SF Brewcraft has been dragged kicking and screaming out of the ’60s. We’re now shackled to our keyboards with Gitmo-style hoods on our heads, blogging for our dinner. All the better for you. Stop by for recipes, news from the brewing world, and whatever else we can scrounge up to meet our blogging quota.
We’ve finally got a blog
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San Francisco Brewcraft: Brewmasters' Blog 
Hey Griz-
When are you going to get the hop rhizomes? Any tips for growing them? Any particular types that grow well in the Bay area?
Phil
The hop rhizomes are usually available starting from the end of March to the middle of April depending on how cold the spring is. Hops are really easy to grow as long as these conditions are met:
A. At least 8 hours of sun a day.
B. Well drained soil.
C. Hop rhizomes have to have something to climb on (guide wire, twine,
trellice etc…) They will grow as tall as 18-19 feet high.
Around the middle of June, hops will go through a growth spurt, and you should feed them during this period every 10 days with miracle grow or an organic fertilizer of your preference.
As far as I know the ones that do well here are Cascade, Chinook, Fuggles, Willamette, Columbus, Perle, and Northern Brewer. I’m sure with more attention other kinds of hops can be grown well also. Avoid Hallertau, Kent Goldings, Tettnager.
Grain bags can also be used as pecker-warmers……
Anal retentive beer tastes like a tight sphincter…….
Hey Griz, why are you so cantankerous?
I might get razzed for this. . . but. . . anyone brew kombucha? I’m looking into using beer-brewing equipment for my kombucha brew, but I’m lost. I just might give up and brew beer. At least that way none of my friends will be afraid to drink what I make!
Note on Kombucha tea below, but my priority now is in brewing beer and growing hops. If you are a source of rhizomes, please provide a link to any ordering info and I will add it to our list of commerical sources on our Grow-Hops Yahoo Group. I’m pretty sure that it’s the largest and best Internet source of info about growing hops — now with 990 members. All kinds of info, photos, etc. If anyone is interested the link is http://home.alltel.net/billvelek/growhops.html for our entry portal (I’m trying to link through that page to improve our search engine standing). There has been some recent discussion of ‘vernalization’ and a home ‘titration’ test to measure the AA% of your hops.
As for Kombucha Tea, I used to make that years ago. I never used any brewing equipment though. Just a pot to boil tea and sugar, cooled it off, added the ‘mushroom’ (the floating cellulose culture), put it all into a large jar covered with some thin fabric fastened with a large rubber band to keep the flys out, and in a week or so it was done and ready to drink and start a new batch. It was pretty good stuff.
Cheers.
Bill Velek