Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Hop Experiment - Year 2











Sorry about the lack of posts since HBE2010.
Lots of family events.
Easter.
A 1/2 marathon for me. A 5K for Jenny.
A 1K for Hallie.
The hops started to sprout again about a week ago and so I decided to, again, attach my trellis to the fence and see what happens. I have decided to limit the root system to 4 bines this year.
Last year I had 6 or 7 and the hops did not add anything positive to the beer. In fact, the beer I made with them was so mediocre that I poured it out. In the future I'll be quite shy about using hops with unknown an alpha acid content for any beer I make. This plant might be good for beer conversation only. Anyway, I have read that 3 or four bines will be about the maximum for a good hop yeild so I'll keep the new sprouts trimmed back.