Brewed a batch of beer with 100% homegrown hops...

In preparation for the 4th of July holiday I brewed a test batch with 100% homegrown Cascade hops from last years harvest. I'm hoping to impress the family with good beer and fulfill my dream of brewing beer for this picnic like my Grandfather did. Of course saying I grew the hops that I used gives me great personal satisfaction. Anyway, I say "test batch", because you just never know how homegrown hops is going to pan out. The alpha acid content is not something I can easily measure and they're like 8 months old (vacume packed and refrigerated). So we'll see how it goes. If it doesn't work out, I'll have to make adjustments. I probably have enough for one more batch.

This is not my first foray into brewing with my homegrown Cascade whole leaf hops. I've experimented during the bittering, flavoring, finishing and dry hopping phases of the process, but, never more than one phase at a time. Originally I thought dry hopping would be the way to go. You know, small supply of homegrown hops rationed to make certain batches "extra special". It turns out flavoring is my favorite way to use these hops. Dry hopping and finishing didn't produce anything that "special". Bittering worked, but the whole leaf hop flowers acted like little sponges leaving more wort in the kettle. Flavoring added a fresh hop taste and I think brought out the best in these hops. Of course all this is a work in progress and I probably think I know them better than I really do. We'll see how this one turns out. I used the hops for bittering and late flavoring bordering on finishing.

Ah the things I do to say stuff like, "Yeah, I brewed it with 100% homegrown hops from my backyard." Now if I could just grow a field of barley ;-)

Edit: The name of this batch is H.G. Wheat as in Home Grown Wheat.

Cheers!