Irish Red Recipe

Here's the recipe for an Irish Red, brewed few weeks ago. Color came out a little light I think, but it tastes great.

- 9lb 2row

- 1/2lb Carapils

- 1/2lb Crystal 10L

- 1/2lb Belgian Biscuit 25L

- 2oz Chocolate 350L

60m boil with the following additions:

- 1oz goldings for 60min

- 1oz goldings for 5min

- 1 tsp irish moss for 20min 

Mashed at 155F for 60min, fermented at 68F with S04 and these were the final brewing numbers:

OG=1.048

FG=1.010

ABV%=4.9

IBU=21

SRM=10

Fermentation profile is below.

Cream Ale Recipe

Here's a delicious beer, got the recipe from Homebrewtalk.com. This is one of the best beers I have brewed to date. Very light, easy going and creamy beer!

All grain recipe, 5gal batch:
-9lb 2 row malt
-1/2lb carapills
-1/2lb biscuit malt 25L
-1lb flaked corn

Mashed at 155F for 1h and boil as follow:

-1oz hallertauer 4% for 60min
-1 tsp irish moss for 20min
-1/2oz hallertauer 4% for 10min
-1/2oz hallertauer 4% flameout

Used Safale S05 yeast at 68F and these were the brewing numbers:

OG=1.049
FG=1.007
ABV%=5.4
SRM=5
IBU=17

Here's the fermentation profile:

Hop Harvest 2011 update

Here's the final numbers on the harvest this year. I huge increase from last year. Total, harvested over 12lb of hops which represented an increase of almost 50% from last year. Ended with almost 6lb of dry hops, an increase of 70% from last year.
Here's the data. Got to brew a lot of beer now.

Hop Harvest 2011

Almost ready to harvest my hops this year, probably few weeks away. Harvesting Hallertauer, US Goldings and Horizon.

I expect over 10lb of fresh hops. Here are some photos.

Ladybug life cycle

Got to know what those tiny yellow eggs in my hops were, from my previous post. I isolated the eggs and witness the metamorphosis all the way until the new ladybug emerged. I was surprised since I had no idea that the ladybugs were laying those eggs. So what I thought was the ladybug eating the eggs, was actually then laying it in my hop leaves. Good to know that I have a renewing army of aphid fighters :-), which by the way, are very few right now.

Aphid control

Just sharing some photos and suggestions regarding aphid control. I'm not an expert and have been growing hops for only 3 years, but the basic seems to work for me so far.

Here's my big hop farm :-).

From left to right, Hallertauer, US Goldings and Horizon.

I wasn't able to get a decent photo of an aphid, too small for my camera to focus, but did find few around my hop leaves.

Here's a photo from the web.

The photo below show insects eggs, possibly caterpillar, that eat the hop flower ( I have seen it in my hops flowers last year), but just wanted to show that many insects are interested in using the hop plants to develop their life cycle.
UPDATE 09/05/12 - These are actually ladybug eggs. Check my other post about ladybug life cycle

Here's the guardian of the aphids. The ants developed a symbiosis relationship with the aphids. The ants protects the aphids against predators and the aphids pay back with a sweet secretion, which the ants are more than happy to drink.

Payday (not my photo).

Here's the hop farmer's natural aphid control, a ladybug. It will systematically search and eat the aphids. If you see a ladybug in you hop plants, be happy and let it do its job.

Here, a ladybug takes a nap. She's probably dreaming about that fat and juicy aphid that she's going to eat next!

Actively searching for pray. If you grow hops (or not), take some time to watch nature at its best!

I got this photo when our warrior was feasting on some insect eggs. So it seems it will eat eggs too, not only the living aphids. Scrambled eggs anyone?
UPDATE 09/05/12 - Ladybug checking its eggs

Basically, if you don't have a huge aphid infestation, just leave it alone. Nature will provide the players to control aphid population.

Check the back of you hop leaves periodically for aphids. If you notice that you have huge counts and it keeps growing, you can use an insect control product for vegetables, like the one I used below. Spray the most affected areas only, not the whole plant as I think it will also kill or scare away the ladybugs.

By the way, the 6 plants I have will produce enough hops for over two years of my beer production!

Scoring with a Bloody Ale

Here it is, got third place on the Washington State Puget Sound Pro-Am competition on cat 21- Spice, Herb and Vegetable Beer.

First time ever on a competition, 36 points on this recipe. Very valuable feedback from certified BJCP judges, which is all we are after anyways.

Find recipe HERE.