More Hop Project #67

Another batch of Hop Project #67 is being bottled today, and the label will read "NO67.12.SEP.12".   People are really liking this one, which used a lot of Motueka hops from New Zealand.

Some freshly picked local hops, heading towards the brewery!

We got a bumper crop this year from the hop field at Sulphur Creek Farm out in Bells Bend, despite the June drought and the fact that most of these hops came from first-year plantings!  It's a neat story - last year a friend of Eric Wooldridge (who manages the farm) called him up after reading about our hop harvest story in the Tennessean in 2011.  He had some planters full of hop rhizomes from his family's farm in east Tennessee, that had been growing wild up there for years.  Eric planted the new hop trellis area with these new rhizomes, with the hopes that they would do well since they have been acclimated to Tennessee's growing season.  Luckily, this variety seems to be a late-developing type, and the rains in late July really allowed them to take off.  They smell great too, lots of bright citrus and some earthy herbal notes.  We are going to use them to dry-hop a special hop harvest ale, that we will have ready for a special release on Friday, October 5th, at a square dance party out at the Sulphur Creek farm.  Also, bottles of the the special "Bells Bend Preservation Ale" will also be available in 750 ml bottles at the brewery starting Oct 6th, with the proceeds benefiting conservation efforts in the "Bells Bend to Beaman Park Corridor".  For more information, check out their website at http://www.bellsbendfarms.com/.