All summer long, I’ve beaten myself up about not planting hops. I had previously posted a quick primer on hops vines that got me to thinking about planting some in the garden. And I didn’t. I had already planted three clematis vines, only one of which has taken off, leaving my garden with an ugly bare spot. Serves me right, I guess.
Next year? There will be hops.
Hops are pretty vigorous growers and not particularly picky. Today, on twitter, the enjoyable Jeff Louella posted that he had photos of his hops garden on his blog. …read more

As a beer lover, I’ve often considered brewing my own beer. The possibilities seem endless – brown ales, pale ales, stouts, fancy Belgian-style beers – all for a little effort and at a significantly lower cost than the same number of cases of beer. That, and I’d truly understand and know my beers.
Then I looked a little closer, at a whole lot of cleaning, lugging pots and bottles around, more cleaning, stirring and mixing, more cleaning, some sterilizing for good measure. You get the idea. It was the thought of sterilizing a whole bunch of bottles that finally persuaded …read more