Winter Thoughts Turn to Gardening and Brewing
by Jim Vondracek on 01/08/11
In January, as the temperatures seldom rise above 30 and snow is on the ground, its great fun to think ahead to spring and the joys of gardening. I've been reading a delightful book called The Homebrewer's Garden and its given me some great ideas!
Beer is brewed from grains (like barley and wheat), hops, yeast and water. You can also add other adjuncts or ingredients, like fruits (I made a cherry stout once that was very good) or spices (I'm currently working on an ale with juniper berries in it.) From this book, I'm becoming inspired to try growing my own hops and adjuncts.
I brew using organic ingredients when possible, so growing my own is appealing - buying organic ingredients, especially hops, can be very expensive and the range of available organic ingredients can be meager..
Hops are a central, critical element in brewing. They give beer both bitterness, to balance the malt's sweetness, and aroma. Hop bines grow very tall and require quite a bit of work to grow, care for, and harvest, all of which gives me pause. But it would be really interesting to be able to brew a beer made with homegrown hops.
I'm thinking of growing two varieties of hops: Cascades and Willamette, an american hop developed from the English Fuggle hop. From the book, it appears that both grow well in our climate zone here in Illinois.
In addition to the hop vines, which we would probably grown along a two story side of the house, I am also thinking of growing an herb garden for brewing. I'd like to brew beers with elderberries, both the flowers (pictured to the right) and the berries. Heather is another brewing herb, traditionally used in Scotland. I'd like to experiment with adding rosemary and basil to beers also.
If anyone has any suggestions or ideas for other herbs or adjuncts that I could grow that you think might be an interesting addition to beer, please let me know in the comments. I'd welcome your ideas - one of the great things about brewing your own beer is that you can work with unusual ingredients. Let me know what you think would be interesting in a future beer!
