Growing Hops in Containers

Growing my own hops is something I've been wanting to tackle for a while. Unfortunately, living in the city and renting, rather owning my house, has been an obstacle. I figured landlords and gardeners at apartment and condominium complexes probably aren't super fond of hop vines taking over their landscaping beds, so I haven't been able to try it out in the past. My wife and I finally live in a place that has a decent-sized porch, so I wondered if growing those sticky, little green beauties in pots might be a possibility. I did a little research and found some really helpful info (mostly from this great BYO article by Chris Colby), and it turns out it can be done. Yessss.

Hop plants have pretty serious root systems that need a lot of space to grow and take hold, so planting in the ground is the ideal situation, but it seems that growing in containers can work if you follow some guidelines. First off, you need large pots to allow the roots to grow. I found some large 20-inch pots from Home Depot that will hopefully do the trick. It's also important that the pots have drainage holes so the soil is allowed to dry out between waterings. Otherwise, the roots will get too soggy and rot over time. 

To give the hops bines some space to grow, I decided to put two 6-foot stakes into each pot and run twine around the stakes in a zig-zag sort of pattern. As the hop bines emerge, I will attempt to train them to run along the twine. I went this route so that I can grow longer bines than if I grew them directly vertical, hopefully resulting in more hop cones. As the plants emerge, I will probably run a second string on each set of stakes, making an 'X' pattern all the way up. 

For the hop varieties, I decided to try Cascade and Centennial as they are supposed to be two of the easier varieties to grow. They also are supposed to do well in almost any climate. There are some other varieties I would have preferred to try instead, but since this is my first time growing hops and I'm growing in containers, I figured I have enough going against me, so I'm taking the easy route (hopefully). I ordered my hop rhizomes through MoreBeer and planted one in each pot, a few inches below the surface of the soil. They were planted on April 9th. I followed the advice in the article to keep the soil most until the first sprouts appeared. 

April 25th update:

I'm proud to say that just about 2 weeks after planting the rhizomes, these little fellas popped up to say hello. Sweet - it actually worked! Following the advice of the BYO article, I hit them with some liquid fertilizer diluted to one-quarter strength to help them along. I would prefer to grow them 100% organically without fertilizer, but from what I've read, fertilizer is pretty much a necessity when it comes to growing in containers. I'm planning to feed them with fertilizer about once a month or as needed. 

May 8th update:

Things are coming along nicely. There are multiple bines growing from each pot and the leaves are looking nice and green. Some type of insect seems to feeding on the leaves as there are small holes in a lot of them. I'm not too concerned right now, but it if gets worse, I will see what options are out there for organic insecticides. The Cascade plant is definitely growing faster than the Centennial, so we'll see if that continues. 

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Catacombs Mixed-Fermentation Saison

I am psyched to finally try something from East Coast Yeast. I got lucky enough to snag a vial of Bug Farm from love2brew.com who sporadically puts up some of Al Buck's bugs for sale. For those not in the know, Bug Farm is a yeast and bacteria blend from ECY that contains Saccharomyces, Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus, with the Brett population taking more than half of the culture. ECY also gives you a generous amount of cells - something like 500 billion in this particular blend. 

The hard part was deciding how I wanted to use this animal. I knew I was either going to make a lambic-style ale, or a tart, funky, farmhouse-style ale. In my mind, I could take one of these three routes in the yeast/bacteria department:

1. Pitch Bug Farm into primary as the sole yeast/bacteria, allowing the beer to age for a good, long time (probably 1 year or more), ultimately making something lambic-like. 

2. Ferment the beer out with a farmhouse Sacch. strain and then pitch Bug Farm into secondary, allowing the bugs to slowly eat away at the remaining sugars and starches. 

3. Pitch Bug Farm and a farmhouse strain at the same time, with the idea that the saison strain will do the bulk of the fermenting up front, giving me mostly saison character, but giving the Brett, Lacto, and Pedio more of a head start on developing funky and tart character with the remaining sugars and starches.

I opted to go with #3. As much as I enjoy lambics and lambic-style beers, I love rustic farmhouse-style beers even more, and my hope is that this will leave me with a tart, funky, complex saison without a tremendously long aging time. I plan to first taste the beer at around the 3-4 month mark and then age longer if needed. The Bug Farm blend does contain Pediococcus, of which certain strains are known for producing diacetyl. If I get too much diacetyl after a few months, then I will need to extend the aging time to allow the Brett to clean things up. 

In addition to trying out East Coast Yeast for the first time, I am also trying out a new yeast lab for my primary strain, Imperial Organic Yeast, a relatively new yeast lab based in Portland, Oregon. I was excited to find them because they carry the Blaugies strain, which is possibly my favorite saison strain (they call it B56 Rustic). The only other yeast lab I know of who carries it for homebrewers is Wyeast (3726), and they only release it 3 months out of the year. Another cool thing about Imperial Yeast is that their pitches contain around 200 billion cells, double what Wyeast and White Labs offer, and it comes packaged in cool-looking little recyclable aluminum cans. 

As for the recipe, I kept things fairly simple in the grain and hop department. The only somewhat (but not really) unusual thing I did was to use a large portion of Vienna malt at 30% of the total grain bill. I'm hoping this will give the beer a somewhat deep golden hue and add some complexity to the flavor. I also added a decent portion of flaked oats to give the beer a bit more body and to give the bugs something to chew on after the Blaugies strain has taken care of business. The hops were left over from my last brew - that's the only reason I used 2 different varieties. I kept the total IBUs under 10 so as not to impede the Lacto and Pedio from doing their jobs. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out. 

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.3 gal
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 4.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 8.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Fermentables:
62% - Belgian Pilsner
30% - Vienna Malt
8% - Flaked Oats
(Also added 1.5oz of Acid malt to get pH in the right range)

Hops:
.21 oz. East Kent Goldings (Pellet, 4.8% AA) @ 60 minutes - 6.1 IBUs
.12 oz. Saaz (Pellet, 3.6% AA) @ 60 minutes - 2.6 IBUs

Other:
1/2 teaspoon crushed black peppercorn @ 5 minutes

Yeast/Bacteria:
Imperial Organic Yeast - Rustic (B56)
East Coast Yeast Bug Farm (ECY01) - pitched into primary

Water:
RO filtered water - added 3 grams of calcium chloride and 2.2 grams of gypsum to the strike water.

Mash:
Single-infusion @ 149 degrees (80 min)

Notes:
Brewed on 3/12/16. Pitched yeast at 72 degrees.

3/13/16 - Very active fermentation by the morning. Letting fermentation temp free-rise.

3/19/16 - Racked into 3-gallon carboy. SG down to 1.005.

5/8/16 - Sampled beer. Starting to develop some Brett funk and light acidity. Acidity is a touch lower than I hoped it would be at this point, so I may need to let it sit a bit longer than originally intended.

7/23/16 - Sampled again. Has some nice funk from the Brett, but there is still hardly any noticeable acidity which is surprising and disappointing since ECY001 contains both Lacto and Pedio. I may add some sour dregs to get this animal headed in a more tart direction.

7/31/16 - Added dregs from a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

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NorCal Beer Adventure

This weekend my wife and I made the trek north from Los Angeles to the Bay area to partake in the glorious Northern California beer scene. We got to visit some breweries and beer spots that had been on our bucket list for a good while - Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, The Rare Barrel, Cellarmaker, City Beer Store, and Bear Republic. Here are a few shots from the trip.

Sante Adairius Rustic Ales

Sante Adairius Rustic Ales

Sante Adairius tasting room

A few of SARA's fermenters

Flasks full of yeasty goodness

My wife, Cambria, enjoying some delicious beer

Cask 200

Backside view of the brewery

The Rare Barrel

A small sampling of the barrels at The Rare Barrel

Cellarmaker Brewing Co.

Cellarmaker's glorious taplist

Coffee & Cigarettes Smoked Porter and Island Culture Brett Saison

City Beer Store

Russian River (Pliny the Younger release)

The long line for the Pliny the Younger release. This was taken shortly before we gave up and left for Bear Republic.

Proof that we at least waited in line at Russian River. Hopefully next time we'll actually make it inside the brewery.

Bear Republic Brewing

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Goses & Mimosas (Blood Orange Gose)

When life gives you blood oranges, make sour beer with it. I think that's how the old adage goes. Something like that. At least that's what I decided to do in this case. My wife and I went to a local farmers market a couple of weeks ago that sells all organic produce. After sampling blood oranges at a couple of booths, I couldn't turn them down. They were calling my name. I had already been planning to make a Gose, so I figured these strange beautiful fruits could only enhance the beer.

For this beer, I decided to kettle-sour with probiotics. I have been hearing about a lot of brewers using Lactobacillus Plantarum recently, as it's known to sour beer very quickly. A company called GoodBelly makes probiotic drinks with Lacto P, so I picked up a couple of their SuperShots, which are advertised to have 50 billion cultures per shot. Since this is only a 3-gallon batch, I figured 2 shots should do the trick.

As a side note, I think it's funny how quickly opinions and trends change in the American craft beer world. It was less than a year ago that I was seeing rants all over the place about quick-souring techniques and how they produce subpar beer. If anyone was making sour beer that wasn't aged long-term, it was considered inferior. Fast forward to today, and it seems like everyone and their brother (including some very well respected breweries) is kettle-souring and it's a totally acceptable practice. While I agree that a kettle-soured beer can't match the complexity and nuances of a 2-year old barrel-aged sour, I think it's a great technique for beers like Gose and Berliner Weisse where you want that straight forward lactic note.

So anyway, for this beer, I mashed and sparged with my normal process, drained to the kettle, then I pre-acidified the wort down to a pH of 4.5 using lactic acid. This prevents some funky bacteria from developing and is also rumored to help with head retention. I then dropped in my wort chiller and boiled for 15 minutes. It wouldn't be necessary to boil that long - a minute or two would do the trick, but I went ahead and boiled for 15 minutes just in case there were any funky bugs living on my wort chiller. After boiling, I cooled the wort down to around 115 degrees, pulled out the wort chiller, and pitched in the two GoodBelly shots. I covered the top of the kettle in plastic wrap and put on the lid.

It turns out Plantarum is quite an animal. After 10 hours, the pH had dropped to 3.93. The next morning, about 19 hours after pitching the GoodBelly shots, the pH was down to 3.56. Pretty impressive stuff. I was shooting for the high 3.4 range, so I left it a few more hours until it hit 3.48. I didn't want this to be a mouth-puckering sour - I was shooting for more of a gentle, subtle acidity. Plus, I know that adding the blood orange juice would further drop the pH, so I didn't want to go too low. I should also note that I didn't do anything to maintain the warm temperature. I started it off at 115 degrees and just let it cool naturally. It was room temperature by the next morning. Below is a fancy chart showing the drop in acidity over time.

Once I hit my target pH, I boiled the wort again for about 15 minutes. At the end the boil, I added sea salt, coriander, and the zest and juice of 5 blood oranges. I took a pH reading after adding the blood orange juice, and it was down to 3.42. Once the fermentation is under way, I'm planning to add the zest of 5 more oranges. Lastly, to provide some more complexity, I decided to ferment the beer with the Sacch. Trois strain.


Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.10 gal
Estimated OG: 1.032 SG (before adding fruit)
Estimated Color: 3.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 30 Minutes (15 min before souring, 15 min after)

Fermentables:
50% - Belgian Pilsner Malt
50% - Wheat Malt

Hops:
None!

Yeast & Bacteria:
2 GoodBelly SuperShots (for kettle-souring)
Sacch. Trois (WLP644)

Other ingredients: 
.30oz Sea salt (1 min)
.38oz Crushed coriander (1 min)
Zest and juice of 5 Moro blood oranges (flameout)
Zest of 5 More blood oranges (added to secondary, 4 days)

Water:
RO water with 3.1 grams of calcium chloride added to strike water.

Mash:
Single-infusion @ 148 degrees

Notes:

Brewed on 1/30/16.

Also added 4oz of rice hulls to the mash. 

Made starter with 1 vial of WLP644. Started with .5L, fermented for 2 days, then stepped up to 1L. Pitched whole thing. Started fermentation around 71 degrees.

2/6/16 - Transferred from 5-gallon carboy to 3-gallon carboy. SG at 1.008.

2/18/16 - Added the zest of 5 more blood oranges.

2/22/16 - Kegged - shooting for 2.8 volumes of carbonation.

Tasting update:
This beer has a light-to-medium clean acidity, a touch of complexity from the Trois strain, a super juicy taste and aroma, and just a touch of saltiness on the finish that keeps you coming back for that next drink. The orange character really comes through. It's almost like drinking a more complex, alcoholic version of orange juice. Yum. I don't think would change anything if I were to brew this again.

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Raspberry Brambic - Lambic-style Ale

In October 2013, on our honeymoon, my wife and I visited Belgium, the land where Cantillon and Drie Fonteinen flow like water. There I truly came to appreciate the wonder that is Belgian Lambic. For me, there are very few memories I have more glorious than sitting late at night in a cozy, warm, bar in Bruges called Cafe Rose Red, sipping on lambic and other amazing Belgian beers. It's enough to bring a tear to this beer lover's eye. Tart, vinous, and complex, Lambic is an amazing beverage, and more so, it's forever connected to my memories of roaming around Brussels and Bruges for the first time with my wifey, drinking in the best bars in the world, and getting all sorts of cultured.

About six months after getting back from that trip, I decided to try my hand at a Lambic-style ale which shall be named Brambic. I'm calling this a "Lambic-style" ale rather than a Lambic for the following reasons:

1) It's not made in Belgium. 

2) I don't have the patience for a traditional turbid mash, so I'm going with my standard single-temp infusion mash. 

3) It's fermented with a blend of cultured yeast and bacteria along with bottle dregs in glass, rather than spontaneously fermented and aged in oak barrels. 

4) It's a straight unblended beer, rather than a blend of old and young vintages. I couldn't possibly wait 3 years to drink it. 

So in reality, it's pretty far from a traditional lambic, but if it lands anywhere in the same ballpark, I'll be happy. 

For the grain bill, I went with a simple mix of 2-row and flaked wheat. In the hop department, I went the traditional route by using aged whole leaf hops. I didn't have aged hops on hand, so I ordered mine, ironically, from freshops.com. 

For the yeast and bacteria, I decided to go with the Wyeast Lambic Blend. I failed at recording the exact dates, but a couple of weeks after the Lambic Blend got its start, I pitched the dregs from a bottle of Cantillon with the hope of getting some Belgian magic in my beer. A couple of months later, I pitched the dregs from a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin's beer.

For the first 3-4 months, I kept this beer in my temperature controlled fermentation chamber at around 70 degrees. After that, I moved it to a closet in my house where it sat for another 8-9 months before I racked it onto 3 lbs of raspberries. I gave it another 4 months sitting on the raspberries before bottling.  

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.10 gal
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 4.8 SRM
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Fermentables:
65% - 2-Row Pale Malt
35% - Flaked Wheat

Hops:
1.55 oz. Aged Willamette (Whole Hops) @ 60 minutes

Fruit:
3lbs - Raspberries - racked onto after 1 year of aging

Yeast/Bacteria:
Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
Cantillon dregs
Jolly Pumpkin dregs

Water:
50% Duarte, CA tap water
50% RO filtered water
Added 1.9 grams of gypsum and 1.9 grams of calcium chloride to strike water

Mash:
Single-infusion @ 153 degrees (60 min)

Notes:
Brewed on 4/12/14.

4/20/14 - SG is at 1.012. No sourness detected yet.

4/25/15 - Racked beer onto raspberries.

8/23/15 - Bottled the batch. Added fresh yeast (red wine yeast) for carbonation.

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