What's new with you this year?

got some cascade rhizomes and planting them. I failed at my first attempt at hop growing, my fault. Using up my grains that I have accumulated and want to make some different styles of beers, so I am going to purchase some new sacks of grain. some basic 2 row and maybe some munich. I will be brewing a quadrupel in June,July sometime. After that I'd love to brew some nice hoppy beers and maybe my first saison before the end of the year.

 

I'm currently trying to work out the kinks with an outdoor refrigerator. I use this for ferm control. The temps have been too low, so I put a shop light in there to push the temps up>>>way too high. I think I'll relax on the lager front until it warms up a shade. Then I'm all for it.

 

@DrewF might have some info on this.

 

I don't have much to say about the brew bucket yet. It certainly seems well made and cleans easily. Also, I punched a second hole in the lid to accommodate a thermowell. Otherwise my first batch in it is still fermenting away.

 

(1) Blichmann Beer gun has been requested for my natal day, coming relatively soon (I hope).
(2) Build a more efficient immersion cooler and get set up to recirculate ice water through it.
(3) Write a technical paper on hop utilization, including during post-boil hop stand; much background research has been done already.

 

Good thread... This year I'm focusing on water treatments, Brett/Pedio/Lacto fermentations, yeast harvesting and getting through some of the books I haven't got to yet.

 

For me, still trying to figure out how to this Honey Mint, probably been too fixtated ever since I finished my Rye Beer. Sigh, maybe I'll get there eventually. Maybe.....

 

I've been underwhelmed with the hop character from mine thus far. It just doesn't seem to add much to beers that already have big flame-out and dry hop additions. Last weekend I brewed a Pils with all Perle, including 2.5 oz in the HopRocket. I'm interested to see how the character is in a beer that isn't dry hopped.

In general, the mechanics of it are pretty simple, just make sure to let it fill as slowly as possible. If you push wort into it too quickly the hops will be forced up against the screen and it'll clog. Connect it between your pump and your in-line chiller. Once wort in running into the fermentor, you can up the speed.

 

Thanks for the info. I used it for the first time on Sunday, brewed an APA and put an oz. each of Citra and Centennial into it. Went smoothly. It even worked well with a gravity feed. And I made sure to run it slow so as not to compact the hop bed. Hopefully I'll see some benefit from it.