked pretty aggressively by Japanese beetles over the last week.  There has been significant damage to most of the upper leaves.  It seems like the development of hops has slowed significantly as well.  We've had dry weather and I haven't been watering them frequently so that could have played a roll.  I will be watching them closely over the next couple weeks.
• 7/10/16 - The hops aren't doing too well.  I've been picking at least a dozen beetles off a day and they're still doing significant damage to the plants.  It seems like the hop development has slowed significantly since they arrived.  Not sure there will be enough plants to justify harvesting again this year.

Lessons Learned:

1. Need to find some way to deal with the Japanese beetles

Raspberry Crop 2016

I love Raspberries.  They are wonderful by themselves, with ice cream, in a pie, and, most importantly, they are terrific in a sour beer.  With my growing stockpile of sour beer I am thinking it would be awesome to have some home grown raspberries to create my own Framboise. 

I will be growing three varieties of Raspberry:  TulaMagic & Nova which are Summer Bearing Varieties and BP-1 which is a Fall Bearing variety.  These were purchased online from Nourse Farms which provides shoots with root stock.  The Summer Bearing varieties will produce canes this year that will fruit next year.  The Fall Bearing (or Ever Bearing variety) will produce some fruit this year and, going forward, will produce fruit on new canes every year.  I am buying 5 of each one.  This will be a multi-year project to get reasonable quantities of fruit.  No strong rational for choosing these three varieties - they each had what seemed like a unique characteristic.  Hopefully this will increase my odds of success.

I have decided to create a patch using raised beds.  I like the idea of raised beds as they allow me to control the makeup of the soil and they will also keep the plant restrained.  Raspberries can grow like weeds and invade areas where they aren't wanted.  My wife's family had raspberries in the backyard when she was growing up that they mostly eradicated.  There are still some shoots that come up in random locations in the summer.  I will build three beds.  Each one will be 10 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 1 foot tall.  This will give me a bit more than 18 in between each plant.  I will fill each box with planting soil/manure mix.

I have chosen a south facing location that gets a good 8 hrs of full sunlight per day.  I will be building a trellis system to help support the plant on one side.  The other side will be against the fence which I would expect to offer some support. 

The plants will be watered via a soaker hose based drip system.  I am gong to use a sprinkler timer to do automated watering for me.  Raspberries are recommended to receive 1-2 inches of water per week during the growing season.  I will need to calibrate the system to see how long the watering should last.  I'm thinking of starting out watering every other day.

This is a lot of work and is fairly expensive to set this up.  I had initially thought that there might be some cost savings associated with going this route given how expensive raspberries are (even at a pick-your-own orchard).  Not so sure about that any more.  Maybe if this goes well and I get a few years of fruit out of these patches it will have been cost effective.  Either way, I anticipate that this is going to be a lot of fun and that personal enjoyment will compensate for the cost.

Raspberry Growing Log:

• 3/20/16 - Built three 10x2x1 ft planter boxes and moved them to the back yard
• 3/26/16 - Had 3 yards of soil/manure delivered to the house to fill the boxes.  Built a trellis system using 8 ft 4x4 posts with 2 ft dug into the ground.  Setup cross bar at 4 ft above the top of the raised beds
• 3/27/16 - Filled the raised beds with soil and strung wire for the trellis.  The soil pH is between 6.5 and 7.0 which is right in the desired range.

• 4/2/16 - Setup drip system hoses.  Set them up 6 inches from the sides.  Setup PVC pipe between the boxes.  Buried the hoses under a thin layer of soil.  Running the system for an hour seems to get pretty good coverage of the top layer of soil in all three boxes.  I probably need to do some additional testing though.  Finally, setup the lower trellis crossbar and wire.

Partially covered soaker hose

• 4/6/16 - Received the 15 raspberry plants yesterday.  Took off early from work to plant them this afternoon as it is a fairly nice day (in the 50s) and tomorrow will be rainy but above freezing.  Seemed like a good time to plant these.
• The plants come bundled in a plastic bag with wet shredded newspaper.  I unbundled them and soaked them in a pale of water while I prepared the beds

• Dug a 2 in deep trench down the middle of each bed

• Planted each raspberry plant ~20 inches apart.  Nova are in the left most bed, TulaMagic in the middle, and the BP-1 are in the right most bed.  Set them into the trench such that the roots run down the channel.  Covered them with soil and packed it down pretty aggressively.  My wedding ring fell off during the process and I didn't notice until I'd finished that bed.  Had to take everything out and then doing some sifting to find it - which I did.  Felt like a moron.

• Turned on the drip system for 1 hr. There are 3-6 in wide wet bands that form on the surface of the planter box which doesn't seem like enough.  Sticking my finger into the dirt it seemed like moisture had gotten to the middle of the bed.  I'll have to keep an eye on this going forward.  Since the dirt was already moist and we are going to have rain tomorrow I'm not going to sweat it for now. 
• It may take 5-6 weeks for shoots to start to come up.  Apparently the main stem isn't likely to sprout and that the roots are the source of the new growth.

• 4/9/16 - Had some late snow this morning which covered the beds.  Per the web page, bare root plants should be able to handle some cold weather and snow so I didn't take any action to protect them.  Still a bit scary with brand new plants.

• 4/16/16 - Watered the plants on 4/14 for 1 hr.  Checked for soil moisture over the next day and a half and found that the middle of the bed where the roots are stayed fairly moist the whole time (although the surface dried up).  Installed a sprinkler timer and set it to go off at 2:00 PM every other day and run for an hour.  Watered this afternoon using the timer.
• 4/20/16 - One of the BP-1 raspberry plants has started to sprout a plant.  It is growing right at the base of the cane.  A couple of the Nova plants have small green spots on the canes that look like they might be the start of some active growth.  No signs of life on the TulaMagic raspberries so far.

• 4/25/16 - The sprout on the BP-1 Raspberry has opened up its new leaves.  The green spots on the Nova have turned out to be new growth.  I'm seeing little sprouts from the cane of the Nova Raspberries now.  They are getting close to putting out some leaves.  So far, 4 of the 5 Nova have started to show new growth from the cane.  Most exciting, there is now a new shoot coming up from the roots in the Nova bed.  Still no signs of life for the TulaMagic.
• 4/26/16 - The TulaMagic Raspberries have a couple shoots forming towards the base of the main canes.  So, I now have signs of life from all three varieties.  Very happy about this.
• 5/4/16 - We've had a lot of rain this week.  The raspberries have continued to grow pretty well.  I have growth on all 5 of the Nova now.  Most of this is from the canes themselves but there are several shoots coming up from the roots.  I have growth from a couple of the TulaMagic plants.  One of the plants has three pretty strong looking shoots right now.  The strongest shoot is from the BP-1 raspberries.  It is 6-8 inches tall now and has several branches of leaves.  This is the only sign of growth in all the BP-1 raspberries which is a bit surprising given how long ago this first one showed signs of life.

BP-1 Raspberry

• 5/13/16 - Had a lot of sun this week.  The plants have been continuing to grow well.  The Nova are doing very well.  Growth from all 5 canes and quite a few new shoots coming up.  There is growth from 4 of the 5 TulaMagic plants.  A couple of them have put up a few shoots each.  The BP-1 now have growth from three of the plants.

Nova Raspberry Bed

• 5/21/16 - Mix of sun and rain this week.  Haven't had to water in several weeks now.  Raspberries seem to be happy.  Have growth from all my plants now (only minor growth from a couple of the BP-1 but it's still something).  Put up some chicken wire fencing around to plants to prevent our pets from getting into the planter boxes.  Had a broken shoot that I suspect the dog had something to do with.

TulaMagic Raspberry Bed

• 5/30/16 - A lot of sun this week with little rain.  Ended up watering with my drip system on a couple days where the temperature was in the high 80s.  Some of the plants seemed a bit wilted in the heat.  They were fresher after the evening which was in the mid 60s.  Had rain last night which also seems to have helped the plants.  I weeded all the beds this week.  Hopefully didn't disturb any new growth in the process.  Existing growth seems to have done well this week.  Only one bit of new growth which was from the BP-1 this time - it was away from the roots a few inches to the north and west from one of the canes.  Another point of interest:  one of the laterals off of a cane in the Nova raspberries has put out a few flower buds so I may get a few raspberries out of this year's batch somehow.  This plant hasn't had any growth from the roots yet which is a bit troubling - I wish it would focus it's energy there rather than put out fruit but you can't reason with a plant.

Nova Raspberry Bed

• 6/6/16 - I found that one of the new shoots in the BP-1 raspberry bed had been dug out.  I assume this must have been the work of a squirrel.  The plant didn't have any thorns which may have made it more vulnerable.  Disappointing. 
• 6/12/16 - Doesn't seem like there has been a whole lot of growth in the raspberries over the last couple weeks.  I wonder if they are starting to run short on nutrients or something.  The leaves look pretty healthy still so I'm not sure there any action that would be advisable.  Also haven't had any new suckers come up recently.  Was hoping for more of these as new fruit will grow on them next year.  I should probably think of this first year as just setting the foundation for future strong growth by building up a good root base and not expect too much from the plants.  It's looking like I'll get to taste some fruit from the Nova raspberries this year at least as the flowers have continued to develop pretty well.

• 6/19/16 - Plants are still doing pretty well.  It looks like there are a few more suckers coming up.  I think I may have accidently pulled up some new raspberry plant during my weeding a few weeks ago.  The new plants don't seem to look the way I would expect all the time.  Looks like the BP-1 are going to have a few pieces of fruit this year.  One of the branches that has grown off the main cane has some buds forming.  The TulaMagic are having a strange issue where the leaves are curled upwards in the last few weeks.  I'm seeing this to varying degrees on all the plants.  It's been in the mid 80s here the last couple weeks.  I'm thinking this may be heat stress.  The plant looks healthy otherwise.

TulaMagic Leaf Curl

• 7/3/16 - The plants have continued to grow pretty strongly over the last couple weeks.  There are probably a couple dozen fruit growing on the Nova raspberries.  The first one is nearly ripe now.  There are a couple new canes that are higher than the first line now which is ~2 ft.  The TulaMagic have several plants nearing two feet tall.  They look very healthy.  There are a few new shoots coming up.  The first BP-1 plant is now about three feet tall.  It, as well as some of the other BP-1 canes, has started putting off some lateral branches which should be where they sprout their fruit.  Japanese beetles started to show up last week.  I've been picking them off every morning and afternoon.  Raspberries have fared pretty well so far.

• 7/4/6 - Put down a wheelbarrow full of compost onto the BP-1 bed to help it with it's fruiting through the summer.  I'll wait until late summer/early fall to add compost to the other beds.
• 7/10/16 - Have had about 4 or 5 berries ripen on the nova plant this week.  The birds got a couple of them (somehow they know how to identify the ripe ones) but I've gotten to taste a few.  They are pretty tart - not very sweet.  I may have picked them too early.  Japanese beetles have continued to be a problem.  I'm finding a few every night.  The plants seem very hardy and healthy though.

• 7/13/16 - First BP-1 raspberry ripened up.  Tasted side by side with a Nova.  BP-1 had a softer texture than the Nova.  It was sort of jammy.  BP-1 may be very slightly sweeter.  I think the Nova had a more pronounced flavor overall.  Both were nice.

Nova (L) and BP-1 (R)

• 7/24/16 - We've gotten a few dozen raspberries off of the Nova and BP-1 plants.  The TulaMagic plants growing off the original canes are starting to flower so I'll be getting some fruit from them as well in the next month.  The new growth BP-1 plants are starting to send off flowers as well.  We've been freezing most of the berries.  All the plants seem to be doing very well.  Most are above the 2 ft line by now and there are several that are getting close to the 4 ft line.  It's been very hot the last week - I've been watering a couple times a week for an hr which seems sufficient.

Nova Raspberries

• 8/7/16 - The TulaMagic raspberry fruit are ripening.  I got my first couple today.  They were plump fruit with good sweetness and a jammy flavor.  I think they may be the best of the three.  The Nova are just about done with their fruit at this point.  The BP-1 are putting out a lot of flowers.  There will probably be several dozen barriers from these this year.  Can't wait to see what they do next year.

TulaMagic (L), Nova (R)

• 10/8/16 - All the plants seem to be doing very well.  The BP-1 (Fall bearers) have put out quite a bit of fruit which is just about to ripen.  The Tula magic ended up producing a bit of fruit - I missed the ripening so a lot of it has rotten on the vine.  Ate some that were overripe.  They were dark red and soft but were quite a bit sweeter than the ones I picked earlier.  The nova put out a pretty decent bunch of raspberries from the new growth this year. All the plants have start to lose their lower leaves and the stalks have started to become more woody.  Seeing how well they've done with minimal attention for the last two months really makes me feel silly about how much I was fretting over their health when growing - they seem to be as hardy as a weed.  Will keep this in mind as I establish my new beds.
• 4/15/17 - Read about my new Raspberry Crop here

Lessons Learned:

1. TBD