The hops plants must be in need of a trellis...

I wouldn't know. I haven't been to my backyard recently. With some family affected by the recent rash Virginia tornados I've been a bit distracted. Maybe tonight I'll walk the 20 yards :-)

Cheers!

A few more pictures from TAP NY!

Spent kegs on day two.













Bourbon Wheat Wine @ Great Adirondack













Great Adirondack taplist at the end of day two









The stamps we collected throughout the day.











Leaving Hunter Mountain :-(










Our Tom Tom took a short cut on the way home. This was little more than a paved goat path with no guard rail hundreds of feet above the river. Exciting way to end the day :-)

Couple more pictures from TAP NY later today...

Monday morning sucks after a great tour of the outdoors and TAP NY. I'll catch you up a little later today.

Cheers (<-notice no exclamation point)

TAP NY recap...

This is definitely a popular event. Tons of people showed up. Not quite sure how many at this point, but, it did get a bit crowded.








I took a few pictures and a small video toward the end. I was having such a good time hanging out in the sun that I forgot to listen for the 2008 winners. Good thing the organizers didn't forget. Here is what is posted on the TAP NY website.










More beer please :-)

Catskills Picture

On the road to TAP NY...

Great ride with some time for exploration while the weather is still good. TAP NY tomorrow :-)



The Guilded Otter, New Paltz NY







Their sampler pilsner, lager, altbier, pale ale, ipa, irish stout, wit, triple

The triple and the stout stood out. Also tried a Doc's Frambois (raspberry) Cider from Warwick Winery & Distillery. Not bad at all. Very fresh and fruity. Not a very good description, but, it was good.





Behind the bar were the copper tanks. In the center of the room were the stainless.








Way down the road near Hunter NY











Can you tell I'm enamored with the scenery?












Stone drain? tunnel under an old railroad bed.

Manatawny Creek Winery

Stopped by Manatawny Creek Winery to pickup some mead. Met the "assistant wine maker" too ;-) Although I have a feeling that might be a misnomer. Something about his son running the place. And wouldn't you know it there was a beer geek connoisseur behind the counter. Man, they're everywhere ;-) Gotta go. TAP NY awaits.

Cheers!

Charlie Papazian's Blog! Holy Smokes :-)

Here it is...

Beer Examiner - Examiner.com

BTW I'll catch you at http://blog.beercrier.com this weekend during TAP NY.

Cheers!

TAP NY preparations...

Never been to the TAP NY Beer Festival. Thanks to Alan from A Good Beer Blog and my entry into his 2008 poetry contest I'm headed up there this weekend.

The only problem is that I don't know the area. I've been Googling and Wikiing and checking out chambers of commerce and hotel websites 'til my fingers can't type no more. I'm finally feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Weather should be good in Hunter NY for the trip up. Of course it is the mountains so you just never know. Saturday is a little iffy and Sunday well could be better for the ride home.

I plan to meander my way up there via Easton, PA so I can stop at Which Brew and then set the Tom Tom on auto pilot and find the fastest way to Hunter, NY. While there I plan to take in at least a few of the scenic views if at all possible. Yeah, the camera is packed. There's lotsa other stuff on the maybe list. We'll see how the wind blows.

Hell, I don't know what to expect really, but, I'm gonna have a good time no matter what.

Cheers!

Grab bag of updates...

I could probably drag this out over like six posts, but, I'm not into that. Too much like I'm trying too hard to post everyday ;-) So here you go...

Who are you? Poll is closed. Well I found out what I wanted to know. There are lots of bloggers reading this site. Nice to see actual homebrewers reading this hombrew site and many of you love beer. Results from 22 participants answered in the following fasion; bloggers 14 (63%) homebrewers 18 (81%) beer lovers 17 (77%).

Recently did some troubleshooting for Jack Curtin on his RSS feed. Now I REALLY know Word Press. Yeah, exciting huh ;-)

Hops will need a trellis soon. Still need to tear down the old one too. I planted some of them in the shade again by accident. Sheesh, what was I thinking? I'm going to transplant them one more time.

I'm headed to TAP NY this weekend. Anybody know of other stuff to do up there? So far I have some scenic drives and a hotel lined up. Thanks Alan, tickets made it across the border :-)

No beer in the fermenter right now. No plans for brewing either. Huh? This isn't good.

Homebrew Blogging Day is in almost a month and we need a better name.

Also, Bryan cooked up some hops shoots. He'll probably have a post up sometime soon about it. I must say it wasn't too bad. Thanks Bryan. We should be able to do it again with some of the other plants.

That's all for now. Keep your eye on http://blog.beercrier.com over the weekend. If I have a signal, I'll try to post from TAP NY.

Cheers!

Pictures of Spring Hops Growing Progress :-)

< One lone sprout that didn't make the transition during transplant. Guess we'll see how it fairs.

Some sprouts from the newly transplanted plants. >

< Transplanted Chinoook. Bigger than ever!

Untransplanted Cascade. >

< Early spring pic. Good to compare to late summer :-)

What do people and beer have in common?

They both use hops to help keep themselves fresh. Huh? That's right just yesterday I heard one of my kids say, "Improved with hops!". My ears perked up, "What?". She said, "That's what it says here on the deodorant."

It seems Tom's of Maine produces a deodorant that now uses hops. Here is description from their site.

Natural Original Deodorant Stick
Size: 2.25 oz stick
Fragrance: Calendula, Honeysuckle Rose, Unscented, Woodspice

Original Formula
Tom's of Maine created the first natural deodorant in 1976. Since then, we�ve continued to pursue innovative new natural ingredients that deliver improved odor protection. We're excited to introduce our newest natural odor-fighting ingredient hops (Humulus lupulus) which we've added to our original deodorant formula!

• Hops inhibit the growth of odor-causing bacteria.
  The antimicrobial action of hops inhibits the growth of odor-causing bacteria while reducing the possibility of skin irritation.
• Natural fragrance blocks odor.
  Gentle fragrance helps to mask odor.

Huh? We didn't see that when it was on the shelf. Interesting. Hey it smells good too, though not like an IPA ;-) I also found a little more info in their FAQ database. Timely find for me considering Tuesday is Earth Day and they talk about hops as a renewable resource.

So I think this means the same qualities that help keep the bad bacteria away from your beer help keep it in check in the deodorant too, but, I'm no expert.

Cheers!

Image courtesy of Tom's of Maine

What would you name Homebrew Blogging Day?

Go ahead. Let 'er rip! Throw in your two cents. I was thinking something like. Watchout I'm brainstormin'...

• Homebrew Hullabaloo
• Homebrew Hangout (wince)
• Fermentation Friday
• Worts Cooking? or The Starter :: Chipper (Dave) @ Fermentedly Challenged a Colorado Beer Blog
• The Boil :: Al @ Hop-Talk
• The Mash :: Jon @ The Brew Site
• The Hot Break :: David @ Muckney Brewing
• The Mash Out :: Rob @ Pfiff!
• ...

Everybody give it a shot. All your suggestions will be posted here before we try to narrow the field.

Cheers!

NOTE: I'd like to make this a little more interesting with a prize or two. The person suggesting the winning name would get a prize. (Maybe a used corny keg or hops from my back yard or hops rhizomes! What? I'm not selling you? Perhaps I can get a sponsor to contribute something better...ahem...anybody listening ;-)

Homebrew Blogging Day short form... (aka Fermentation Friday)

Here's the abridged version.

Event: Homebrew Blogging Day (Now Fermentation Friday)
Date: Friday May 30th, 2008 (time to get the word out)
May's Theme: I remember when I started homebrewing.
Host: Beer Bits 2
Who's invitited: Any blogger who has homebrewed or helped brew.
Rules: If you feel like it, write a short/long post about how you started homebrewing. If you already have a post use that :-)
How: Write post, send me a link to it via email (beerbits2@gmail.com) or blog comment

I'll compile all the links and a short blurb about each in a summary post.

Cheers!

Homebrew Blogging Day (aka Fermentation Friday)

Fermentation may have been a greater discovery than fire.

- David Rains Wallace

UPDATE! The Round Up has already started over here :-) Check back daily. Final posts will most likely be made over the weekend.

In an effort to foster a community of homebrew bloggers who share their experiences and wisdom I'm proposing a Homebrew Blogging Day. Stan got the ball rolling a little over a year ago for the craft beer bloggers. In fact I've been reading over those initial posts for inspiration. Here's what I came up with...

On the last Friday of every month a different homebrew blog will host the event. Beer Bits 2 will host the first event on Friday, May 30th. The topic will be "I remember when I started homebrewing." Inspired by this months topic of The Session # 15 How did it all start for you?. Simply post about your earliest homebrewing adventures and email me the URL (beerbits2@gmail.com) or post it as a comment. As the host of this first event I'll collect and post a wrap up of all the posts.

• Event Name: TBD, we'll vote on it and perhaps come up with a logo. Update: Fermentation Friday is the new name :-)
• Date: Friday May 30th, 2008
• May's Theme: I remember when I started homebrewing.
• Who's invitited: All bloggers who have ever homebrewed.
• Rules: It doesn't have to be the first time you brewed by yourself, but, you had to at least be present and do something like carry water or drink a beer ;-)

Well, what do you think? Who's in? Email me your topic suggestions. Let me know if you would like to host.

Cheers!

Who are my regular readers?

Running a quick poll to see who you are. This will help with a project I'm working on. Check the sidebar -->>


Cheers!

Vote for me! BrewPoll thingy added over there -->

BrewPoll seems to be rolling along quite nicely. Ever since I first visited the site I thought, "How can I add this to each of my posts automatically?" Well I figured out how to hack/change/modify the blogger template. Now it gets automatically added to each individual post and on each post item on my home page. (the latter was tricky...patting self on back)

I did all that so you could recommend my posts to the readers at BrewPoll. So, go sign up and vote for my posts if you think they're good :-)

Cheers!

Homebrew Clouds

Want to try a new way to search for popular topics? Homebrew Clouds already did the work for you using MakeCloud. Current topics are...

• growing hops
• building your own kegerator
• kegging beer
• brewing beer
• hops charts

Yeah, this is another little experiment of mine. Hey, keeping up with key subjects on my site is time consuming. I do searches or just run across interesting stuff and try to collect them here on Beer Bits 2. Recently, I've been using Homebrew Clouds to speed this up. A good example is the "glenn" tag in the Growing Hops cloud for example. Wow! I could have found this by searching RealBeer.com, but, here it is ready and waiting for me. No typing, less clicks, up to date and in a very concise format.

Cheers!

Mentioned in this week's Joe Sixpack :-)

Bryan at The Brew Lounge called me earlier this week to say that Don Russell, aka Joe Sixpack, wanted to use a picture from our 2007 hop harvest posts (TBL, BB2). Well today Joe Sixpack: Homebrewers take 'DIY' to another level hit the press. Pretty cool. Bryan and I are mentioned as local homebrewers growing our own hops. Hey, I'm not exactly dressed up for the occasion, but, what a great picture of my son and I! Thanks for taking it Bryan. Ok, enough about the picture already!

Don did a great job of explaining hops, rhizomes, the hop shortage and how people are reacting to it by growing their own. How cool is it that? He even used the word bines! We really are lucky to have somebody like Don writing a Joe Sixpack column here in Philly. No, I'm not just saying that 'cause my pictures in the paper :- (maybe a little bit)

Cheers!

Home Brew News is gone...

Bye Home Brew News! Yeah, it was fun, but, ultimately not useful enough. I even got shut down by Blogger SPAMbots for no good reason in the beginning. I'll probably give it another shot using different tools, but, until then http://brewpoll.com/ seems like it has some promise. Check it out.

I do have another idea in the works. Stay tuned.

Cheers!

Beer Bits 2: Some site statistics...

As of my 250th post...

• first post July 31, 2007 (8 months ago)
• Beer Bits 2 today, 50 visits a day on average
• search/organic referrals split 50/50 (Google/individual sites)
• top search keyword; variations of "growing hops" and "kegerators"
• more RSS users than email users
• 76 RSS subscribers on average over the last month
• Google page rank of 4
• traffic growing at a rate of 200 visits a month
• explored a bunch of new projects (Beer Crier, Homebrew Clouds, etc.)
• Adsense is not making me rich...suprise suprise (not my goal anyway)
• I spend too much time with stats :-)

Beer Bits 2 seems healthy.

Cheers!

Homebrew Clouds BETA

An experiment in finding homebrew info faster.

I need a better way to keep up on homebrew topics. This is it. Think up to date and easy to browse. I'll keep the resource pages at Beer Bits 2 up to date, but, I'll use Homebrew Clouds to find new resources.

-Adam

Transplanting Hops

Two years ago I purchased eight rhizomes. Two Cascade were planted by a gate to Bryan's backyard. These went crazy with a small harvest the first year and a huge increase last year. The other six including Willamette, Chinook and Hallertau were planted on a trellis. Unfortunately they didn't fair so well. After the first year I thought that perhaps they just needed time to develop better roots. I also thought about Cascade being better suited for the climate in this area of the world. Well the second year didn't prove to be any better for these. I'm pretty sure the sun was a factor. They didn't get more than a few hours of direct sunlight in the morning and they should get much more than that from what I hear.



My next move was to transplant them which I did tonight. Nothing better than working on a beer project in the fresh spring air :-) Lets hope they do well. I'm curious to see how much this sets them back.

Click here for more Hops Growing Resources :-)

To make some mead.

I've been throwing around the idea for a few years. Some friends expressed interest, I bought a book and there it sits on my shelf. Anybody out there have some advice? I heard it takes many months, but, the process isn't as complicated as making beer.

Off to search for a clue.

Top Google result...

http://www.oldwestbrew.com/basic_meadmaking.htm

Cheers!

I won some tickets to TAP NY! :-)

Alan at A Good Beer Blog just announced the beer poetry winners at his site. Looks like I'm getting some tickets for TAP NY. Thanks Alan for sharing some great prizes. I've been reading about TAP NY a bit. Looking forward to driving through the Catskills.

If you get a chance check out the other entries. I enjoyed reading them. I've included my poem below. It was written while drinking/appreciating some Sierra Nevada ESB (Early Spring Beer).

a pint is too easy
to quaff
the wine glass full up with beer is better
to take in

sip after sip
pull after pull

funky earthy sweet bread fills my nose
sticky lace entrances my eyes
earthy tang sweetly coats my tongue

Cheers!

A Good Beer Blog: What I like most about your site :-)

A Good Beer Blog is one of those sites that has it all goin' on. Great writing, author interaction, active reader community including professional and not so professional beer geek/nerd/critic/fan/dog commentary, good search engine ranking (I'm jealous), beer poetry contests, beer photo contests, oh hell, take me at my word and have a read. Know this, I probably read Alan's blog more than I drink beer. Wrap your head around that one.

Maybe we should be calling his site A Damn Good Beer Blog. Here is the list of post categories from his sidebar to get you started. Just click to read.

• Sour Beer Studies
• Web Resources
• Inputs, Price and Value
• Home Brewing
• Porter Season
• Norway
• Nova Scotia
• Beer History, Lore and Traditions
• Pubs and Tavs
• Big Hop Bombs
• Holland
• Beer and Health
• Belgium
• Beer Reviews
• Winter and Christmas Ales
• Breweriana
• Ingredients and Techniques
• Contests
• Beer Drinker's Bill Of Rights
• Beer and Science
• The Pub Game Project
• Scotland and Scots Styles
• Beer News
• Ontario
• Styles
• Germany and German Styles
• Beer and Food
• Festivals and Gatherings
• The National Toast
• Tripels
• About Oaked Beer
• Stouts
• Beer and Media
• Beer In Music Project
• Brewery Info
• Michigan
• Book Reviews
• About A Good Beer Blog And Its Readers
• Beer Art, Language and Writing
• Barley and Wheat Wine
• Beer and Culture
• Beer and Economics
• National Six-Pack
• Thinking About Beer
• ReadMe Reviews
• Beer Stores and Beer Shopping
• Beer and Law
• Regional Scenes
• Browse the archives by date »

(BTW I'm not saying all these nice things 'cause I want to win the poetry contest either. Alan you have my email ;-) jk...of course..really)

Cheers!

What do you do when you're yeast won't talk to you?

Thank your lucky stars, 'cause if they are talking, you're in trouble! Unless its a good conversation about how Freud would interpret your dreams. In that case its perfectly fine ;-)

Seriously, if you're yeast is behaving in strange ways, what do you do? Recently I was talking with Bryan over at TBL about a saison he's brewing. The fermentation slowed down to a crawl after about 36 hours and it isn't anywhere near the target final gravity. What should he do? This isn't as easy as you might think. I mean every yeast strain/blend has its own characteristics;

• Attenuation
  
• Flocculation
• Optimum Fermentation Temperature
  
• Alcohol Tolerance
  

Then there's the environmental variables of your setup which affect the yeast.

• temperature throughout the fermentation
  
• pitching rate
• original gravity
• fermentables present
• etc.
  

I'm going to put together another resource page on this (look here), but, for now check out White Labs' site (no affiliation) for tips on what to expect from their yeast strains/blends. So what should Bryan do? Well my initial reaction was to pitch another vial/slant of yeast, but, then I checked the White Labs site and changed my mind. I mean, what do I know? I've never brewed with this yeast. I was kinda thinking that all yeasts are the same. Well they aren't and I kinda knew that, but, I still opened my big mouth. Hey, maybe you can figure out what to do if your saison fermentation seems to stop before reaching its target gravity. I'm sure Bryan will post his results at some point so we can all find out how it went.

Cheers!

Quick Ref: Beer Brewing Yeast Resources

The following is a list of links to resources about yeast used for brewing beer and perhaps other things. I'll continually add to this list as I find more resources. If you know of others please post a comment here with a link. If you are interested to see what other resource pages I have created click on the "resource posts" label link at the bottom of this post.

White Labs : FAQs, reviews, yeast library, etc.
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html

Beer Dorks: Tips about Reusing Yeast
http://beerdorks.com/articles.php?article_id=78

A post about home brew blogging burnout...(April Fools ;-)

During my recent survey of "links I'm checking out" I was thinking about Grove's recent hiatus. Couple that with a completely computerless weekend with my son camping and I came to the following conclusion...

After several years of blogging on this site and the other, I've realized something. I'm getting burned out. I think this is why I left TBL, but, I just didn't know it at the time. There's only so much home brew related blogging one can do. Not to mention that lately I'm finding more and more blogs popping up all over the place. How many do we really need? Heck we even have a new brewpoll to help us get the most popular home brew blog articles.


So this is the last Beer Bits 2 post. I'll still be around heckling you from afar when I'm not enjoying the Spring weather, and since this site doesn't cost me anything I'll leave it up for your reference.


So long and thanks for all the fish.