Backyard Hop Crop Report, May 2015

Mt. Hoods last year

I had a bumper crop of hops last year, especially for first-year plants. I planted four rhizomes last year, two Mt. Hood and two Cascade. The Cascade were a little slow getting off the ground, but the Mt. Hood exploded. This was a little disappointing because Mt. Hood is a variant of German noble hops, not exactly known for being used in large quantities (though we'll see if my Bitter Pils To Swallow turns out well–it has 10 ounces). Cascade, on the other hand, has historically been the darling of the craft brewing industry, being used in massive quantities in late additions and dry hopping for IPAs, pale ales, CDAs, etc. If I was going to get too much of any hop, I'd rather the Cascades. Looks like this year might be more along those lines.

Kurtoberfest

Every year I've been brewing, I've made an Oktoberfest/Märzen. For those who don't know, the style is traditionally called "Märzen" because it is made in March, which you might have noticed is quite a while before Oktoberfest (which is, strangely, in September). This beer is a lager, which means it's fermented slow and cold, and then undergoes an extended period of lagering, which is fancy brewer talk for "cold storage". Lager comes from the German verb lagern meaning "to store". For this beer, the lagering is quite long. I never seem to have my act together in March, and this year I wasn't really ready until early May.