ohnoitsthefuzz
New Member
Hey all,
Glad there's a spot to do intros on this forum, I'm excited to be here and wanted to share the projects I've been working on! My name is Randy, and I'm from Aberdeen in east central NJ (near Sandy Hook), and like everyone else on this site, I have quite a liking for beer and brewing. I first got started in craft beer when I was 21, when my friends in pharmacy school and I started going to Mahar's, a beer bar in Albany, NY. We were all hooked after that, and started hosting weekly get-togethers/sample nights, checking out beer festivals, and writing reviews for Beer Advocate. I also started brewing about 2 years ago, but things have been slower than I'd like. I'm hoping to finally purchase my own equipment this winter and get production started in time for some early spring beers, because I've been sitting on a couple recipes I've been itching to try. My big project this year was getting 2 hop plants started in May when I moved back to NJ. Right now I have a Cascade and a Chinook, both in large pots, started from rhizomes from Freshhops, and I'm totally amped about the progress they've made. Using a homemade trellis/pulley rope for each pot, the Cascade reached over 15 feet (9-10 feet vertically, another 5 or so when I trained it horizontally), and Chinook made it to around 10-11'. I used potting soil to start, supplemented with a shot of Miracle-Gro in July and a good composting/cedar mulching after that. Surprisingly, both of them produced solid cone yields, probably 30 medium sized (and around 10 as big as my thumb) Cascades, and maybe 15-25 Chinooks, which floored me as I didn't expect any at all. So right now, they're in the last stages of dying off, and I'm getting ready to winterize in the next couple weeks. I've kept a detailed project journal and photos, so it'll be interesting to make comparisons to what happens next summer. This is an awesome hobby, and if you haven't tried it, it's very much worth the effort, and not difficult or expensive to start.
Anyway, I know I shared a lot there, but I appreciate anyone taking the time to read up, and I'm looking forward to meeting you all in the forums. Take care, and happy brewing.
Best,
Randy
Glad there's a spot to do intros on this forum, I'm excited to be here and wanted to share the projects I've been working on! My name is Randy, and I'm from Aberdeen in east central NJ (near Sandy Hook), and like everyone else on this site, I have quite a liking for beer and brewing. I first got started in craft beer when I was 21, when my friends in pharmacy school and I started going to Mahar's, a beer bar in Albany, NY. We were all hooked after that, and started hosting weekly get-togethers/sample nights, checking out beer festivals, and writing reviews for Beer Advocate. I also started brewing about 2 years ago, but things have been slower than I'd like. I'm hoping to finally purchase my own equipment this winter and get production started in time for some early spring beers, because I've been sitting on a couple recipes I've been itching to try. My big project this year was getting 2 hop plants started in May when I moved back to NJ. Right now I have a Cascade and a Chinook, both in large pots, started from rhizomes from Freshhops, and I'm totally amped about the progress they've made. Using a homemade trellis/pulley rope for each pot, the Cascade reached over 15 feet (9-10 feet vertically, another 5 or so when I trained it horizontally), and Chinook made it to around 10-11'. I used potting soil to start, supplemented with a shot of Miracle-Gro in July and a good composting/cedar mulching after that. Surprisingly, both of them produced solid cone yields, probably 30 medium sized (and around 10 as big as my thumb) Cascades, and maybe 15-25 Chinooks, which floored me as I didn't expect any at all. So right now, they're in the last stages of dying off, and I'm getting ready to winterize in the next couple weeks. I've kept a detailed project journal and photos, so it'll be interesting to make comparisons to what happens next summer. This is an awesome hobby, and if you haven't tried it, it's very much worth the effort, and not difficult or expensive to start.
Anyway, I know I shared a lot there, but I appreciate anyone taking the time to read up, and I'm looking forward to meeting you all in the forums. Take care, and happy brewing.
Best,
Randy
