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Farmington Hills, just NW of Detroit. It must be something in the water.

The Centennials and Nuggets are showing a few, the rest are still filling out.

It's been an exceptional season for hops here in Michigan so I thought I'd share some pictures of my crop. The beanstalks in the first two pics are Willamettes that have been in for about five years. This is the Southeast corner of the house so they get plenty of sun and get watered by the...

Hmmm... Copper is not used as much today due to the expense. Stainless is much cheaper and easier to maintain. As far as it being reactive in the wort, once it develops a layer of oxidation like the walls of the fermentor in this pic, I suspect it is pretty much inert.

Hmmm...

The Willamette vines are still up since I was able to pick them from the deck and balcony so I left the vines for decoration. All the others have been taken down although the trellice is still up. Most of them get full sun all day so they really do well. I'm around after five on most weekdays...

Bleach and ammonia will produce chlorine gas, but bleach and certain acids will as well depending on the concentration. Common Cleaning Products May Be Dangerous When Mixed Tom

Mixing bleach with an acid such as vinegar is risky since it can produce chlorine gas. Simple bleach works just fine at a concentration of one tablespoon per gallon of water. Apply for 20 minutes and be sure to rinse well with hot water after using. Tom

I'm over in Farmington Hills. My varieties are Centennial, Nugget, Magnum, Willamette and Sterling. The Centennial is the most productive with three vines filling almost two 5 gallon buckets. The nuggets were next followed by the Magnum. The Willamette's will likely pull ahead next year because...

The seven feet you have to work with will probably be fine for planter grown hops. The confined space around the rhizome will inhibit vine growth and restrict the hop production. Wherever you plant them they will pretty much expand to fit the space available. I have some Willamette's growing up...

Just throw them in the boil. You'll need to follow your recipe to know how many to put in and at what time because it makes a difference in the flavor of the brew. Whole hops are easy to skim out at flameout. I just use a large strainer to scoop as much of them as possible after the boil and get...

They are usable but the problem is that you have no way of knowing what kind of hops they are or what their alpha acid level is. You could have them analyzed which would be very expensive or just do a trial and error thing which may result in some batches of beer that are over or under hopped...

Happiness is five pounds of hops in the freezer, three and a half pounds form this, my third, years crop. The stash consists of Centennial, Nugget, Magnum and Willamette. Now comes the fun parts of converting them all into beer, more than 250 gallons by my calculations! Next year I need to...

We have two UPS deliveries a day at work. If I place a MC order early in the morning, it'll often arrive on the 4:00 PM UPS truck the same day. I'm always amazed. Tom

A little detergent goes a long way, even a drop of it would be enough to totally kill the head. You'll find out if it's enough to taste with the first swig. Tom

I just picked up 50 of them on Craig's List for $4 (I love Craig's List). They are a LOT faster and easier to bottle with than capped bottles. The only thing I've found with swing top bottles is that the gasket should be removed when the bottles are cleaned. Otherwise there are lots of crevices...

Install a spigot in your primary before your next batch and you won't need to go through the trouble of siphoning. For this batch just fill your hose with sterile water or sanitizing solution, clamp or pinch the hose somewhere in the middle, put one end in the primary and the other in your...

Cane sugar is 100% fermentable compared to 92% for corn sugar so you'll need 1.8 ounces of cane sugar to make up the difference. The beer will taste the same regardless of which one you prime with. Tom

The lawn service cut off half of my hops. No one else understands my grief so I thought I'd vent here. Tom

The chances of it being good after sitting at room temp for three weeks are questionable. Even if you didn't pitch the yeast, it has probably picked up some on it's own, or some form of bacteria. Either way, your sample is no longer a viable indicator of what the stating gravity of the wort was...