Happy End of Summer to All!
It was a beautiful summer here in New England and we had a very successful year despite some of our early issues…
In the beginning of the hop growing season we had a fair amount of rain and cool nights which are a breeding ground for Downy Mildew. Downy Mildew was responsible for the great hop blight that literally wiped out all the hops on the East Coast Pre-Prohibition and forever doomed large scale hop farming on this side of the coast forever. We were hardly the only farm with this problem. It effected nearly all the hop yards on the east coast. That said, these days if you catch it early it is easily treatable with organic solutions. Luckily, Caroline and I caught it early, didn’t loose a single plant and had a fairly decent second year harvest. We successfully dried nearly 100 lbs of hops and were also able pull off a wet hop beer with one of our favorite local brewers: RiverWalk Brewing Company
RiverWalk is the first commercial brewery to brew with our hops! They decided to brew a hoppy Red Ale called “Farm to Kettle” It was literally picked and driven over to the brewery in about 2 hours time total so as to preserve the delicate aromas and to keep the highest quality possible. As soon as a hop is picked it starts degrading immediately so we feel the timing has to be perfect to faithfully execute a wet hop beer. RiverWalk understood this and we worked together to get it done. The beer will be a limited release so stay updated by checking Riverwalk’s Website, Facebook & Twitter for details. We want to Thank Steve, Christian and Ally for their support!
We will also be selling hops directly! Feel free to send me and e-mail if interested: themaltshed@gmaill.com
We have Cascade, Nugget and Centennial whole leaf hops available.
Here are some pics of the 2014 Harvest!
Cheers for now!
The Malt Shed 