Grove Street Summer Wheat, Big IPA

I’m late posting about this, but waaaay back on June 28th, I brewed Grove Street Summer Wheat.  I finally got around to bottling it last Sunday, July 26th.  Oops.  It was my first foray into stovetop partial-mash brewing, which went surprisingly well.

This past Monday, 7/27, I tried it again, making Grove Street Big IPA, which I expect to be bottling in about another week and a half.

Both recipes used a mash of 4lbs grain, and I calculated the volume and temperature for the strike and sparge water with the very handy SpargePal app on my iPod.  The whole procedure required the use of all four pots in my 2/3/4/5-gallon stockpot set, and I’m sure that with a better sparging method I could get much clearer wort, but overall I’m very happy with the results so far (but ask me again once I’ve tried one of the beers!).

Hops!

I started trying to grow hops in my backyard last year.  Between being busy developing their root systems, and occasional run-ins with a weedwhacker, they never got very far, and only the Cascade (I had also planted Mt. Hood and Sunbeam) made it through the winter.  This year, though, I put up a proper wooden trellis and a little fence around the base of the bine to make sure it was clear that this is a thing that is supposed to be here.