Daily Archives: August 31, 2010

Imperial Walker IPA

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I’ve had my Imperial Walker IPA on tap now for about 6 weeks … and I’m underwhelmed to say the least.  Don’t get me wrong … this is a good beer … it’s just not great.  I used both my homegrown hops AND the hops I brought back from my visit to Belgium.  I think I picked my homegrown hops to early last year and they just didn’t have the alpha acid to give them the kick I wanted.

This is a balanced (high octane) beer … it just doesn’t have the hops kick I was expecting.  It is actually over 9% ABV … so it is an Imperial … it needed more kick from the hops.  Here are some pictures of the transfer from secondary fermentation to kegging.  Notice the picture that shows the final gravity … yes… I had an excellent mash efficiency (78.2%) and a great attenuation (82.2%) … OG was 1.082 and FG was 1.013.  Wow.

Oh … and check out the “spent hops” picture … I did dry hop this beer … and, although (as I stated earlier) it didn’t come out quite how I wanted it to, the spent hops still looked great!  Great effect … just not great results!  Oh well … it is still a very nice beer when I come home from work!  Next brew: A Wit Bier!

Enjoy,

Beer Mentor

Hops, Hops, James Clark Hops!

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Yep.  I’m growing hops again this year.  As you may, or may not, know … I was out of the country until the early part of May.  My lovely bride took care of my hop vines for me and she got them off to a great start–they are now in full bloom and I’ll have to decide soon when is the appropriate time to pick them.  I have three varieties I’m growing: Chinook, Cascade, and Nugget.

The Chinook:  My Chinook vine took a hit this year — it was awesome early — had already grown to my roof and was spilling over at the top.  Then my air conditioner went out and the repairmen totally destroyed my vine.  I mean they completely pulled it out at the ground level.  I gotta tell you — hops are resilient!  Take a look at the pictures of my Chinook now … completely regrown and producing flowers (and this was in July).  Wow.  Oh, you can also see my new A/C unit in these pics.

The Cascade:  Last year I trimmed and tried to follow the advice about keeping the vines “spruced up” thinking that would produce more hop flowers.  NOT!  I only got about an ounce of Cascade hops out of my vine.  This year I just let the vine go.  It could grow wherever it wanted to go … and it did!  Talk about produce flowers!  Check out these pictures of how it has grown and started producing. We’ll see if I get more than one ounce this year!

The Nugget:  Lastly, I have the Nugget hops.  I did the same thing with these as I did with the Cascade … I just let them go.  They are growing hop flowers all over the place.  We’ll see if I get more than one ounce out of them this year too.  See the pictures:

This is kind of funny, really.  I’m just renting this house — it will be interesting to see what the next renters/owners think of these vines!  They are now very well established — they will be hard to get rid of … LOL!

Enjoy,

Beer Mentor

Galaxy Hut! Great beer in a small venue …

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So I subscribe to this “tweet” called “Beerspotter” here in DC.  They tell you all kinds of different things … but they recently had an entry about tapping a Firkin at a place called Galaxy Hut.  I just happened to be in the neighborhood (Clarendon) one evening and stopped in for a couple …

They had a nice selection of beer … and one cask-conditioned ale: the Blue Mountain Full Nelson Pale Ale … yep … this beer was a drinker … excellent Pale Ale.  I want to visit their brewery (soon) because they have a hop yard … see my next post (I’ll have some hop pictures of my own!)

If you are in Clarendon (Arlington, VA) this place is definitely worth a visit.  They are a very low key, subtle pub.  Great selection of beer … the food is good too.  For a nice quite, excellent beer hangout … give it a shot!

Enjoy,

Beer Mentor