Homebrew Still Life

It's been quite a while since I have last posted some photography, but here goes another attempt at making this a regular thing. I'm working on developing a still life, but I need to progress my lighting and composition skills before I get to the actual project. Here is a study using some homebrew supplies: grains, hops, a wort chiller, beer bottles, and the final product (a HB51 recipe at that). More to come (hopefully).

Day of the Dead Altar and Montage

The State of Utah Wine Affairs Bureau, 2008

We are happy to present the state of the Lamberti Bocca Noir grape harvest for the 2008 growing season. One of the most successful harvests in recent times, we pulled in a hair under 150 pounds of grapes, de-stemmed and crushed for 16.6 gallons of must for the initial fermentations.

This is up from 70 pounds in 2006 (a late season hail storm damaged about a quarter of that crop) and 48 pounds in 2007 (birds, heat, and ???). This year the protective nets got on early, and the vines were well maintained. For the record, Growing Degree Days (10 C base, March 1) was 3165 at time of harvest (Sept 28, 2008). Heating Degree Days (SLC station since July 1) cumulative was 27 at time of harvest compared with 7 last year. For what it's worth. More stats to come.

Likewise, a good turnout of wine grape pickers, destemmers, and stompers. More photos of the 2008 Wine Stomp can be seen below:

Hop Plant and Ripening Flowers

The hop vine, I have found, is fairly difficult to get established and sprout. When it does (as seen here in attempt number 4) it grows quickly during the heat of summer. Currently, the main shoot of the vine is roughly 18 feet tall, with a second main branch another 6 feet - amazing considering the hop dies back to nothing every winter. The cone shaped flowers grow on the top third of the vine, and will be used to flavor barley soup (aka beer).