So no particular focus with today’s post, just a wrap up of the goings on in my little slice of beer land. I’m always reading as much as I can and wishing I had space to build a garage to have a permanent brew set up, so I could experiment more and implement so many things I have learned.
My latest line of thought regarding brewing is the SMASH method I read about in this months issue of BYO. I’ve heard of this idea, but never heard it called SMASH, but it makes sense. In short, you brew using a single malt and single hop in an effort to really learn what those two ingredients bring to the flavor table. Often times (and I’ve done this too) home brewers think more is better, but SMASH brewing is better suited as less is more. I’m thinking of doing an all-grain batch and using some basic British malt and some East Kent Goldings hops to make a drinkable pale ale for the late summer early fall.
My hop plants are continuing to do well. Cones are already showing and my main plant “Bertha” is continuing to do extremely well. June saw a bit more than ten inches of rain at my parents house and I’m hoping it means that the plant will be ready for the rest of the summer. I picked a few cones and didn’t get quite the aroma I was hoping for after rubbing them between my hands. I’ll be doing research on how to know when to pick the hops for maximum freshness and aroma.
I kegged one five gallon batch of my raspberry wheat brewed for the birth of my daughter. This batch had artificial flavor added, mainly because I had it laying around. I added three ounces and the flavor is present, but not overwhelming. The beers body and mouthfeel are nice and the head retention is great (it should be for a wheat), but the flavor is dominated by the yeast. In the future I plan on using a different yeast strain, so that more of the ingredients can shine through. The other five gallons will be kegged this week, but will sit on real raspberries which I hope will bring more flavor to the table.
Lastly, there is rumor that Stone Brewing will be opening a brewpub in the Columbus, Ohio area. To put it simply, this would be great. Below pictures of the hops as of June 5th.
Prost!
Apuhihi View 