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I used to do it that way many moons ago (30 years ago!) when I first started cooking curries - it was the recommended way in the Pat Chapman Curry Club books, which were all the rage at the time: no Internet / Youtube back then. Must admit the recipes in there were a bit of a faff as you had...

I've not been too well recently so have cheated a bit with my latest curries: I've used Pataks paste but, rather than follow the recipe on the jar, I've applied some principles from Al's Kitchen / Misty Ricardo BIR curries. So cooked well browned onions, then garlic & ginger paste with a bit of...

Finally got everything bagged up with the vacuum sealer, a total of 925g dry. Styrian Golding 125g Challenger 200g Cascade 600g The Styrian Golding & Challenger were ravaged by bugs in that June heatwave so I was thankfull to get any at all as the bines looked dead. Cascade was the star this...

I've brewed Proper Job clones a few times and done a direct comparison with the real thing from a St Austell pub and can't taste the difference. I used dried yeast that accentuate the hops, either US-05 or MJ Liberty Bell. I have cultivated yeasts from bottles before (Wye Valley) and TBH it...

Well done, you won't look back now. I find it hard to gauge the right amount of hops from the smell. If you think you need more, do a dry hop 7-9 days into fermentation.

Noticed quite a few woodlice in my hops this year. I don't do anything about them, provided you're not dry hopping they will be going into hot wort which will sort them out.

Yes, one plant in a not very good spot (old small flower bed surrounded by gravel), with the runners draped over a garden pergola so not very high. Best year so far, will weigh them when they are dried and vacuum packed.

Hmmm had to re-think drying the Cascade, had 4 of those big trays full so have taken over the garage floor

Mine are drying on these big plastic gardening trays in the garage, just need to turn them several times a day

Managed to get a tray of the Cascade in before the rain arrived, bumper crop this year, and the cones are huge.

Finally caved in, they're ready, and now it's a race against the weather as a stormy week is forecast. These are the Challenger, the one that got decimated in June, produced a load more than expected - the Styrians and Cascade have produced a lot more but I've yet to get them in.

I grow 3 hops, 2 use existing structures and the other uses somthing I knocked up out of cheap fence posts. So other than the costs of that, it was just the costs of the plants which were £7 each. I get about £40-£50 of hops off them all each year but that wasn't the reason for growing them, it...

GW's recipes are now quite old, breweries often change their recipes over the years so could well have updated it. And even GW pointed out that his recipes are approximations, not exact clones.

I dry mine on the garage floor in plastic gardening trays, doesn't use any electricity, you need to turn them every day to ensure all the hops dry evenly but it works for me: only takes a few days thanks to the residual summer heat.

Breweries seem to change their recipes regularly. I was researching a local beer yesterday with an aim to brewing a clone (Goff's White Knight), some info I saved from 10 years ago says Challenger & Fuggles hops, I've got a bottle here and the label says Pilgrim, Fuggles & EKG. I brew Exmoor...

2nd week of Sept and still holding out picking. This sunshine & heat has really accelerated the Cascade, suddenly I have a bumper crop, whilst the Challenger are poor this year: the exact opposite of last year. The Styrian Goldings just plod on and remain the most consistent in all weathers...

Do you remember what size yeast packet came with the kit? Older kits used to have smaller yeast packets 6/7g rather than the standard 11/12g, many of us concluded that was the reason kits were sticking at 1020: 6/7g of yeast isn't really enough for a 40 pint kit. Or it could be that the yeast is...

I'm holding out picking mine, they are usually ready 2nd week of Sept, the Cascade a week later - watching them like a hawk each day, sampled one today and whilst the aroma is still developing, feels like there's a bit more to go.

That Mena Dhu stout in incredible, when I opened it I was suprised to find that it's bottle-conditioned: I reckon it's one of the best commercial bottled beers I've ever had.

Terrible year, worst ever. Not sure how long I've been growing hops, 7 or 8 years. With that hot spell in June all the beasties came out early before the predators and ate the plants, I've never seen that before, nothing has attacked my hops in previous years. Thankfully they have recovered with...