So who's expanding?

[keelanfish]

I harvested and dried approximately 8 ounces off of two nugget hop plants that were planted a few years ago by my wife as an ornamental plant in our herb garden. This year was the first year they produced anything to speak of, but now I've got the feaver. My parents own a large tract of land in North Georgia and my dad has 160 feet of antenna mast in ten foot sections that have been sitting in his basement for decades. I'm going to start small this spring and am planning to plant three rizomes each of ten different varieties. I view next year as a test case and based on the results, which varieties thrive and which don't, I'm going to upscale in a big way in 2010.

I've got an old college roommate that is a biologist and homebrewer that has a university lab available. I know the problem with homegrown hops is figuring out exactly the AA%. My friend is researching the testing proceedure, but feels sure he has the equipment available to do the test. Hopefully this will work because it will make any hops I grow much more useable.

 

[TerapinChef]

My friend is researching the testing proceedure, but feels sure he has the equipment available to do the test. Hopefully this will work because it will make any hops I grow much more useable.

Keep us updated on this...there are many different colleges and universities nearby, and if it's a quick and easy test, I think my Wine and Spirits teacher (also head of the biology department) and I are going to stay in touch...I'm already trying to convince him that he should put my possibly-infected Belgian Dark Strong under the Electron Scanning Microscope and tell me what's in it besides yeast...