Hello from NE Minnesota: thousands of gallons consumed, time to brew my own

Hey all:

Looks like a very good resource here!

I live in Ely, Minnesota, and am a German/Irishman from LaCrosse, Wis. After spending 35 years drinking every kind of beer I can get my hands on, I think it's time to brew some of my own.

So I picked up "Beer Craft" by William Bostwick and Jessi Rymill, and have been reading through it.

I'm really looking forward to getting started, and to looking at all the how-to on this forum. We garden extensively, and got a couple donated hops plants a few years back that are approaching harvest ripeness now. They are dry and papery, though not yet brown. In fact, I found this forum by Googling "when to harvest hops."

Don't know what variety they are, but I'm going to contact the folks who gave them to us, because they are also long-time gardeners, and will remember the variety.

I like a lot of beers, from the standard garage fridge PBR through the nice pilsners, porters, ales and stouts. It'll be interesting to experiment with this as time goes on.

Good to be here, and I'll see you around the forums.

Steve

Welcome aboard!

Welcome! Glad to have you with us!

Do you know what kind of hops plants you have? I was thinking of growing some in Duluth and need to know what will survive up here.

Welcome Steve! I have a few friends from Ely, in fact Ill be flying out there come January for a wedding. What do you plan on brewing? This website is full of info if a guy spends some time searching for the answers!

Hey jberg, I'm trying to figure out which hops plant I have. I've contacted the couple who gave them to us via e-mail and hope to hear back.

Wedding, huh? I'm a photographer by trade, and have done quite a number of winter weddings.