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I think it depends on when in the maturity cycle you get the wind. I've read that when the hops are almost ready to pick, a strong wind can make them useless in a matter of hours. That was from a commercial grower's manual, so maybe it also depends on whether you plan to sell them...

Did you correct for the temperature? Hydrometers are calibrated to 60 deg. F...

Sheesh, who can brew and not remember it? Oh, I get it, you were probably drinking one while brewing one, lol! Anyway, yes, it's good to get back to brewing after a hiatus. I've brewed for the past 3 weekends in a row, after not having brewed since May - I was busy all summer composing and...

Ideally with batch sparging, you want to try to target an equal volume between first and second runnings. I normally do 5g batches. With my system, I know that if I mash initially with 4.5g of strike water (usually around 11-12 lbs of grain), and mash-out with a half gallon, I'll get about...

I think it very much depends on exactly how you brew - there are lots of variations. For instance, a friend of mine brews using the "fly sparging" method, whereby the sparge is accomplished by continuously draining the mash while adding water in the top at the same rate, until the runoff gets...

First of all, it's "wort", not "wert" or "wart". Hope that opening doesn't sound peevish, it's just that I care so much about my product, I don't want it to sound unnecessarily gross in print. It's a very old word, but not one in common use lately, except among us brewers. Anyway, on the...

You could rack it into secondary, and I'd add a bit of gelatin at that time. You'd be surprised how quickly it will clear. Just boil a cup of water, cool it, add a pack of gelatin to it, let it sit for an hour, heat it till it's clear, then add it to the secondary and rack on top of it. Your...

How many cones? 1.1 oz freshly picked isn't very much, and being first-year hops, in my experience you shouldn't expect much of them. I'd either add them to the secondary ("dry-hop"), or maybe save them and put a couple in a glass of beer! I just did that the other day, and it can add a new...

PS if you have a LOT of hops, that's the only way to go...

I built a really cheap oast mostly from stuff I had laying around, after reading an article in the May/June issue of BYO. It's about 3' high by 2' deep and 3.5' wide, and has two trays made of 1X2 strapping nailed together and screen stapled on the bottoms (the strapping and screen were about...

I didn't want to use up any of my commercial hops without making beer. Tim

Last evening I tasted my one-hop Mt. Hood brew, and got a nice surprise. It's past high krausen now, and pretty much ready for racking. I tasted it with some initial trepidation, since I'm kind of expecting that my homegrown hops will be pretty low on the AA scale, but I discovered I needn't...

I used "found materials" - I didn't have to buy anything, so, yeah, frugal. The PVC pipe is 1-1/2" interior diameter, and the clothes rod is nearly that, but not quite. There is in fact a fairly significant gap between the edge of the dowel and the inside of the pipe, which is good, I think...

... come up with a better trellis design than this year, and harvest more effectively (because I learned a lot this year!) Tim

Mine look like this: I compress them into one-oz plugs using a PVC pipe and a length of clothes rod. Sure saves freezer space! Tim

Gelatin is great! Cheap, easy, effective.

When hops are ripe, they'll look and feel somewhat dry and springy, and papery to the touch. They won't be succulent at all... well, maybe a little. They'll also have yellow powder between the "leaves" of the cones, and if you crush one, you'll notice that nice, hoppy aroma. That's how you...

I just brewed yesterday, and used my home-grown Mt. Hood hops throughout. The grain bill was only Pils and 2-row (8.75 lbs / 2 lbs), and the yeast is Nottingham. I used the hops as follows: 0.5oz FWH, 0.5oz 60min, 0.5oz 35min, 0.5oz 20min, 0.5oz 5min. I wanted to see, first of all, if these...

You should put them in the ground if you can. I've heard of folks growing them in a big pot, but I'd think it's generally inferior, and you're not likely to get the yield you could otherwise. At the very least, I'd expect a pot-bound plant to be a lot more work. And don't forget, you need to...

I'm in the GTA, and I know a few folks in the area who brew also. I normally get my grain from G&P in Fergus, and usually get through a season with 2 or 3 bags. When I step up to 10-gal batches, I can see that changing, lol... :D