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| Labor Day, the schedule!- We will be closed on Sunday September 5th and Monday September 6th. The weather couldn't be any better for our hop harvest. We are picking and drying everyday. Don't wait too long if you want some, they have been flying out of here. Hope everyone is enjoyed this great weather and drinking lots of homebrew! Picking has begun!- August 23- The rainy weather has slowed us down a bit, but on Saturday the first hops were picked. Willamettte is being bagged today and the rest of the hops will be on the way in the days/weeks to come. They look beautiful. It's been a very cool place to hang out, standing under the hops with a homebrew on a warm summer night. But now it's time to pick.... Rhizomes are done- June 5- Lots more hops getting planted in the Green Mountain State this spring. Good luck to all the brewer/farmers out there. We've had snow, heat, too dry and smoke already this season. Hop farming isn't boring... Rhizomes & Memorial Day Weekend May 23: Time is running out to get your rhizomes this year. We still have a good supply but are going to running out soon. Remember, if you don't plant now, you won't have any homegrown hops for 3-4 years! Also, we will be closed next Sunday & Monday for Memorial Day weekend. It had better not snow................... More Rhizomes are here-April 15th Another shipment has arrived and is being unpacked as I write. In addition to more Cascade & Goldings,  we have added: Sterling Magnum Brewer's Gold Rhizomes are here-March 27-  We have just received our first shipment. We have: Cascade Columbus Centennial Chinook
Fuggles
Glacier Goldings Hallertau
Horizon Nugget Tettnang Willamette
They are $4.99 each, with a 10% discount on quantities of 5 or more. If it's too soon to plant them, we had good results from potting them up in one gallon containers. That seemed to be a better place to keep them than in a baggie in the refrigerator. It's spring, must be time to think about rhizomes: We have ordered our rhizomes and are waiting for delivery. I will update the website as soon as we get them. Should have lots of varieties and plenty for everyone. It's snowing as I write this. If you can't plant them right away, consider potting them up. Happy Holidays 2009 edition: Just a quick note to all our brewers, cidermakers, winemakers, meadmakers and soda makers: Thank you so much for a great 2009! This has been a very busy year for us and we owe it all to you. You may have noticed that, other than the yellow pages, we don't do any advertising. We have been lucky to have all of you spreading the good word and tasty homebrews you make, to introduce potential brewers to our hobbey. The brews you shared with us this year really covered the whole range of beers. Good stuff, thanks for sharing! So, we'll see you after the holidays as you get ready to brew in 2010. Anne & Matt P.S. If Santa brings you a gift certificate this year, please let us see it before we ring you up. We already called it income once, and if we ring it up again, then we get to pay taxes twice. Thanks for helping us avoid that. The Cider Crush: It's history. Hope that there will be many noisy airlocks in the week ahead. Here's the breakdown of the crush (thanks Josh): Northern Spy: 7 (bushels/pressing) Roxbury Russet: 6 Ida Red: 6 Tolman Sweet 4 Liberty 3 Macintosh 3 Jonagold 2 Honeycrisp 2 Empire 2 Greening/crab 1/2 1.050 @ 67° Cider crush-September 26 Our crush with Chapin Orchard is set for October 24th. The sign up sheet is on the counter. Not sure of the price per gallon yet. Same as before, sign up here for how many gallons you'd like. If you are planning on using a liquid yeast, please let us know in time to order it. There is a place on the sign up sheet to do that. We will probably have some extra cider yeasts but they can run out fast on Cider Saturday. Other wine yeasts make a tasty cider too. If you can't decide what to do with your cider, please check out the cidermaking link on the left. Once you decide what you want to make, then take a hydrometer reading, the cider recipe almost writes itself. As always, we're always happy to offer a hand with advice or recommendations. Hop update-September 26- Vermont grown hops: We have Brewer's Gold, Willamette, Sterling(a Czech Saaz clone, higher alpha), Santiam (the world's first naturally seedless Tettnang hop, also a higher alpha), and Chinook, Horizon, Nugget. Organic, locally grown hops! For sale now! August 28- We have been picking and drying hops all week. Finally, there are hops in the store for you to see. We have Brewer's Gold, Willamette, Sterling(a Czech Saaz clone, higher alpha), Santiam (the world's first naturally seedless Tettnang hop, also a higher alpha), and Chinook, Horizon, Nugget. We did them in 2 ounce bags. Quantities are very limited. This year, because quantities are so low, we aren't going to send them out to be tested for alpha acid. Since we know the range of low-high AAU for them, we are using that on the package. Some other hops are getting picked and dryed this weekend. I'll add them to the list when we have them in the store.  Hops are here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.... August 21-We have harvested & dried the first of our organic hops! Starting today we have 2 ounce bags of Willamette here at Vermont Homebrew. We'll have more varieties soon. These hops represent a two year investment of hard work, energy & patience. A big shout out to our son, Terry and his buddy Al, who have done the hard work of maintaining and caring for the hops all summer long. Hops on the way.... July 25- Here's a shot from the hop yard a couple of weeks ago. We're seeing the little cones starting to form. Hopefully they don't need much sun to grow. Vacation hours.... June 29- We will be closed on the Fourth of July weekend: Saturday, Sunday & Monday. We hope you have a great weekend and that you have plenty of homebrew to share with family & friends. Rhizome season is over.... June 24- We are now out of hops plants and rhizomes. Thank you to everyone who has purchased them and the experienced growers who have shared tips and advice. The hops we planted last year at home are up to the top of the line. Plenty of natural rain this spring, now we'll see what they can do with some summer weather. You go girls! I'll post a picture soon. It's time to plant your hops.... April 28- Our 2nd year hops are coming up. We (and by that I mean Matt) are starting to get the strings in place for the hops to climb on. The tallest bine is a Brewer's Gold that is easily a foot long. The rest are just poking through and maybe a couple of inches tall. We still have a good selection of rhizomes at the store but we will be selling out of more varieties in the coming week. Rhizomes are here! April 2- Our first order of rhizomes came in this morning. Cascade Chinook Goldings Magnum
Sterling
Tettnang Horizon Glacier Centennial Fuggles
Willamette Nugget Hallertau Roots are $4.99 each, first come first served. It's Cider Saturday! October 25- Picked up my cider yesterday. The starting gravity looks to be 1.050. Here's the breakdown, provided by Jim at Chapin Orchard: | Apple Variety | Bushels/pressing | | MacIntosh | 13 | | Roxbury Russet | 9 | | Ida Red | 6 | | Northern Spy | 2 | | Tolman Sweet | 1-1/2 | | Wealthy | 1 | | Harelson | 1 | | Cider Crab | 1 | | Total | 34-1/2 |
My Brush with Fame September 27- I can't tell you how surprised I was to see my face on the front page of the Burlington Free Press on Saturday morning. A reporter and photographer came over while I was brewing a golden Harvest ale. The reporter was interested in how I started homebrewing and how I started entering homebrew competitions. I hope this gets some more women interested in homebrewing, but really, it's a hobby for anyone that appreciates fine beer, wine & ciders. The Cider Crush of 2008 September 19- It's been hard to ignore the signs of fall here in the Green Mountains this week. Therefore it is time to plan for our annual cider crush. As in years past, we have partnered with Chapin Orchard for a special cider-maker's crush. Chapin has some outstanding antique cider apples that make a great hard cider. The date is October 25. You need to sign up here at the store for the number of gallons you want. The orchard will have a copy of this and this helps to guarantee that everyone gets some. The price isn't set yet but will probably be the same as last year. Please sign up when you are in the store next time or you can call to reserve your cider. And as always, if you are interested in a liquid yeast, please let us know when you sign up. We will have some liquid cider yeast but it goes out first come, first served. If you want one set aside for you, then you need to let us know. I'll do my best to get some information up here about cidermaking. (done, please check out the Cidermaking link on the left)  September- We harvested our first hops this month. Not much, but enough for bittering a golden American pale ale. Looking forward to next year and more lovely homegrown hops. Hope you harvested some too. We'll have rhizomes again next spring. Plan now and have your site ready to plant next spring. Vacation time! June 14- If we didn't leave once and awhile, then we'd never know how much we miss you....so we're going away for a bit. We will be closed the following days: Sunday June 22 Sunday June 29 Monday June 30 Friday July 4 Saturday July 5 Maybe on Sunday July 6: call 802-655-2070, if no answer between 11-3, then we're closed While we're gone, the store will be in some very good hands. Terry, D.J., Malcolm and Niels are all our friends and good brewers. They are doing us an extreme favor by offering be here. Please, be understanding if they need a little more time to find things. Our systems sometimes defy logic. Rhizomes are out! June 12-We just sold the last of the rhizomes. We've planted some as well and they are coming up nicely. Green Mountain Homebrew Competition: April 10: Deadline for entries is Friday....check out the website mashers.org for entry forms and bottle labels. Rhizomes are in! March 28-We just received our shipments of hop roots yesterday. They are sorted and ready to go to a good home. $4.99 each. Varieties include: Cascade, Fuggles, Hallertau, Sterling, Magnum, Brewer's Gold, Glacier, Horizon, Nugget, Tettnang, Chinook, Goldings, Liberty & Santiam. First come, first served. We ordered more rhizomes this year. Hopefully the weather co-operates and the snow stops sometime soon. But they will keep in the refridgerator till planting time and you can even start them in a pot if you have to. It's Maple Beer time... March 13-Days are getting longer (not necessarily warmer yet) so it's time to start thinking about brewing with maple. Lots of beer styles are easily turned into maple beers. Usually maltier styles like Octoberfest , Bock & Munich Dunkles are good choicing if you are lagering. Scottish ales, English Browns and American Amber ales can be good choices too. If you want to use sap instead of water you'll just bump up the starting gravity a bit. It's not going to add maple flavor/aroma to your beer. I've wanted to try some of the sap after it comes out of the reverse osmosis process but I haven't had the opportunity yet.It's a more concentrated product, but not syryp. Adding syryp to the recipe gets you a more mapley beer. Remember, it's fully fermentable so it's like using 1-1/3 pounds of malt extract. Replace some of your malt with syryp to keep the same starting gravity, or just add some to make your brew stronger. Since syryp is fully fermentable it will thin the body of your beer. You can add more crystal malt to the grain bill to compensate for that. When you bottle you can also use maple syryp. Happy New Year! Many, many thanks to our brewers, winemakers, cider, mead & soda makers for a great year in 2007. We had our busiest year ever. But that pales in comparison to what happens at Vermont Homebrew everyday. Matt & I get to have fun, meet some of the nicest people around and talk about beer all day long. It wouldn't be the same without all of you so, really, thanks to you all. We are looking forward to a challenging year ahead. Homebrewers will need to be creative and willing to try new things (talking about hops here), but we'll still make some of the best homebrew in the world, right here in Vermont. Holiday Ale 2007 Our holiday ale is here....but I'm giving it away fast! It's a rarely brewed English ale: a strong dark mild. Not strong in the American way, but a session ale: dark color, rich malt flavor, low alcohol and lightly hopped. You can drink more than one and still make sense. Un-hoppy News about Hops Maybe you've already heard the news...the hop crisis is real and it's here... November 2--Winooski
Hops have been in the news lately and if you are unaware of the situation or haven't brewed in the last month you might want to read on.
The brewing industry, from the mega-breweries, micro-breweries, brewpubs and all the way to homebrewers, is experiencing a shortage of hops this brewing season. For a variety of reasons, from shortages, crop failures, farmers growing bio-fuel crops and increased demand for craft brewed beers, brewers are finding hops more expensive than ever before. That is if you can find them at all.
We are working very hard to make sure we have enough hops for you. Prices are higher but that's better than no hops at all. Here are some ideas to help us through this: Bring in your bulk malt bucket. You'll save $2.79 which is almost an ounce of pellets Try brewing a pale ale instead of an IPA. Discover "session ales", low alcohol/lightly hopped brews. English Browns & Milds, Scottish ales, Brown Porters, Cream ales, Munich Dunkes & Helles, Irish pub style Stouts are all going to be much less expensive to brew than IPA's. Please don't ask us to sell you just hops. We can't. The hops in the store are for the brewers buying malt & yeast, in other words, brewers getting a recipe. We are trying to make sure there will be enough for all of us, so please try to understand. Gruit ales, anyone?
We're homebrewers and we can adapt. Homebrewed beer will still be a bargain compared to premium micro-brewed beer. All beer prices will be going up, if not this week then very soon. I can't see myself buying Spud no matter what....I'll just brew differently. You can too. | |
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