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

Sour Blonde 3.1.1

I decided to brew up another Sour Blonde based on the recent availability of East Coast Yeast Dirty Dozen Brett Blend.  This blend has 12 different strains of Brettanomyces, many of which you can't buy from any other vendors.  Really neat product.

I'll be pitching in primary (first time doing a Brett primary) and should get some interesting fruit flavors.  I plan on giving this beer three months in primary and then moving it to a glass carboy to age for 1-3 years.  I will pitch another beer onto the cake to start a new series of beers.

I am out of raw wheat so I'll be using a modified grain bill with a mix of malted and flaked wheat which will make up 40% of the grainbill.  I will also be adding 12 oz of Maltodextrine to give the Brett a bit more to snack on over the long hall.

If all goes well, I will plan on blending this with some of my other sour.  The blend is reported to produce a slight sourness but I'll look to enhance that with the other beers in my collection.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 5 lb Pilsner
• 2 lb White Wheat
• 2 lb Flaked Wheat
• 1 lb Light Munich
• 4 oz Acid Malt
• 12 oz Maltodextrine
• Hops:
• None
• Yeast:
• ECY 34 Dirty Dozen
• Water:
• 10 gal Spring Water
• 5.5 gal Tap Water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6.25 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Step 1: 160 F for 60 min (Target 160 F for 60 min)
• Step 2:  Ramped up to 175 F in 20 min (Target ramped up to 175 in 25 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temps:
• Ambient Basement Temps (60 F to 70 F)
• Primary Duration:
• 3 Months
• Secondary Duration:
• 12 - 36 months

Results:

• OG:
• 1.049 (Target 1.045)
• Efficiency:
• 72% (Target 66%)
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.004)
• Apparent Attenuation: 
• TBD (Target 91%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 5.38%)

Brewing Notes:

• 5/8/16 - Brewday - 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated spring water in HLT.  Cycled throught the system until it was at 165 F.
• Milled grain (not including flaked wheat).  Added CaCl to the milled grain
• Ended up with 3 gal above the false bottom and 7 gal in the system total
• Added grain to the mash and stirred well to eliminate doughballs
• Cycled the RIMS at ~2 qt per minute at 163 F
• Checked on the mash after 10 min.  It was a bit too thick which was preventing good circulation of the water and preventing even heating.  Added 2 more qt of strike water which covered all the grain and improved the circulation
• At the end of the 60 min mash I ramped up the RIMS to 185 F
• Heated 8 gal of sparge water to 200 F
• After 20 min the mash was at 175 F and the sparge water was a bit over 200 F
• Added a gal to the mash tun to form an inch layer of water over the grain bed and fly sparged

• Started heating the mash tun after collecting 4 gal
• Collected 8 gal.  Gravity at the grant at the end of the sparge was 2 brix
• Had the wort to a boil soon after the end of the sparge
• Added the Maltodextrine as soon as the hot break cleared
• Boiled for 60 min
• At the end of the boil added the wort chiller to sanitize
• Chilled to 80 F
• Transferred to the fermentor
• Pitched the yeast

• Moved down to the basement at ambient temps to ferment
• 5/11/16 - The yeast took off immediately.  The beer was bubbling vigorously the evening after brewing.  Bubbled over the next few days.
• 10/20/17 - Status Report:
• Earthy and leather funk dominates.  Get a bit of spicy and fruity ester character as well
• Golden and clear
• Lightly sour.  Has a bit of leathery funk flavor in the background along with some wheat and bready malt
• Fairly complex with some strong flavors
• 10/22/17 - Transferred this beer to a better bottle to make room on the yeast cake for Sour Blonde 3.2.1.  Set it up with a vented silicon bung.  Measured the gravity of this beer at 1.004.
• 5/25/18 - Status Report:
• Fruity with an aroma almost like oak (had to check if there was oak in the batch - there is not).  Smells a lot like a white wine.  Has a bit of mustyness and a bit of earthy funk
• Light gold and very clear
• Fairly sour with interesting fruity ester character.  Has some earthy and cheesy brett character as well along with a bit of a bandaid like flavor.
• Mouthfeel is light and it is really dry.  Some prickly acidity on the finish.
• Overall this is a pretty interesting beer with nice bold flavors.  Flavors are unique and quite pleasant.
• 6/3/18 - Used 1 gal of this beer in my Sour Blonde Blend
• 8/24/19 - Status Report:
• Aroma: Slightly earthy aroma along with a bit of mineral.  Very mild smelling
• Appearance:  Light gold and very clear
• Flavor:  Medium level of sourness.  Bready malt with some brett funk (bandaid like) 
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and very dry.  Slight prickling
• Overall:  Fairly bold flavors but not very complex

Lessons Learned:

1. This was a very smooth brewday.  I sparged quickly, got reasonable efficiency, and hit my target pre-boil volume.  A 4 hr brewday is very nice.
2. I like my mash tun but it is a bit difficult to clean properly.  The bottom drain prevents me from easily removing it from the stand to spray it out.  The flat bottom makes it difficult to completely clean out all the spent grain particles.  The mash tun has served me well for the last year but I'm thinking it may be time to upgrate to something fancier.

Mozzarella Cheese

I have been considering trying to make cheese for the last couple years or so since having Vella Dry Jack which is a really amazing aged cheese from Sonoma CA.  I was so impressed with it that I ended up having to buy a full wheel of it.  It was surprising how quickly it was gone.

I've done quite a bit of reading up on the techniques used to make and age cheese (much of it on cheesemaking.com which seems like an extremely valuable resource).  The process seems similar in terms of level of complexity to making an all grain beer.  Much like homebrewing beer it seems that having a relatively simple set of equipment up front is sufficient to dip your toe into the hobby and that the need for more advanced equipment reveals itself as you progress.  I had considered starting to homebrew for a year or more and had not quite built up the confidence to give it a try when my wife pushed me over the hump by buying me a starter kit.  I'm sort of at a similar stage right now on the concept of cheesemaking.

My mother is also interested in cheesemaking.  She was very impressed with the Mozzarella cheese she had sampled during a trip to Italy a couple years back.  She said the packaged form of Mozzarella that can be purchased in the United States is a pale shadow of the genuine article.  This was particularly true of the texture.  Based on this mutual interest we decided to give making Mozzarella a shot.

I found an America's Test Kitchen procedure/recipe for Mozzarella cheese that seemed interesting.  It was a bit more complex than many of the other recipe's you find online but I've consistently found that there is a method to the madness behind their complex recipes.  We following the recipe fairly closely and adhered to there process almost exactly.  The primary deviation from the recipe was that we ended up using Junket Rennet Tablets rather than animal rennet.  From reading on the internet these aren't really intended for "serious" cheesemaking.  Next time I will go to the trouble of ordering animal rennet online.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that the exact rational of each step is still a bit of a mystery to me even after making the cheese.  It was a lot of fun though.  America's Test Kitchen cautioned that, although Mozzarella is often characterized as an "easy" cheese to make, it still isn't easy.  I agree with them that it wasn't easy but we still ended up with a product that was obviously Mozzarella cheese in the end which we were pretty happy with.  I think it's given me confidence to try this again.

Ingredients:

• 1 gal Whole Milk (Pasteurized and Homogenized)
• 1 qt Heavy Cream (Pasteurized and Homogenized)
• 2 tsp Citric Acid
• 2 Junket Rennet Tablets
• 9 cups of Water
• 6 Tbs Kosher Salt

Process/Notes:

• 5/16/16 - Cheesemaking day - Took ~2 hrs
• Poured milk and heavy cream into a large pot

• Added citric acid dissolved in water and stirred for 30 s
• Heated the liquid up to 90 F on the stove top.
• Removed from the heat and added the rennet (which was also dissolved in water) and stirred in for 30 s.  I actually went through 3 rounds of this, adding 2 half tablets after the following steps did not produce a curd as expected.
• Let the pot sit covered for 10 min.  Went through multiple rounds of this step.  Ultimately probably let it sit for 45 min as I added successively more rennet
• Eventually there was a good separation between the curds and whey.  Cut the curd, which floated on the top, in a 1 inch grid pattern
• Let this sit for a few minutes to let the curds start to separate

• Heated the pot.  Was shooting for 105 F to 107 F.  Ended up overshooting up to the 110 F to 120 F range.
• Scooped out the curds with a slotted spoon and put them in a stainless steel colander that was sitting in a large bowl to catch the whey

• Pressed on the curd to force the whey out.  Once the liquid flow started to cease we swirled the curd around the colander which prompted a bit more liquid to be freed.  Added the drained way back to the pot as we went

• Moved the curd to a cutting board and then cut it into 1 in chunks

• Filtered remaining small floating bits of curd from the whey by pouring the whey through a strainer
• Added 8 cups of water to the pot of whey along with the salt
• Brought the whey mixture up to 180 F
• Added half the curds to the bowl and then ladled in enough hot salted whey mixture to cover them

• Squished the curds against the side of the bowl to help them melt
• Using rubber gloves over cloth gloves pulled the curds from the bowl, squished the mass together, and then, due to the heat melting the curds, was able to stretch them sort of like a taffy.  This was really the strangest part of the whole process.  It was amazing watching the chunky curds become a smooth mass that was pliable and stretchy.

• Formed it into balls by putting the main mass of chees in my fist and then squeezing until a ball of cheese came out the end of my fist.  The results were not very pretty on my first attempt

• Cooled all the balls in a bowl of cold water
• Poured out the whey mixture after all the first round of forming was complete and then did the second round with the remaining curds and whey mixture.  The balls were still not pretty in the second round but they were slightly better
• Wrapped the cooled cheeseballs in plastic sandwich bags and stored them in a Tupperware in the fridge.  They should keep for a few days.

Impressions:

• The cheese is soft and smooth.  It has the texture of a cream cheese almost.  The flavor is distinctly that of Mozzarella cheese so this was a successful effort in that regard.  The amount of time the curd spent in the salty whey mixture was a bit different on the first and second batches.  Second batch was in it longer.  As a result it was a bit saltier which we preferred.  Both were very tasty.
• Had the cheese on scrambled eggs the day after making.  It is a bit sticky when cutting.  It would be impossible to shred at this consistency.  The cheese got a bit melty on the eggs but they weren't hot enough to melt it completely.
• There is probably a lot of experimentation that could be done in regards to storing the cheese.  Storing in a salt water solution could be interesting.

Sour Blonde 2.1.1

I've been wanting to brew up a beer using one of East Coast Yeast's Wild collections since I started brewing sour beers last year.  I've heard that their microbes seem to be quite a bit more aggressive than anything Wyeast or White Labs have to offer.  The trouble is that ECY is such a small operation and they have such a strong following amongst homebrewers that their limited quantities tend to sell out very quickly.  Last week I very surprised to find that ECY01 Bug Farm was available.  I quickly snapped it up and decided to brew up another Lambic Inspired Sour Blonde Recipe.

I'll be using raw wheat again for this batch (like with Sour Blonde 1.5.1).  This time I will up the malted wheat to 40% of the grainbill and I'll be doing a proper cereal mash with it.  As before, I'll be using pilsner as the base malt.  New with this batch, I've decided to throw in a pound of Munich for a slightly darker color.  I'll also be putting in 12 oz of Maltodextrine to help out the microbes during the long fermentation.  I'm planning on an OG of 1.045.

I've decided to lightly hop the batch with 0.5 oz of Fuggle which should get me ~7 IBU.  This may inhibit any lacto in the blend but I'm assuming that it will still end up plenty sour.

I'm going to give this beer 3 months in a bucket fermenter with the yeast at ambient basement temperatures (currently around 60 F).  I will then transfer the beer into a glass carboy for long term aging.  I plan on re-using this yeast cake for multiple beers as I've done with the Wyeast cake in my 1.x.x series of beers.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 4 lb Pilsner
• 1 lb Munich
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• 12 oz Maltodextrine
• Cereal Mash:
• 4 lb Unmalted Wheat
• 1 lb pilsner Malt
• Hops:
• 0.5 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.1% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• ECY01 Bug Farm
• Water:
• 7 gal spring water
• 10 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• Extras:
• 1 lb Rice Hulls

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Main Mash:
• Step 1:  155 F for 15 min
• Step 2:  160 F for 60 min (Target 160 F for 60 min)
• Step 3:  Ramped up to 175 F in 25 min
• Cereal Mash:
• Step 1:  115 F for 15 min (Target 122 F for 15 min)
• Step 2:  155 F for 20 min (Target 150 F for 15 min)
• Step 3:  Boiled for 15 min (Target boil for 15 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temps:
• Ambient Basement Temps (60 F to 70 F)
• Primary Duration:
• 3 months
• Secondary Duration:
• 36 months

Results:

• OG:
• 1.045 (Target 1.045)
• Efficiency:
• 72% (Target 72%
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.004)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (Target 91%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 5.38%)

Brewing Notes:

• 4/10/16 - Brewday - 11:45 AM to 4:15 PM - Not including cleanup:
• Cereal Mash:
• Double milled the wheat and barley for the cereal mash into a small pot
• Added 2.5 gal of hot tap water to the pot.  Settled out at 115 F
• Let sit for 15 min
• Heated up to 150 F on the turkey fryer.  Ended up overshooting a bit at 155 F
• Let it sit at this temp for 20 min while I did some yard work
• Heated up to a boil and boiled for 15 min.  Had a couple boil overs

• Milled the remainder of the grain by hand.  Mixed in rice hulls as I went
• Brought 7 gal of spring water up to 170 F
• Transferred water to mash tun until there were 2 gal above the false bottom
• Added CaCl
• Stirred in grain
• Settled at 155 F.  Let sit for 10 min at this temp while the cereal mash completed
• Added the cereal mash in gradually to avoid any major spike in heat.  Settled out at just about 160 F.

• Let sit for 15 min
• Started the cycle through the RIMS at 2 qt per min at 163 F.  There was quite a bit of gunk in the system.  I actually had to blow into the swan neck to get the flow going.  After a short bit of cycling it began to flow relatively clear.
• Mashed for 45 more min
• Raised the RIMS to 185 F at the end of the mash to raise to 175 F.  System had reached this temp after 25 min
• Heated 8 gal of sparge water to 200 F
• Fly sparged
• Collected 8 gal
• Measured the gravity at the grant as 3 brix at the end of the sparge
• Started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal.  Had it at a boil shortly after the end of the sparge
• Added hops after the hot break cleared
• Added Maltodextrine half way through the boil
• Added the wort chiller just before flameout
• Chilled down to 75 F
• Transferred to fermenter

• Pitched yeast
• Moved to basement at ambient temperatures to ferment
• 4/11/16 - Off to a bit of a slow start but it had started bubbling by this afternoon
• 4/12/16 - Still bubbling but very slowly
• 10/20/17 - Status Report:
• Earthy and leathery funk.  Kind of reminds me of tobacco.  Also get a bit of fruit - tough to pin down.  Peach maybe.
• Golden and quite cloudy
• Big diacetyl butter popcorn flavor.  Has a bit of fruit mingled in.  A little acidity.  Brett funk is fairly firm and also get some bandaid flavor.  Finishes with a bit of bready malt
• Work in progress.  I think this has the potential for bold flavors but needs time
• 11/4/17 - Transferred this beer off the yeast cake into a glass carboy with a vented silicone bung for further aging.  Will give this until next year before I sample again.  I moved Sour Blonde 2.2.1 onto the cake.
• 5/25/18 - Status Report:
• Very cider like aroma.  Smells slightly musty
• Light gold and very clear
• Has a funky bandaid like flavor.  Also get some wine/cider like fruit notes.  Slight tartness in the finish.  I also note a faint bit of malty flavor in the finish
• Light bodied and very dry.
• This is a pretty interesting beer.  Flavors aren't exactly bold but they are different from the others.  Not terribly complex on its own but I think it could be useful for blending.
• 6/3/18 - Used 1 gal of this beer in my Sour Blond Blend
• 7/15/18 - Added 1 gal of Pilsner based 1.06 wort to this beer (had made this as a yeast starter for a new beer and had a bit left over)
• 8/24/19 - Status Report:
• Aroma:  Fruity and wine-like with a bit of funk.  Also get some malt coming through  Pretty bold aroma
• Appearance:  Light gold and very clear
• Flavor:  Quite sour.  Malty with a bit of fruit flavor and some earthy/leathery funk.  Some bandaid like brett character comes through in the finish
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  Slight prickling in the back of the throat
• Overall:  Bold flavors with a fair amount of complexity.  A bit too sour on it's own but could be a very nice part of a blend with a milder beer

Lessons Learned:

1. I really like the proper cereal mash.  Hopefully this produces a starchy enough wort to keep the microbes busy.

Flanders Red 4.1.1

I have accumulated dregs from two bottles of Jolly Pumpkin's La Roja, one bottle of Lost Abbey's Red Poppy, and one bottle of Russian River Consecration.  I collected the dregs in about 1 L of DME and Maltodextrine based wort over the last couple months.  It formed a pellicle after some time and is smelling very nice.  I've decided to brew up a new Flanders Red using these microbes.

This will be a 6 gal batch rather than the 12 gal I did for the last couple Flanders Reds.  I am going to try a few different things for this batch:

1. The first batches I made that used a mix of Pilsner, Vienna, and Munich malts have a really lovely red color.  I lost that somehow when I started using Maris Otter for these beers.  I'd like to get back to that color without switching back to the old grainbill (which was rather expensive).  The color in the last couple batches has been more golden brown than red (see Flanders Red 3.1.1).  I'm going to try to fix that by swapping CaraMunich III for CaraMunich II to see if that does the trick.
2. I have been using corn grits for the last several batches of beer.  I had been taking the approach of boiling them (without any conversion step with base malt) and then adding the starchy liquid into the main mash at the very end.  This was done under the theory that this starch would give the microbes a lot of extra food during the long secondary.  Even with this practice I've seen these beers ferment all the way down to the low 1.00s (see Flanders Red 1.5.1).  With the Belgian Wit I made a couple months back I did a proper cereal mash which included a conversion rest step.  This avoided a lot of the sticking that I had been experiencing with my previous approach with the corn.  I've decided to try this for this Flanders Red.  Additionally, I'm going to put these in at the start of the mash rather than at the end to allow conversion to occur.  Hopefully this will still leave some starches but also leave a bit clearer product.  It will be interesting to see if this has much impact on the activity of the microbes
3. I decided to use hops on this batch.  Half an ounce of Fuggle at 4.1% AA which should get me about 7 IBU.  I have been reusing Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II for primary in the last several batches of sour beer without the use of hops.  I plan on a Fifth pitch for this batch.  I've started to detect some development of sourness after primary in these like maybe some lacto has crept in.  I feel like the sourness level in the beers has started to get a bit out of hand (see Flanders Red 1.6.1).  Hopefully these hops will kill any of the lacto in the primary yeast.
4. I am going to skip the step of setting aside part of the beer to sour with lacto for this batch.  I would expect that these commercial microbes are going to get me plenty of sourness on their own.  I've read that the Jolly Pumpkin microbes, in particular, are very aggressive.
5. Will target a slightly higher gravity of 1.055 for this batch so upping the base malt a bit.  This will be nice for blending purposes

I plan on giving this beer 2-4 weeks in primary and then transferring it to a bucket fermenter with a silicon bung with the commercial microbes for long term secondary.  I will throw in an ounce of oak cubes for this secondary period.

Will be interesting to see how a beer made entirely from commercial microbes turns out compared with the strains from the yeast labs.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 5 lb Maris Otter
• 3 lb Munich
• 12 oz CaraMunich III
• 12 oz Aromatic Malt
• 12 oz Special B
• 12 oz Maltodextrine
• Cereal Mash:
• 1 lb 8 oz Corn Grits
• 8 oz Maris Otter
• Hops:
• 0.5 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.1% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II (Fifth Pitch)
• Commercial Microbes from:
• 2 bottles Jolly Pumpkin's La Roja
• 1 bottle Lost Abbey's Red Poppy
• 1 bottle Russian River's Consecration
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 7.5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• Extras:
• 1 lb rice hulls
• 1 oz medium toast Hungarian oak cubes

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Main Mash:
• Step 1:  152 F for 5 min (Prior to adding cereal mash)
• Step 2:  160 F for 60 min (Target 160 F for 60 min)
• Step 3:  Ramped up to 170 F in 25 min (Target ramp up to 175 in 25 min)
• Cereal Mash:
• Step 1:  115 F for 15 min (Target 122 F for 15 min)
• Step 2:  150 F for 15 min (Target 115 F for 15 min)
• Step 3:  Boil for 15 min (Target boil for 15 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temps:
• 70 to 75 F
• Primary Duration:
• 2 to 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• TBD - 18 to 36 months

Results:

• OG:
• 1.052 (Target 1.055)
• Efficiency:
• 64% (Target 68%)
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.004)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (Target 92%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 6.69%)

Brewing Notes:

• 4/8/16 - Brewday - 1:30 PM to 6:15 PM including setup and cleanup
• Cereal mash
• Filled a 5 gal pot halfway with hot tap water - was about 120 F
• Added corn grits and milled barley into it by hand
• This lowered the temp down to about 115 F
• Let sit for 15 min.  This should allow the corn to start to rehydrate and maybe serve as a protein rest

• Heated up to 150 F on the turkey fryer
• Let sit at 150 F for 15 min
• Brought to a boil and boiled for 15 min.  The mash foamed up a lot but settled down after a bit without any intervention.  I actually didn't need to any stirring during the boil - the corn grits seemed to stay in suspension very well
• Milled the grain by hand which wasn't too bad.  I mixed in the rice hulls with the grain during this process
• Heated 10 gal of strike water to 160 F
• Added strike water to the mash tun until I had 3 gal above the false bottom.  Also let some drain backwards into the RIMS and grant to sit
• Added the grain to the mash tun and stirred to eliminate doughballs.  The grain was much less prone to doughballs with the rice hulls in it.
• The grain settled to 152 F after a few minutes
• Added the cereal mash to the main mash.  Added it gradually, stirring as I went, to avoid overheating the mash.  This ended up settling at 160 F which was right on target
• Let sit for 15 min undisturbed
• After 15 min I turned on the RIMS to cycle at ~2 qt per min set at 163 F
• Mashed for 60 min
• After 60 min I set the RIMS to 185 F to ramp up.  Let it ramp up for 25 min
• Added 5 gal of tap water to the HLT (for a total of 7.5) and heated this up to 210 F
• Fly sparged.  Ended up taking 22 min to get to 8 gal

• Started heating the kettle after collecting about 4 gal.  Had it at a boil prior to the end of the sparge
• Measured the gravity at the grant at the end of the sparge.  Was 5 brix which is about 1.02.  Left a lot of uncollected sugar behind apparently.
• Added my hops as soon as the hot break cleared
• Added the Maltodextrine with about 10 min in the boil
• Added the wort chiller just before flameout to sanitize
• Chilled down to 75 F
• Drained to bucket fermentor
• Pitch one jar of yeast slurry.  I had previously decanted off the spent beer and let it sit at room temperature for a couple hours.

• Moved to the heated fermentation chamber.  Beer was 72 F.  I will let it rise up to 75 F
• 4/9/16 - Fermentation started off slowly for this pitch.  It starting bubbling by the late morning.
• 4/22/16 - Cold crashing down to 35 F for a couple days to drop the yeast.
• 4/23/16 - Added gelatin to fine the beer
• 4/24/16 - Transferred the beer to a new bucket.  It is a really nice dark red color.  I think this is a good grainbill.  Collected almost 6 gal.  Measured the gravity as 1.016.  I had been getting 1.020 with my previous handling of the corn grits.  The wort is slightly more fermentable with a true cereal mash I guess.  I'm still pretty happy that it stopped this high.  The beer has a really nice fruity and slightly tart flavor.  Also has a pretty nice malty profile.  Setup the bucket with a vented silicone stopper (had to drill out the airlock hole to 1.25 in to fit that in.  Checked to make sure it was fairly air tight by pushing on the top of lid and then opening the vents slightly.  Could hear a hiss of air flow when I did this.  Will leave this at basement temps overnight before pitching the culture to avoid shocking the bacteria.
• 4/25/16 - Added 1 oz of oak (un-boiled and unwashed) to the beer.  Taste tested the bacteria starter.  It is thick and viscus.  I'd always heard that this could happen but this is the first time I've seen it.  The beer has a pretty nice bit of sourness.  It smells slightly of vinegar but there really isn't any in the flavor.  I'm really excited about this project.  I'm going to let this one sit for a year before opening.

• 7/23/17 - Status Report:
• Dark fruit mixed with a little earthiness
• Redish orange and very clear
• Light sourness.  It has a fruity flavor and earthiness on the finish.  Has a chocolate like finish as well (maybe from the dark malt?)
• Pretty strong flavors in this beer and a pretty complex profile

Lesson Learned:

1. Mixing rice hulls with the grain before doughing in is a good process change.  It made dough-in quite a bit easier
2. Going with a set time for temp ramp up (of 25 min) got the grain outside of the conversion range.  Saved a bit of time over going all the way up to 175 F
3. A proper cerial mash was a lot cleaner than my previous method of handling the corn.  Didn't require any stirring and I got no scorched corn.
4. Mashing with the cereal mash for 60 min produced a very clear wort and there was no point where it seemed like the mash was getting stuck.  Only time will tell if this wort is as good as the wort I produced via the other method.  In the last several batches, where I've had to stir the mash to avoid getting stuck, it seems like I've had a lot of slimy gunk get into the primary fermentor.  This could have been due to a lot of unconverted starches.  The stuff was so slimy that it was very difficult to actually transfer into the secondary.  I hope to avoid that going forward.  I think that this process change could help with that.
5. This grainbill looks to have provided a really great red color to the beer.  I think this is a winner.

Single Hop IPA (Centennial) - Tasting

I brewed up this single hop IPA using Centennial hops about a month and a half ago.  This was based on a Bell's Two Hearted Clone.  I feel like I'm still learning a lot from using other people's recipes so I'm continuing to do these.  It is also nice to brew up single hop recipes like this to get a better handle on the contributions from each hop.  Brewing clones, even when I haven't had the beer, has also turned out nicely for me.

I've had some really great luck with IPAs so far.  Some of the best beers I've made so far have been heavily hopped.  Hops are a pretty amazing spice in general given all the different flavors you can get out of them.  Having a beer with a lot of late flavoring hops seems like a pretty clear cut way to get a great beer.

I took a few lessons from the Heady Topper clone I did a few months back and loaded up on post flameout hops to try to get intense hop flavor and aroma in this one.  It worked as expected but I may not have properly vetted some of the ingredients (hops and hop extract) I had been storing in the fridge.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Piney and citrusy hops dominate.  Maybe get a bit of caramel from the malt.  I don't really get any yeast or alcohol character from it as the hops are very potent.  Some of the first bottles I drank were the last ones filled which got a lot of hop particulate.  Those had an unpleasant grassy aroma.  This one, and other recent ones don't have that fortunately.  This is a pretty nice smelling beer.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a two finger head.  The foam lasts for quite a while and leaves lacing on the glass.  The beer is a dark gold and is fairly clear.
• Flavor:
• Up front I get some nice hop flavors (pine mostly) with a bit of sweet honey and caramel from the malt.  It finishes with a pretty pronounced bitterness which dominates.  I don't really care for the character of the bitterness.  It has odd (maybe off) flavor that lingers.  I'm a bit torn on whether this might be due to some oxidation in the beer.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium light bodied.  Pretty low carbonation.  A bit of sweetness in the finish.  Bitterness seems to have a slightly astringent component to it.  The finish is slightly harsh.
• Overall:
• Not really too happy with how this one turned out.  The odd flavor in the bitterness doesn't ruin the batch (I'm going to drink the rest of it) but it certainly detracts.  I suspect that the hop extract (which was admittedly not stored very well for the last 5 months) could have gotten a bit oxidized.  I used it in my Double IPA (which turned out great) and didn't notice this strange flavor.  That one did have a richer malt bill and more hops so it's possible that those masked this flavor and that this is how the extract is supposed to taste.  Anyway, it's an IPA so it's supposed to be bitter.  I shouldn't be complaining too much that it is.  I'm tempted to enter this into an upcoming local competition to get some unbiased opinions as to whether it tastes "off" to anyone else.