I'm Having a Lupulin Threshold Shift!

I love me some hops! If you've been following my hop growing then you might know they're about to be plucked. I thought about boiling up some extract with them and seeing how it turns out. I'd just ferment a pint with some left over yeast. I'll keep you up to date on that mess. So I went to the garden this morning and cut open a hop to see how they are doing. Voila, lupulin. Not as much as I'd like to see, but it was there. Lupulin is what you smell and taste in your beer. The actually hop flower basically holds the lupulin like a typical flower would hold pollen (just upside down).

Odell, one of my top breweries, just shed light to the non-home brewer to the idea of lupluin with St. Lupulin Extra Pale Ale. This is a bit lighter than their IPA but with more hops (me likey). Everything they make is delicious. I have still yet to try the Woodcut but I have a No. 1 and 3 No. 2 in the fridge... mmmm.

I'm going to go ahead and give props to the liquid diet because this post sounds a lot like his but not intentionally and not with great use of the English language. My hops are just ready to go.

Check out this link...

http://www.russianriverbrewing.com/LTS/

Speaking of Russian River, I had some Blind Pig earlier this week. This brew is historic in the fact that it was likely to be the first ever Double IPA. It was very delicious, but not quite as good as their Pliny the Elder.

Beer Fridge and Sunday Beer Trip

Well my fridge is happy again and filled up. Let's see what we've got here. Left Hand Milk Stout, Lieny's Amber Ale, New Belgium's Trippel, Schlafly APA, Raspberry Heff, Pale Ale and Tripel, Boulevard's Double Wide, few BBQ's and few Saison-Brett's, a random Sam Adams Lager, O'Fallon's mix 8 pack and a De Proef Reserve Signature. I've also got an Odell's Woodcut No. 1 that I had just traded a BBQ for. I am waiting until No. 2 comes out this month and then I'll compare them side by side. The Woodcut is individually numbered and signed in pen. Odell's has been one of my top breweries. It's something about the water maybe that gives all of their beers a good crisp finish.

I took another motorcycle trip this weekend and skipped out on the KC Biermiester's cookout. We had three bikes and went on a 160 mile circle and stopped off a few times for some beer. We went to Leavenworth, KS at High Noon Saloon and Brewery for a beer and pleasantly found out that they are going to start canning their Amber Ale. Really cool looking cans. We also stopped off at Free State Brewery in Lawrence, KS and I had a delicious Barleywine. Then we finally got back to Missouri after a couple more stops. Great times. I'm hoping to do a tour of Nebraska and Iowa with my bike this year and find a bunch of small breweries.