After nearly 6 years off I have one in the bucket!

[Robar]

It's been a long hiatus, but I'm finally brewing again. I harvested some wild hops a while back and wanted to do a brew with them. So I figured the best brew to do with unknown hops would be a pale ale. So I used 10 lbs of Briess 2 row and 1lb of crystal 20. I did a little tighter crush than the factory setting on my barley crusher and mashed at 154* for 60 I used a one gallon bag of whole hops in this brew. Half@ 60, quarter @ 30, and last quarter bag @ 5 to go.

The hops are an unknown as mentioned before, but a buddy came over to guide me back into the fold and said that the bitterness seemed around an 8 alfa and once we pulled the hydrometer sample and came up with a 1.060 he said sample tasted around 50 ibu's give or take. This matches with what my memory retains of bitterness levels. The hop itself has a lot of floral character, but also has a lot of cascade type character as well.

Knowing what I did about the hops and what I wanted to do to try and compliment them I went with a safale 04 fermenting @60 pitched @ 70

I think this is going to turn out to be a very good beer. It's good to be back into my hobby.

 

[chri5]

That's awesome. I've been on a brewing hiatus with moving for the last 6 months, but got my first batch in at the new place this weekend. Feels good to be back at it.

Should be interesting to see ow those wild hops turn out.

 

[brewtus_]

Welcome back!

It was 5 years ago that I came back to brewing after taking about 7-8 years off. Been brewing regularly since. Not sure why I stopped for so long.

 

[Robar]

For me getting away from brewing was the down turn of the economy. My trade took a dump so I lost my job, cars, house, wife, etc. in that order! Like many other people it went kind of bad for a while, I stored all my equipment and just didn't let myself think about the hobby much for those years.

I have been working for a pretty stable company for 2.5 years now and am a home owner once again so life is good. I bought a foreclosure, gutted it and started rebuilding. As I got closer to getting my house livable the itch to brew again became unbearable. Moved into my mostly done house two weeks ago and brewed my first beer in years last night. Man it feels good to be back!

 

[The Soft Underbelly]

I like a story where the happy ending involves beer!

 

[Doctor_M]

Awesome story :rockin: welcome back to the addiction

 

[Robar]

Thanks guys.

I'm happy to report that I have bubbles coming from the lock and should be racking this over in 12 days. Now to figure out what to dump onto a big 04 yeast cake!

 

[Hello]

How does your buddy detect the alfa of a hop? Seems like a neat ability.
Brewing is fun. I can see stopping and starting for sure as it can take a lot of time away from other things if brewing regularly. Glad to see you come back to it for sure.

 

[beernutz]

I took a 7 year break from brewing after starting in 1991 where I resumed this summer. Since restarting I have built a keezer and a fermentation freezer, a new HLT, mash tun, a keggle and a CFC and used them to brew five 10 gallon batches. It has been a blast both building and brewing.

I actually stopped due mostly to paranoia about brewing being technically illegal where I was living and partly because I was just too busy with work, other hobbies, and kid's activities.

I hope that first one comes out great.

 

[NickTheGreat]

Glad you're back brewing. Especially glad you've got your life back on track.

I'll drink a beer in your honor!

 

[mr_goodwrench]

That is an awesome story. It has been nearly 3 years for me and I am getting the itch myself. That is actually what brought me back here -- I got away from reading about others brewing while I couldn't. I am planning on breaking my equipment out this weekend to appraise what I need to do to get a batch in the bucket. I'm thinking I'll do an extract batch or two to get back in the swing (also, I need to work on my mash tun as it was in the process of being redesigned when I took my break.)

The new brew sounds like it'll be good. I had access to wild hops that were descended from ones my ancestors grew commercially back in NY, but not so much now. I'll be making room in my garden this fall to plant some next year.

 

[Robar]

How does your buddy detect the alfa of a hop? Seems like a neat ability.
Brewing is fun. I can see stopping and starting for sure as it can take a lot of time away from other things if brewing regularly. Glad to see you come back to it for sure.

It's all guess work of course, but if you've ever chewed on whole hops you get a fairly decent feel for the amount of alphas by how bitter it is and how numb your tongue gets etc. He grows 4 different varieties and has of course sampled them as well as others. I actually do the same thing, but am not as keen at it as he is. Chew a cascade cone and then chew a galaxy cone, you'll get the idea real quick. Honestly I sample every whole hop I can. It's no difference than learning your herbs and spices for cooking.

 

[Robar]

Glad you're back brewing. Especially glad you've got your life back on track.

I'll drink a beer in your honor!

Thanks Nick.

I want to thank all you guys for the props and the welcome back. Tickled me to death to go to the basement today and see the lock bubbling away. I enjoy the hobby as much as the drinking.