· James Torr · Personal  · 2 min read

Autumn harvest time. Bit later than usual as I've been away for a few weeks. Have some now 7-8 yr old hop plants that are doing pretty well. It's a bit of a process but you basically take them down, chop them up, strip, dry, vac pack and freeze them. I get about a 1-1.5kg of dry hops from them, enough for 100 litres or so of beer.

Autumn harvest time.

Autumn harvest time. Bit later than usual as I’ve been away for a few weeks.

Have some now 7-8 yr old hop plants that are doing pretty well. It’s a bit of a process but you basically take them down, chop them up, strip, dry, vac pack and freeze them. I get about a 1-1.5kg of dry hops from them, enough for 100 litres or so of beer. Varieties are: mathon, challenger, northdown, a plant from Penshurst (Goldings?) and a plant from round the corner from where I live (just found it growing in the hedge). They tend to be a bit lower in aromatics and bittering compounds than commercial hops so I usually double up. Hops are super easy to grow and very low maintenance, if you’re interested and have a sunny climbing position, they’re a bit of a no brainer.

Fennel. Have a bit of a wild, uncultivated garden and these guys just come back year after year and I harvest them. Must be a kg of fennel seeds there. Sausages, risotto. Anybody want some or got some recipes because I’ve still got a ton from last year.

Other than that some 6 braeburn apples and the last of the cherry tomatoes.

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No idea how they got here but it looks like I've got some barley randomly growing in my garden!

No idea how they got here but it looks like I've got some barley randomly growing in my garden!

No idea how they got here but it looks like I've got some barley randomly growing in my garden! I'm kind of wondering whether to preserve the seeds and sow them in a small patch next year, then do the same till I get enough to malt for a batch of beer. Commercial yield is about 600g/m2, so I'd need 10m2 to even think about it. Anybody got a bit of allotment space free in a few years?!

Little experiment this year with a tiny crop of barley.

Little experiment this year with a tiny crop of barley.

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A lovely day out in the woods yesterday making a beer heated entirely with stones.

A lovely day out in the woods yesterday making a beer heated entirely with stones.

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