In January 2007 I brewed a beer using the wild hops I had harvested in the autumn. it was intended to be a basic bitter/ESB so that I could evaluate the character of the wild hops. To complicate things, this was the first brew I did since we had our kitchen redone, and there were many other changes to my usual procedure.
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Yearly Archives: 2007
Wild Hops
Last autumn I harvested some wild hops that I found growing locally to use when brewing my beer.
The hops were found growing along the path between South Abingdon and Sutton Courtney. Here is a link to a google map somewhere near where I found them. They were picked on 27th September 2006 and dried using a large cardboard box with lots of holes in the bottom. After drying they were compressed and stored in a plastic bag in the freezer.
This year I am growing hops in my garden. I planted Fuggles and Bramling Cross rhizomes that I got from A Plus Hops as part of a combined order with other members of the Oxford Brewing group. The fuggles currently has two bines growing up, one is already over 2 meters high. The bramling cross took longer to come up, and I only have one bine about half a meter tall so far. They are growing up strings and bamboo canes. I tied two canes together so they can get up to about 3 meters. As this is the first year, I am not expecting a massive harvest.
If you are interested in growing your own hops, then I recommend joining the Grow-Hops group on Yahoo groups.
Dreaming In Code
I have just finished reading Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg.
It follows the progress of the first few years of the development of an Open Source project called Chandler. The project which was intended to take one year was just beginning to get its first features usable after about 3 years, and the project is still continuing now and still only has a very small subset of the original desired features.
Alcohol becoming socially unacceptable?
Following a news article on BBC web site about a charity lobbying to prevent children drinking at home, I actually got one of my comments published on Page 35 of the Have Your Say section.
My comment is that I am worried that now the moral brigade have been succesful making smoking in public places socially unacceptable that alcohol will be their next target.
Oxford Brewing Group – Taste and Swap day
The Oxford Brewing group is holding a Taste & Swap day at Kennington Village Hall on 2nd June 2007. An invitation is open to any craft brewers who can make it to Oxford that day.