Photo from Bob Stempski

Bob Stempski was looking for a way to enhance his failed homebrew.  What if the hop utilization wasn’t great?  What if he wanted variations of a  base recipe?  What if he was just sick of mixing plain old vodka with his beer (and aren’t we all)?

Actually, I have no idea what Bob Stempski was thinking when he decided to make hop-infused vodka, but it was actually pretty smart.  He’s posted the entire recipe online, complete with great photos.

Hop Vodka Recipe

1.5 oz bag of pellet hops (bittering are best)
2 cups cheap vodka
2 cups water

1 French press
1 Bottle for storage
1 Measuring cup

1. Mix the pellet hops with the vodka in the french press.  Let sit for 15-20 minutes.  Don’t press the french press yet.
2. After the hops have steeped, plunge the french press to extract the oils.  Pour the vodka and hop mixture into a bottle.
3. Lift the plunger and fill the french press with water.  Stir the hops and water, wait 15-20 minutes, plunge again, and pour water into bottle.
4. Save the hops by placing them in a bag and freezing them.  You can re-use them as part of a future brew, but they will be much less efficient.
5. Refrigerate the hop/vodka/water mixture for 5-7 days without disturbing it, allowing the mixture to separate.
6. Gently — very gently, without jostling the bottle — put the bottle in the freezer.  Freeze the mixture for 24-48 hours.
7. After the mixture is frozen, turn the bottle upside down on top of another container.  The hop-infused vodka won’t freeze, so take the first 40% of the bottle and use it as hop vodka.
8. Take the hop infused water and toss it, or throw it in a batch of homebrew at some point in the process.

The weather is warming and gardening season is just weeks away.  If you’re homebrewing and enjoy gardening (or even if you don’t, hops are fairly resilient plants), consider spending $10-15 on a few hop rhizomes.  Distributors will begin shipping rhizomes within the next two or three weeks, and you can store them until it’s time to get them planted.

Many hop varieties will grow just about anywhere, provided they get at least 6-7 hours of sunlight each day.  And the best part is that if you buy them now, they’ll keep coming back each year, stronger than before.  In all, a single rhizome will get you  few batches of homebrew in the first year and even more each year after that.

Two books, The Complete Guide to Growing Your Own Hops, Malts, and Brewing Herbs: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply and the classic The Homebrewer’s Garden: How to Easily Grow, Prepare, and Use Your Own Hops, Malts, Brewing Herbs, can help get you into more advanced.

But for an average of $5 per rhizome, why not put it in the ground and see what happens?

From flickr user multiple trees

To Make Small Beer

Take a large Siffer [Sifter] full of Bran Hops to your Taste. Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 Gall[ons] into a cooler put in 3 Gall[ons] Molasses while the Beer is Scalding hot or rather draw the Melasses (sic) into the cooler & St[r]ain the Beer on it while boiling Hot. let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm then put in a quart of Yea[s]t if the Weather is very Cold cover it over with a Blank[et] & let it Work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask—leave the bung open till it is almost don[e] Working—Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed.

8 lbs pale malt
4 lbs wheat
1 lb molasses

1 1/2 oz east kent goldings 60 min
1/2 oz east kent goldings 10 minutes
american ale yeast

From flickr user Raymond Barlow

Word is that your favorite hoppy beers could be in for some recipe changes if their brewers didn’t plan ahead and contract for the right amount of hops this year.  Rogue points to some news from Beer Business Daily warning that a 30% drop in the American hop harvest could have a negative impact.

The explosive popularity of hoppy beer has become bittersweet as the total American harvest was off 30% for the year, according to December’s USDA hop harvest report. Especially screwed now are those brewers relying on smaller-yield, aroma-centric American hops to make mainstream-barreling IPAs, since Simcoe, Citra and Amarillo are largely (if not totally) sold for the year.

IT SHOULDN’T BE A SURPRISE.  Unlike 2007’s sneak-attack, this scarcity was established back in June, according to the BA’s Chris Swersey.  That’s when members learned that both acreage and years were significantly down. It’s just now coming to a head, however, as brewers wonder if they’ll have enough of specific varieties.

They point out that Sierra Nevada is already looking toward whole-leaf hops to help fill the gap from a potential pellet shortage.  I’m also curious as to what this means for the average homebrewer looking for something like Simcoe hops at their local hombrew shop — probably nothing too terrible, but it’s possible we could see small price increases for the average 5-gallon batch of Joe Homebrewer’s IPA.

I stopped a my local liquor store on the way home last night to pick up a six pack of whatever I could find.  As it turns out, I walked out with one of the, if not the, best beer I’ve ever had: Tröegs Nugget Nectar Ale.

I’ve had Nugget Nectar before.  I’ve been to the Tröegs brewery five or six times, I’ve been to the Tröegs-sponsored Harrisburg Brewers Fest the past few years,  and I’m familiar with the entire Tröegs beer lineup.  But somehow, I re-discovered Nugget Nectar and it absolutely blew my mind.

I’m not one for beer reviews because I think they’re usually useless.  I like one thing, you like another, so what does me writing about a beer do for either of us?  But I need to write about this beer — it’s that good.  Nugget Nectar is almost addicting.  You take your first drink and instantly want another.  It’s hard not to just keep drinking, taking small breaks for air.  In some ways, that’s what I did: I bought a six pack 24 hours ago, and after forcing myself to stop at four consecutive last night, I just finished number six. And now I’m sitting here, writing about it, considering walking the two blocks in 35 degree weather for another one.

Tröegs says this about their beer:

Squeeze those hops for all they’re worth and prepare to pucker up: Nugget Nectar Ale, will take hopheads to nirvana with a heady collection of Nugget, Warrior and Tomahawk hops. Starting with the same base ingredients of our flagship HopBack Amber Ale, Nugget Nectar intensifies the malt and hop flavors to create an explosive hop experience.

And here’s the thing: I actually disagree with them.  “Prepare to pucker up?”  With most hoppy beers, yes.  But not this one.  Somehow, Tröegs has created a 95 IBU beer that isn’t bitter at all.  The hops don’t come off in that way — they come off as earthy, oily, and amazing.  I’m not fan of hops — I’m more of a malt guy, someone who appreciates the finer points of roasting and blending grain — but this beer makes me want even more.

I poured it into a pint glass, as suggested, and it smells like a pile of hops.  But there is absolutely no bitterness there, at least as I see it.  This is a perfectly balanced beer: one that is intentionally hopped further than most other beers care to go, but one that is backed by a maltly blend that gives it the amber color you want your beer to have.  When you drink it, it’s not sharp, but smooth, hitting you in the back of your mouth and lingering until you pick up the glass again.  Tröegs mentions pairing it with “Cheese (Sharp, Blue, and Cheddar)” or “Meat (Beef and Poultry),” but please don’t.  You’re just going to cover up that wonderful lingering flavor with whatever sub-par food you’re eating.

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