Home brewing with a green thumb

Want to give your love for home brewing a natural twist? Consider planting and growing your own hops. This member of the hemp family quite literally grows like a weed here in the midwest. All it needs is a lot of sun and a lot of space. For those of you who don't know this plant can grow in excess of 20 feet. My solution to this fast growing plant...

I mounted a pulley to the apex of my garage. A rope attached to a board with ropes going down to the base of my plants. When it comes time to harvest the hops I just lower the board down to ground level. Once the hops get growing you have to direct the plant by wrapping the feelers the plant puts out around the rope so it grows in the right direction.

For those of you who have never brewed with whole hop flowers, not just pellets, beware displacement, because the flowers occupy a lot more volume. Get out your larger brew kettles!

I get my rhizomes from Jerry at the Bluff Brew Haus in Dubuque, IA. If you live anywhere in the Dubuque area I highly recommend you check out  his store - he is a great guy and a great resource.

If there are any brewers out there with a green thumb with any tidbits to share on growing or using hops, please share with us here at PCSOBs.

Waste Not, Want Not

What to do with the sludge at the bottom of your wort? Hops, we all love them. But when I started the homebrewing process I was told to take great care to avoid getting the hops sludge at the bottom of your wort into the fermentation carboy. A sentiment I have heard several times over the years.
     I have found that including the sludge does not harm, and in some cases has actually improved the flavor of my beer, especially those extra hoppy IPAs. Now this may be my bias as I am partial to hoppines, in fact I have yet to meet a hop I don't like.
     PCSOBs is curious about your opinion in the matter, post a comment or e-mail us and let us know what you think.

Avoid Buying an Aeration Stone and Oxygen Tank

     So here is a little tidbit for you home brewers:  avoid the temptation to get really geeked out learning about surface tension and bubble physics.You do not need to add oxygen to jump start your yeasties. If you want to give them a head start to reproduction all it takes is one drop of extra virgin olive oil to 5 gallons of wort (yes I said only one drop). I add it after the wort has been chilled.
     Of course if you want to geek out - then by all means, geek away. Half of all the fun is trying new things. But be wary of the aeration stone and the potential for contamination.
    Like this tidbit? Agree/Disagree? Let us at PCSOBS know at pearlcitysobs@yahoo.com.

Initial Blog

Hello and Welcome to Brewing in Muscatine. I am just getting into the blogging thing, so much for old dogs not learning new tricks. I am hoping to share experiences on brewing, favorite recipes, kegerator construction, etc... So bear with me as we get this rolling.