HelpfulGardener.com

I would love to do this
Yeast
Hops
Wheat
H2o
Has anyone done this?

When I was a child in the northernmost county in Idaho, it was determined that this particular county had an evironment that mirrored the greatest hops-growing regions of Germany. Boundary County began its great hops experiment, purchasing or leasing a large piece of land and planting hops.

Kids weres hired to walk the fields during the vining period and teach the young plants to climb the poles. I was thirteen or fourteen that year. It was much like encouraging pole beans to climb. The plants were already starting to vine, so we just straightened them up and wound them around the pole.

Recently I spoke to someone who still lives there. He said the experiment was a success and that hops are now a local industry of sorts. If no one here has grown them, you might try contacting Boundary County's extension service and asking for advice.

I have 3 varieties of hops, more than a few wheat and barley varieties. the last homebrew we made was oatmeal chocolate stout. still have yet to make a beer with 100% my own materials though.

Nice sounds like fun.

stella1751 wrote:When I was a child in the northernmost county in Idaho, it was determined that this particular county had an evironment that mirrored the greatest hops-growing regions of Germany. Boundary County began its great hops experiment, purchasing or leasing a large piece of land and planting hops.

Kids weres hired to walk the fields during the vining period and teach the young plants to climb the poles. I was thirteen or fourteen that year. . . .

So, Stella. That was you out there when I drove by!

There are barley varieties that are especially suited for malting. I understand that most of the malting barley is from the far end of Idaho from those hop vines Stella cared for. Of course, there is plenty of malting barley also grown in the Dakotas and Canada.

The idea of growing products suitable for wine-making occurred to me a number of years ago. I joined an online group called WildWines and explored the idea. It didn't really bare fruit, however.

Some gardeners' idea of a peapod wine left me feeling a little green. My carrot wine didn't amount to much and the only reason the winter squash wine was fairly tasty was because of the addition of rice and raisins. It seemed that it would be better for me to just grow grapes but, I've never gotten a round tuit.

Steve

Steve, when we lived up in your country, my mother made the foulest elderberry wine ever. I know it was foul because she would insist my father taste it. He would wait until her back was turned and tip it out into whatever vessel suited him. Then he would tell her it was great, but he couldn't have a second glass because of this and that and the other

I remember she fermented it in the same huge crock she used for her saeurkraut. Something was always smelling to high heaven in our basement.

Why is this in Seed Starting?

I think it would be a good project to grow some of the ingredients, but we find it really easy to go to our favorite brewing supply house.

10 gallon batch system
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Double%20Dog%20Farm%20%20%20Metal%20and%20Wood%20Art/BarleyPopGuild003.jpg[/img]

Eric, 1/3 of the Barley Pop Guild.