Hops 2012 – April

Spring stopped by early in Binghamton, and then took a ten day vacation. Hops were happy, then the hops were cold. A few of the tallest and first shoots were damaged when covered for the last hard frost at the end of March. Some of the newly transplanted cuttings are doing decent. I moved thirty cuttings outside into five pots. I use eighteen gallon blue buckets that were previously readily available at Home Depot for $6 the last few years. This year, not there. I have fourteen pots – three are on their third year, six are on their second, and five new ones; each with twelve cuttings. I will be erecting a pole in my backyard shortly to run lines up to with the ability to lower and raise each bucket individually; each with four lines per bucket. For those keeping score, fourteen buckets, four lines, with three bines per line comes to 168 bines total. Awesome.

Cuttings are ready to transplant outdoors. The roots have found their way out the bottom of the peat planter.

Tasting: Sixpoint Craft Ales

“Binghamton-Bound Breweries” via The Press & Sun Bulletin

We (Black Heart Brewery), were recently interviewed for an article in our local paper about the 4 breweries and brewpubs planning to open in Binghamton, NY. Today, the article ran in The Press & Sun Bulletin on the front page. Here is the section on our business:

Black Heart Brewery

What: Nanobrewery, using ingredients from the Finger Lakes region.

Where: Currently brewing 10-gallon, all-grain batches from the garage of Brett Martin’s home on Binghamton’s West Side. They made their first batch of beer around 2004. They now brew about once a week, making mostly ales — mainly a pale ale, a porter and a few other beers.

They’re looking for a new location — about 1,600 to 2,000 square feet — and are considering Binghamton.

When: They hope to open at the new site in the spring and initially sell their beer in kegs to bars.

Who: Friends Brett Martin, the business owner, and Jay Maslar, head brewer. Both are 2002 Seton Catholic Central High School graduates. They sat next to each other in class, thanks to assigned seating based on the alphabetical order of their last names.

Martin is an iPhone programmer at United Health Services. Maslar works at an area jewelry store and does video and audio work for Broome Community College. They expect to operate the business by themselves for at least the first six to 12 months.

On the Web: blackheartbrewery.com.

Here is the whole article:
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20111204/BUSINESS/112040349/Binghamton-bound-breweries

Brewhemoth Conical Fermentor First Run

We brewed our first batch and tested out our temperature controlled Brewhemoth 22 gallon conical fermentors.

Automated Fermentation Test Video

We have been working on modifying our upright freezers to be fully temperature controllable units, full programable via a Fermtroller unit. Here is a video of the test.

Brewhemoth Fermentors Un-Boxing

 

We just got in our new Brewhemoth 22 gallon fermentors. We had two of them built for us and each are able to produce 15 gallons of finished beer. In the video, we unbox them and test out the new fittings from Brewer’s Hardware. More in depth review to follow. Cheers!

August 2011 Update

A quick video about incorporating, merchandise, fundraising, Kickstarter, and how to increase your chances to try our beer.

Small Business Fridays

Recently, the gentlemen from the Binghamton Marketing stopped by to shoot one of their weekly webisodes – Small Business Fridays – about our nanobrewery, Black Heart Brewery. We were in the middle of a very hot Saturday brew session when they stopped in to do a video shoot/interview. They were great, with awesome questions and a whole lot of amazement (as often people have when they see our DIY brewing technology). So give the video below a watch. And there will be more nanobrewery video updates to come real soon. Cheers!

 

Hops 2011 – July 2nd

2nd Year Hops - Willamette in the middle, Cascade on the outside (and other veggies)

The summer is here and it is finally hot enough that we are getting vigorous growth. The 2nd year Cascades are almost done growing vertically with a bit to go still on the Willamette.

Cascade reaches the top! (and then some)

Saying that Brett has been in Ukraine for 2 weeks, he has to trim up the top of the plants when he gets back (tomorrow).

Cascade side growth

We are getting some good horizontal shoots growing and we hope to see some hop cones soon. The plants will begin to fill out more once we trim the tops.

First Year Plants

Our first year cuttings are going strong in my backyard. They are also planted in 18 gallon buckets. There is enough space at the top of the bucket to top off with compost at the end of this fall.

Cascade - 1st Year

The cuttings now have multiple bines from each plant; the first bines are not growing as fast as they were, and many of the secondary ones are taller than the initial ones. This year, I am not concerned with hop weight as much as I am about root growth, which sets us up for 2 things: a big harvest for next year, as well as being able to take many rhizome cuttings to start a larger hop garden.

Willamette - 1st Year

Hop Garden – Garbage Composter

This year, I decided I wanted to be a better hippy/hippie. And what way would be more environmental, than starting a garden? (With composing).

For those who don’t know, composting is the collective breaking down of organic matter, into something useful by other growing organics. In layman’s terms: food, plants, and veggies break down and rot into organic plant fertilizer. Seems simple enough, right? Well it is.

There are many well written guides to composting, so instead of writing an overall ‘How To’, I will provide links for those who already have, and do a write up on ‘How I’.

I am currently growing only hops; they are planted in 18 gallon plastic buckets, which have a nice head space I plan on filling with super rich compost this fall (Oct 2011).  If this composter fills up, I will buy another.

The composer I am using is the Earth Machine (company website). They are available at the Broome County dump for $45 (and if you live in Binghamton, they are the same price at City Hall in the Treasury Office). If you live outside of our county, check to see if your County, City, or municipality does a discounted composter sale (they might be a different model than the Earth Machine). Here is why:

The city has to pay to pick up your garbage/waste. If you produce less waste, they have to pick up and dispose of less. Even if they are able to off set the costs via fees and taxes, the less they have to deal with, the better. So, if they are able to buy composters at a bulk discounted rate, they are able to save tax payer’s money by passing on the savings to the consumer/constituent. All and all, government ideas I can get behind, which I don’t say too often.

Here is how I did it:

1. I dug up the area that the composter would occupy. Mine is 30″ in diameter, so it is 30 by 30. I cleared out a square patch of yard at the back by my fence and by the yard sharing neighbor’s big garden; which with the fertilizer they use, no matter how stinky it gets, they cannot complain.

2. The composter comes in 2 parts.

This is the bottom with the door and base screws to secure to the ground and a top that has a taper to a venting lid – all of which is made in heat absorbing black plastic.

3. This is the top (upside down) – holding the waste pail that comes with the composter. This goes in your kitchen and is used to collect food scraps.

4. I covered the whole compost are with chicken wire; this will keep vermin out, and allow for earth worms to come up inside to composter to eat.

5. The composter is bolted down with 4 screw anchors that are angled into the ground. I have also since added a few bricks around the outside to help keep it in place.

6. Once everything is together, and the front door is on, you can start filling it up. I started with a layer of dirt, then all the food scraps from my kitchen and refrigerator. I then topped it all off with yard trimmings. It is tough to get started, as one usually does not have a stock pile of rotting food on hand, nor a bag of brown leaves from last fall. But once you get going, and start accumulating more kitchen waste, it will begin to even out.

7. Here it is, sitting in the sun, waiting for me to feed it more. I will keep you up to date as to how it progresses.