Hop Experiment: Three Weeks

It's about three weeks since I planted my rhizomes.  The last rhizome to sprout was this Cascade, which seems to be moving along very slowly for some reason.  I'm glad I bought a second Cascade because this one is lagging compared to the other plants.  The sprouts also look strange compared to the sprouts from the other plants.

In comparison to that disappointing Cascade,  this one seems to be moving along nicely, although slower than the Nugget plants.  It's approximately 13 inches right now.

The Nugget plants continue to be the most impressive, with the longest bine (below) at approximately 25 inches.

You may also be able to see that I've rearranged the Christmas lights.  I have them hanging from my stakes so that the string runs vertically behind each bine.  I've also moved the grow bulbs (of which I have two in aluminum light fixtures) up the stakes so that they're above the top of the Nugget plants.  

Hop Experiment: Two Weeks

It's been about two weeks since I put my rhizomes in the ground and they've finally all put up shoots.  This Cascade was the last to put something up.

 The Nuggets (below) are way ahead of the Cascades.  The bines on the Nuggets were getting long enough to bend to the side, but weren't long enough to reach the twine I had secured to my containers.  I ended up tying an extra lengths of twine to the pieces I had already strung up.  Then I wrapped the bines around those extra pieces of twine.

 This (below) was the first of my two Cascades to put up shoots and it's already way ahead of the second Cascade.  I'm a little concerned that it's looking wispy compared to the Nuggets.

At this point, I have each of my four rhizomes in it's own five gallon bucket with commercial potting soil.  I'm using an adjustable trellis system similar to the one described in this BYO article (http://www.byo.com/component/resource/article/1926-growing-hops-in-containers), except that I'm limited to a 6.5 ft stake.  I would have preferred to use a larger stake, but that was about as tall as I could make them while still being able to move the plants.  

Cascade Sprouts

I noticed some sprouts finally coming out of one of my Cascades today.  The Nugget rhizomes have both already have about six inches of growth with nice shapely leaves.  I was concerned about the amount of light coming off of the two LED grow bulbs I initially set up to supplement my daylight, so I've added a string of 60 white LED Christmas lights I had.

More Nugget Shoots

The second Nugget put up a shoot today, but still nothing from the Cascades. The first nugget has also put up some new shoots. Now that I have some shoots, I've put a few lights on a timer to come on in the morning before sunrise and again after sunset to try and mimic fourteen hours of light. I had been thinking about supplementing my short tropic days with artificial light and decided to try it after reading a blog about growing hops in South Africa here http://www.heydenrych.info/hop_growing.html.

First Sprout

Right after my last post, I put two Nugget rhizomes and two Cascade rhizomes into the dirt. Today, just three days later, the first sprout poked out of the dirt from one of the Nugget rhizomes.

Hop Experiment

My rhizomes have arrived! Soon I'll start my experiment: growing hops in the tropics with artificial lighting to supplement the day length.

My Cheap Fermentation Temperature Control

I built this fermentation temperature control system to be cheap and not take up too much space in my condo. On my first few brews I only used a tub of water and some frozen water bottles, but that ended up being inadequate as ambient temperatures where I live are often above 80 degrees F.

This set up utilized a 20 ft piece of 3/8 in. outer diameter copper tubing that cost around $13 at the hardware store, an old sleeping bag, a plastic storage container that I already had, an old 2 gallon cooler, a fountain pump I got from Amazon for $12, two pieces of 3/8 in. inner diameter vinyl tubing, some teflon tape, and a two hose clamps. To control the system, I used a Lux Win 100 thermostat that I modified by splicing several feet of wire to extend the reach of the temperature probe. I've been using a 6 gallon better bottle as my fermenter and it's been working great with this system.

To modify the termostat, I cut the short external wire attached to the temperature probe. That left just enough wire coming from the probe and the thermostat for me to solder in a few feet of 18 gauge wire.

To actually remove heat from my fermentor, I arranged the copper tubing into a coil that fits tightly around my better bottle and attached a length of vinyl tubing to each end with hose clamps. I pump cold water into the top of the tube with the fountain pump. I couldn't find an adapter at my hardware store to fit my 3/8 inch tubing to my fountain pump, so I wrapped a bunch of teflon tape around the tip of the tube I attached to the pump until I had a nice tight fit.

To keep the water that I pump through the copper coil cold, I keep the pump in the 2 gallon cooler and change the ice two or three times per day.

I set the carboy into the plastic storage tub and stuff the sleeping bag around the Better Bottle. The picture below shows the better bottle wrapped up in the sleeping bag on the left. The cooler with the pump and frozen ice bottles is on the right. I tape the temperature probe to the Better Bottle and tape a piece of cardboard over the probe. The power cable from the pump gets hooked up to the thermostat and switches on the pump to keep my beer at the correct temperature.

The picture below shows the copper tubing wrapped around the Better Bottle beneath the sleeping bag, as the cooling system keeps my ale fermenting at 60 degrees F.

So far, the coldest I've been able to keep a fermentation with this system was 60 Degrees F. That was a five gallon batch of 1.075 gravity ale that I fermented with Pacman yeast. I'm sure a digital temperature control would be better than the thermostat, but this system currently keeps the beer at my selected temperature, or one degree F below (at least according to the display on the thermostat). This system is also great because it doesn't take up much space in my condo when it's not in use.

I'm thinking about upgrading this system by replacing the cooler of ice and water with a container of water in the small refrigerator I currently use to hold my beer. I would modify the refrigerator to accommodate the vinyl tubing and power cable from the pump. I'm thinking of possibly putting a slit in the magnetic stripping on the door to accomodate the tubing and power cable.

My Cheap Homebrew Mash Tun

I built this mash tun after reading about Denny Conn's mash tun at http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/. I wanted to build something similarly cheap and simple, but wanted to utilize a spigot that could be secured with a nut.

I've only used it once so far and got approximately 72% efficiency. Not extremely efficient, but it was relatively cheap and compatible with the countertop brewing space in my condo. I utilized a 5 gallon Igloo cooler that I already had around the house, a piece of teflon tape of which I already had a roll, a 6 in. piece of 3/8 in. outer diameter copper tubing that I bought from the hardware store for $2 (they would only sell me a foot), the stainless steel braid from a toilet hose that cost around $7 from the hardware store, and a water dispense faucet that I got off Amazon for about $10.

After removing the braid from the toilet hose, I twisted and crimped one end shut with some pliers. The other end I pushed through the copper tube and folded back over the copper tube, securing it to the tube with the teflon tape. The frayed end of the hose is prickly and easily stabs fingers.

The taped end of the copper tube fits nicely into the back side of the faucet and fits just

right so that grain bits don't make it out of the spigot. I think that I may have been able to use aslightly larger piece of tubing into the faucet, but was nervous that a larger size wouldn't work with the thickness of the stainless steel braid folded over the end of the tube. The picture to the left shows the faucet assembled in the cooler and the copper tube assembly inserted.

I was concerned about the grain bed pinching the stainless steel braid closed and pushing against the end of the copper tubing, possibly reducing the flow of wort out of the mash tun. So I placed a stainless steel vegetable steamer that I already had on top of everything (see the picture below.) I'm sure some grain made its way below the steamer, but the wort flowed smoothly and I didn't have any problems draining the mash tun.

One brew in, this cheap and simple design has been great for my 3.5 gallon condo brew system. I'll eventually put this mash tun to the test