Another spring, another hop crop gets underway in Minnesota. This episode of Chop & Brew looks at the basic steps to planting hop rhizomes in containers and in the ground. The C&B crew helps new hop-growers with tips and techniques for the start of the growing season. Chop & Brew will do several episodes over the coming months on maintenance, harvesting, drying and of course a fresh-hop brew day episode. For related links and resources see the official episode page at Chop & Brew’s website.
In this shorter “unofficial” episode of Chop & Brew, Chip pulls himself away from grad school work for a few moments to share some announcements, thoughts, and homebrewing/cooking resources. Got a crazy idea for a homebrew session, a go-to house beer recipe or mad skills in the kitchen you’d like to share with the people? Chop & Brew is looking for Twin Cities area homebrewers and/or home chefs with ideas for and interest in being featuring in future episodes. If you are game, contact them at chopandbrew@gmail.com.
This episode lives up to the series’ name, complete with some Chop AND Brew. First, an Irish Beef Stew to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (also good for any random chilly evening). Then Chip is joined by local homebrewers Bryon Adams, Chris Paynes and Don Osborn for tasting notes on The Nazz Session IPA and Golden Sunlight Belgian Tripel IPA brewed back in Episode 3. The discussion includes some thoughts on late-addition hops, mid-fermentation sugar additions and mash temperatures.
And who says every batch of homebrew turns out perfect? Not us. See this link for a Lagniappe video in which we taste and try to figure out what went awry with two earlier C&B beers.
If it’s one thing that (most) homebrewers love, it’s saving a few bucks. If there’s a second thing we like, it’s keeping something unique around for as long as possible. In this episode of Chop & Brew, we walk through the steps of washing yeast for the purpose of reusing it for brewing more beer at home. This easy process should yield healthy, clean yeast that’s ready to rip into your next batch of wort. Try it with your favorite house yeast strain or the next time you have something special you want around for a few generations.
Chop & Brew is a new webcast produced by Chip Walton, former video nerd for Northern Brewer and Brewing TV. He’s now working a full-time day job at Summit Brewing Company and producing this beer and food vodcast in his free time. To learn more about the show’s mission statement, see this link for an interview with Chip by Minnesota Beer Activists’ Andrew Schmitt.
C&B is already three episodes deep so there’s some catching up to do: Episode 01 “Two Reds are Better Than One” was the “pilot episode” and resulted in two homebrewed red ales. Episode 03 “Brewing for 311 and Dre Day” was released this week. In it we join the C&B Crew as they homebrew three ales in tribute to the band 311 and a malt liquor that was a part of the recent Dre Day party at Triple Rock Social Club.
We’ll embed Episode 02 here because… well, beacuse they’re “Makin’ Bacon!” And bacon is goooooood. Check out Drew Flaten from the kitchen crew at Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub droppin’ some mad science on making bacon at home.
As we did with Brewing TV episodes, we’ve invited Chip to post his episodes here at MNBeer. He expects the release schedule to be every other Friday.
