This is a continuation of the hop breeding experiments that I first wrote about in 2013. If you are wondering why someone would bother growing hops from seed – go check out that post. Hop pollen Last year, I was fortunate to start a few plants from native neomexicanus seed obtained from plants growing wild […]

Let’s try something a little wild! This is based on Supplication by Russian River, but with significant alterations: Skip the carafa to keep the color light Use tart cherry concentrate. Easier to get and will turn it bright red! Use lacto from Nancy’s yogurt for a full sour without the bret funk! Plus the Nancy’s […]

We need a stout. Rather than another Shakespeare clone, we decide to go way, way back and give the 16-ton another shot. At one point, I was planning to brew a massive 16% ABV imperial, but seeing as we still have bottles from the last imperial… let’s dial it back a bit. Recipe Specifics Style: […]

One of my very favorite items ever brewed was the Spruce Tip ale that accidentally went sour. We’re going to try and recreate it, but also go a step further: by replacing 30% of the barley with wheat, we’ll have a better foundation for a lambic. If we then save it to mix with future […]

Still trying to perfect an IPA recipe.  The Ranger(ish) clone was great, but lacked hop character. The Ebenezer IPA and Loop de Loop, on the other hand, took things a bit too far. So, it’s time to go back to the basics. Let’s brew the basic Ranger malt profile with heavy amounts of Cascades near […]

It’s been a long, long while since we last brewed, but with the cold weather setting in I got the bug to do a spur-of-the-moment CDA. Instead of hitting the brew store, I literally scoured the basement for ingredients. There were many substitutions. Some of the grain was over year old – but still tasted fresh […]

We started keeping bees this year. So far, it has been fun and rewarding. The hive is doing well and our garden is fully pollinated. I didn’t expect to harvest honey this year, but the girls were packing it in so well that we decided to steal two frames. Since we don’t have an extractor, […]

Note: this is from 2013. You might also be interested in the 2014 breeding, 2015 breeding… Oregon is an optimal place to grow hops. They take up a lot of space, but are very gratifying and economical to grow. At the local homebrew store, hops will run $2-3 per ounce. Last year, with 7 mature […]

MAKE is an awesome magazine published quarterly by O’Reilly. Each issue focuses on DIY culture and contains dozens of projects that you are encouraged to build yourself. I have been a fan since Volume 3, when they featured plans for a potato cannon. So, when Mark Frauenfelder spotted this humble blog post and asked if I […]

We just got back from a week of backpacking with our 14 month old. Living in the Pacific Northwest, there are so many wondrous places to go that we had a difficult time deciding. However, the Three Sisters is one of our favorites. It has a bit of everything from alpine streams to obsidian lava […]