This month’s Fermentation Friday topic (hosted by HomeBrewBeer.net) is “Embrace Your Spring Fever”:

How will you grow or change as a homebrewer this Spring? How will you embrace your Spring fever and channel it toward your homebrewing endeavors?

Ahhh, spring…

I’m not sure if I’ve ever expressed my hatred for winter in my blog. The cold, the dry air, the disgusting, white crap that falls from the sky and clogs up the already packed Pennsylvania streets…

I. hate. winter.

So when spring rolls around, I can’t help feeling completely ecstatic, knowing that the long, loathsome days of winter will soon be at an end. Time to bring that mash tun and kettle outside into the sunshine!

Last year, we planted a Cascade rhizome in the tiny little garden in front of our townhouse apartment. It yielded about 2 oz of hops (dried) which we used to brew a lovely harvest ale.

Our first hop yield, summer 2008

But this year, we mean business.

We bought a house this past September, and immediately began deciding where in our ½ acre yard the hop garden would reside. This time, we ordered 20 rhizomes. Tim is ready and rarin’ to go on building the trellises. Pretty soon, the rhizomes will be in the ground and sprouting. We’re looking forward to nurturing the little guys all spring and summer long.

Our first little Cascade rhizome came with us to the new house. We’ve been storing it in a pot of dirt all winter, until it’s time to plant it. But I think it’s just as excited about spring as we are…

Put me in the ground, bitches!