BrewHome Depot trip

I used some comp time today, duly earned from a weekend business trip to Brazil, for a trip to Home Depot. For a homebrewer, there are aisles and aisles of great stuff to be repurposed for homebrewing. Ok, well, mostly its in the plumbing aisle, but my original intent was to get some galvanized pipe to make some hops trellises for my burgeoning plants.

Given advice from this post on BA and after talking with my pop, I went with a ten foot section 3/4 inch galvanized pipe (~$17), a 30inch section (~$7), and a coupler ($3). I also got some 7/8-1 1/4 inch stainless clamps to afix three coir hop twines to the top of the post. I bought a heavy (5lb) mallet, which I used to pound the 30inch section in to the ground. I used a scrap piece of 4x4 that was lying around next to the trash area to prevent damage to the threads (lots of projects in the gardens yields a reliable source of scrap wood). I was able to drive it almost all the way in to the ground, then twisted on the coupler, then the 10 foot pole. Huh. its pretty stable. Cool. Hopefully it'll still feel stable when the twine is loaded with hops and the eventual summer thunderstoms hit.

I tied the three twine lengths to the fence where the hops were already climbing (and looking for more) and wrapped the sun seeking bines around them.

Well, that was pretty easy, fast, and not too expensive. I think if I had to set up a structure that could support multiple hills, I'd likely employ 15ft 4x4 pressure treated posts and run a wire across the top from which to drop twine (which would be more economical on a per plant basis) similar to what you see commecially, but for a single hill, I think this "trellis" will work very well.

Oh, and I got a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler for $38, quite a bit cheaper (almost half) than what you see the LHBS and online shops selling them for. Looks like the next Home Depot project will be to get some copper tubing for my new mash tun.

Hop growing update

my hops continue to grow like...well, hops. I promised you some pictures, and here they are.

Snapped a couple today, while I was out for a run. Primary purpose was actually to take some pictures of the intersetion where a woman who was in a right hand lane turn only didn't right hand turn. She straight-no-hand turned right in to the middle of my car. Got a call from the insurance company the other day, expecting them to say that they are closing the case...nope, I was told she/her insurance is claiming equivalent fault, and wants my insurance company to cover the THIRTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS of damage to her car.

really? 13grand for a fender bender? that kinda sounds, oh, I don't know...illegal.

ok, that's enough, hopefully it'll work out for me.

here's my garden plot at fenway victory gardens...now contains mostly perennials, some herbs, and few flowering shrubs. Oh, and I stuck some potato plants in there this year. first go at growing potato plants. pretty easy so far.

This is the Sterling plant. not quite as vigorous as the Fuggle, but still growing tons. According to Freshops, this is the Sterling desciption:

Saaz Hybrid, suitable for replacing Saaz hops in brewery blends. Much higher yield potential than Saaz hops. aroma and oil composition very similar to Saaz. Alpha Acid 6-9% . Very good yield

Closeup of the Fuggle bines/leaves (click on it!).

...and the base of the Fuggles. I need to get a support structure set up in the plot yesterday.

Here's the description:

Originally developed in the UK in both Kent and Sussex counties. Traditional aroma hop, mild and spicy aroma, alpha 4.0-5.5%.