The OTHER wild hops I have used before, located in a different part of the valley, was the source for a bit of rhizome (root) I transplanted a few years ago, to my back yard. It took a couple of Summers to get established in a shady part of my garden, but this year I saw that it was starting off strong. I gave it an old sunflower stalk to climb on, which it used to nearly reach a branch of Maude, my apricot tree. With just a wee boost from me, it finally reached the branch, and quickly spread itself out on this high, sunny perch. This Winter, when I'm giving Maude an annual pruning, I'll fashion this area of branches toward becoming an annual solar collector frame for the hops, for which I'll drop a rope.
I didn't harvest enough hops from this vine alone to make a 10-gallon fresh hops ale, so I floated some dried Columbus and Amarillo hops first, and stirred in the Backyard hops for just the last 10 minutes of the boil, just enough to make its flavor perch on top of your palate.
Finally, have a peek at the label to find the latest human engineering marvel, the Rosetta spacecraft and its comet lander, Philae. Rock on, European Space Agency!
Salute!
MT
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