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Cascade Hop Growing – 2011

By on Saturday, April 16th, 2011 | No Comments

It is mid April and thus far April has generally been cold and wet here in southern Wisconsin.  But the Cascade hops have still awoke and the purple shoots have begun to poke through the ground.  That’s right PURPLE shoots!  When hops first poke through the ground they have a purple color, but the leaves then begin to open and take on the expected green colors.

This will be our fourth year of growing these hops and expect another good sized harvest.  We’re guessing it may be a bit larger than last year, hopefully around a pound (16oz.) dry weight come this September.  Here are a few pictures of Cascase hops poking through the ground (green stuff are weeds, purple shoots are the hops, and lots of sawdust mulch).

Carty Cascade Pale Ale 2010 — Finally

By on Saturday, April 16th, 2011 | No Comments

So all the way back in very late August our Cascade hops were harvested.  It was the third year of growing the three Cascade hop plants and we had a bountiful harvest — about 12oz. dry weight.  The hops were vacuum sealed and stored until brew day.  Over the winter this past year I was hoping to make the 2010 version of Carty Cascade Pale Ale……..well the weather (bitter cold) got in the way a couple times, as did other things,  so it took until April for the brewday to commence.

The inaugural Carty Cascade Pale Ale (the 2009) version was brewed up and the beer was incredible!  Since the inaugural batch was so tasty we decided we’d recreate the recipe with every year’s harvest and use additional hops for whatever beers we wanted to make.  And so the brew day.

The recipe was the same, very simple grainbill and a nice showcase of our backyard grown Cascade hops.

9.0 lbs Maris Otter

1.0 lbs Wheat Malt

1.0 lbs Crystal 40L

Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast

1.25 oz Cascades 60 mins

1.20 oz Cascades 15 mins

1.20 oz Cascades 0 mins

The brewday was wonderful weatherwise, in the 50s and 60s.  The brewday from a technical standpoint also went perfectly.  The basement is at annual minimum it achieves by mid-winter and doesn’t warm up until mid-spring……..right around 59F.  But a cold fermentation works nicely for this beer, where we are trying to showcase the flavor and aroma of the hops.  I’ll be sure to post a review once the beer is done, but fermentation has gone well and transfer day will be occurring in the next day or three.  Until then enjoy some pictures of brew day.  Lots of pictures, the hops, the grain, the wort, but by far my favorite ones are of the bittering addition of hops right after being added to the kettle.  I love the green color of the hops against the orange/copper wort with white steam rising.

Mother Nature 1 Carty Cascade 0

By on Friday, January 21st, 2011 | 1 Comment

So Carty Cascade Vintage 2010 has yet to be brewed. 7 degrees is just too cold to be boiling in the garage and recent weekends haven’t been much better. I brewed in Dec 2009 with temperatures in the mid 20s and had a lot of evaporation losses. To make up for that I had a few gallons of water nearly boiling on the stove I would add to the boil in the garage. That and heating water and boiling wort in single digit temperatures would just take a lot of the fun out of brewing. Keep your eyes open for a brew day report once the temperatures get into 20s or 30.

Carty Cascade Vintage 2010

By on Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 | No Comments

The 2010 version of Carty Cascade Pale Ale using exclusively homegrown Cascade hops will be brewed up soon, probably this weekend! Look for some posts regarding that brew and a recap of the hop harvest from this fall.

Happy 2011!

Carty’s Cascade Pale Ale – Vintage 2009

By on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 | 2 Comments

What better to do on a cold December morning?  Brew!  Today I brewed an American Pale Ale, using the Cascade hops grown in my buddy’s backyard this summer. The recipe I crafted was quite simple, I wanted to showcase the hops.  I’m curious to how these Cascade hops will compare to Cascade hops grown in the Pacific Northwest.  They smelled quite similar, maybe a bit more spicy and little less citrusy, but overall quite similar.

So the brew day started at a chilly 23F.  But no worries, I had my winter jacket and hat on.  The brew day went well despite the cold temperature, although running the hose to the wort chiller was kind of a pain, the hose was quite stiff.  Some of the water froze in the hose while I was cleaning, but no big deal, I’ll let it melt in the garage.  Also using so many whole hops I knew siphoning the wort might be a challenge, so I tried something new, using a copper scrubber attached to the racking cane to act as a filter, I got the idea from another brewer on the web.  It worked very well, no clogged racking cane.  Although I’ll say this, no more brewing outside in subfreezing weather…back to the kitchen until spring or maybe a mild spell.

The recipe today was quite simple:

9.0 lbs Maris Otter

1.0 lbs Wheat Malt

1.0 lbs Crystal 40L

Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast

1.25 oz Cascades 60 mins

1.20 oz Cascades 15 mins

1.20 oz Cascades 0 mins

I will ferment this batch cool, in the low 60s.  With the simple grain bill, clean yeast and cool fermentation temperatures this beer will showcase the entire 2009 harvest of our Cascade hops.  I’ve attached some pictures of brew day if you’re interested.  If I have time I’ll also post a few things about two of my other latest brews, a Northern English Brown, which tastes fantastic and an update on the Maibock Pale Ale which I’m enjoying as I write this.

The pictures:  1) a cold start!  2) the grains, toward the ‘top’ of the bag you can see the crushed wheat malt atop the other grains 3) the mash after doughing-in 4) the bittering addition 5) wort before the boil got going 6) wort with the bittering hops added

Cascade Hops Growing Nicely!

By on Sunday, July 12th, 2009 | No Comments

So last April (2008) my buddy and I planted three Cascade hop rhizomes along a fence in his yard.  Last year our harvest, as expected was quite minimal, but we got some good vine growth.  By early April this year our hops were poking through the ground.  By the end of May the hop vines had already matched last year’s entire growth.  Over the weekend we went over to their place for a cookout and to enjoy the great weather.  WOW!  Look at those hops!  The vine growth is tremendous and there lots of little hop buds all over the place.  We’re hoping to have enough to completely hop a batch with our own hops, which by the looks of it should be very doable.  I hope to take some pictures and share sometime soon.  Do you grow your own hops?  How is the growing season treating them where you live?