Fatty Matty Brewing

While browsing Youtube via Glen Fuller’s CO Organic hops website, here are some random hop picking videos that will catch your eye.
 

1950s Hop Picking

1929 Hop Picking in Kent (no audio)

Sierra Nevada’s new German hop picking tractor

Last August in Dodgeville, Wisconsin was the 2011 Simple Earth Hops Harvest Brewfest. This fine hop picking event happened because the community came out to the farm to pitch in and help run the show. The local beer was fun too. Here are some photos taken by hopyard friend Charles Tuura of Aurora, Illinois.

So here’s the beer bottling issue

I am bottle carbonating using a 5 ounce bag of dextrose for a 5 gallons of Hard Apple Cider (fermented using Wyeast Sweet Mead Yeast) and I have to make this work with whole bunch of different bottles including:

• 12 ounce bottles [a case or 24 of these is 288 ounces]
• 16 ounce EZ Cap (swing-top) bottles [2 of these is 32 ounces]
• 16.9 ounce (500 ml) bottles [1 of these]
• 18.58 ounce (550 ml) bottles [1 of these]
• 19.2 ounce (568 ml) bottles [1 of these]
• 22 ounce bomber bottles  [4 of these is 88 ounces]
• 32 ounce EX Cap (swing-top) bottles [3 of these is 96 ounces]
• 64 ounce 1/2 gallon bottles [1 of these]

Normally, 5 gallons of beer fits into 2 cases (576 ounces) and a six pack (72 ounces) of 12 ounce bottles. In total, the 2 cases and six pack are 648 ounces. With all these different bottles, the only way to bottle condition these is to:

This complex beer features the back bone of the Hex Nut Brown Ale recipe from Midwest Supplies (which is originally intended as s Goose Island clone) and is brewed with ginger and “Slow-ass” molasses (and a few other fermentable cookie-like sugars) in the brew pot and Mount Hood wet hops  and habanero peppers in the serving keg. It’s a sweet and spicy beer best enjoyed on a cold night around a fireplace in mid-December, not a Summer beer. The yeast used was a London Ale Yeast (1028) from from Wyeast Labs.

This Spring the UWEX teamed up with the Midwest Hops and Barley Coop to present the second annual Hops and Barley Workshop. Many interesting points which may seem like old news to an existing commercial hop grower were brought up during a segment of the workshop where one of the only hops processors in the MW made a presentation to the group.

This Spring the UWEX teamed up with the Midwest Hops and Barley Coop to present the second annual Hops and Barley Workshop. Many interesting points which may seem like old news to an existing commercial hop grower were brought up during a segment of the workshop where John Reynolds spoke. The original transcripts are also available from the power point presentation below:

Around my house we say, “Merry Christmas” but maybe in your family or circle of loved ones you say happy holidays or some other seasonal greeting.

The Nativity story is a classic which needs to be updated to our day of computers, the Internet and social networks.

Thanks to Steve at SHIFT for sending this along.