Four Things This Week, From a Bucket of Hops

Hey, this is Joel.

I’m sitting next to a pile of flowers in the yard.

I spent some time this morning taking hops vines out of our hoop house, and now I’m sitting on a bucket, picking the flowers off the vines.

A buddy of mine brews beer. Sometimes he gives me some of it, so I’m going to give him a bunch of these.

I grow several different varieties of hops in the hoop house. I’ve got some New Zealand varieties, some Cascade, and some Chinook. The Chinook seems to yield better than anything else I’ve tried here at high altitude.

If you’ve never smelled a hop flower before, go get yourself a good, fresh West Coast IPA and really smell it before you drink it.

That smell is hops.

A West Coast IPA is usually very hop-forward, and when you break one of these fresh flowers open, there’s this strong green, citrusy, resinous smell. You immediately think, that smells like an IPA.

Except it’s really the other way around.

The IPA smells like this flower.

My hands are busy, so I obviously can’t type anything. I’m sitting here talking to my phone instead.

And with my hands busy, I’ve had some time to think about a few things from this week, even though I haven’t had time to write them down.