Roasters and Rhizomes

Hi all,


Yesterday evening I roasted some malt in a can on the gas stove. We are fortunate enough to have a "dirty kitchen" outside at the back of the house. The smoke was terrific. At least it was dark and no one could see the clouds billowing. The malt has a strong coffee flavor. It took quite a while to roast as I kept squirting water in the can. I understand that the malt can ingnite at these kinds of temperature, so I kept the water coming and played it safe.


My friends at Bodensatz were truly impressed with my malting effort. In a country where malt is rarely seen it non-liquid forms, I think I did good.

Today I was entertaining the idea of growing hops here in the Philippines. I Googled a bunch of queries and came up with some wonderful news. I would appear that YES! we can grow hops here. My friends at Oz Craftbrewer have been growing hops in northern Australia at 19 degrees south of the equator for years. I read another article about a guy in India that is successfully growing two American varieties Cascade and Nugget. How on earth to get the rhizomes here in good shape for planting is another issue. More research is required but at least it can be done. I understand the that the hop flowers are smaller, but more frequent flowering cycles in the tropics. Sweet hey? If you are interested here is the link: http://hbd.org/hbd/archive/3975.html#3975-1


Got to go to the city today. I may stop and buy some more barley on the way home.

Cheers!