Jim's Beer Kit

Yeah, I don't know WTF is going on! Pots were left out all winter...no babying whatsoever. My hops are clearly drunk.

It's not fully flowering yet, but we've got a few rogue cones developing, that's for sure.

I'll keep you guys posted.

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Missouri, USA

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Au contraire mon amis!

I'm pretty new to hop growing, and could be mistaken, but I think climate change might be real!

Started quickly but lost some momentum. Nugget is struggling a bit, but Centennial and Columbus are doing ok. Columbus even has a few cones starting, which is far too early. Left to right: Centennial, Nugget, and Columbus. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170501/00a6232498cb83718bad75ffb52242aa.jpg

Warm winter and spring so far, but rude awakening this morning. Centennial and Nugget in Missouri.

What's that, you ask? It's a healthy hops plant I just sprouted from seed collected from the wilds of Kazakhstan in 1993. Amazing, right?! We brewers hear lots of The-Sky-Is-Falling commodity reports about hop shortages, crop failures due to climate change, pests, diseases, etc…all of which is true...

I abused mine the first couple months of the growing season, giving them nothing to climb on. Last week I built some supports. The roots are well developed (being 4-year-old plants), so I'm hoping for some rapid growth and an acceptable fall harvest. We should have a few more months of fair growing ...

Enjoying right now. Thanks for the mini-growler! Nice moderate caramel flavor and aroma. Dark bread crust with tasty melanoidins. Light raisin. Surprisingly subdued hop aroma given the dry hopping amount and time. Very balanced bitter backbone however, with pleasant bitter aftertaste and moderately ...

Great post Seymour! As usual, can't wait to try this!

Fantastic! Yeast should be fantastic in the Smoked Scotch I plan to brew!

Can't wait to try this one. Also, wouldn't mind harvesting some of this yeast either. President's Day brew day?

I think you have a perfect scenario for a sour mash, especially if this will be your first attempt. A lot of brewers only sour mash a portion of their grainbill anyways, so I would just sour mash all the grains you plan to use for this beer. This article has a lot of info, but basically mash like no...

Looks lovely!

I think my luck is running on fumes...I haven't broke a single item yet and I'm 3 years in. I've got a backup hydrometer on standby for when that day comes though.

I've got no idea what kind of proportions they use, but I just made a Rye PA using a very similar hop bill but with 35% malted rye and 20% malted wheat and it turned out ridiculously delicious.