Hopped up

I did a second picking of hops today after dinner. The vines are incredibly heavy with cones, even more so than for the first picking. They seem to produce first up high and then work their way down the vine so that the highest ones mature first. I got about 8-9 quarts before just deciding to quit for tonight. There are at least that many more still on the vines. My food dryer wouldn't even fit them all in one batch so I'll have to store the rest and finish another day. These were the Cascade variety. The Brewer's Gold are looking good too but I haven't picked any of those yet.

My friend Chris, who is a master homebrewer, was kind enough to take the last batch and put them to use. His beer should be ready in about 2-3 more weeks if we bottle condition it rather than put it in his tap system. We used them as bittering hops during the boil and will also "dry hop" with them to add aroma to the final product, a light bodied IPA.