true hop heads

A couple of true hop heads in this photo. Taken the first Saturday in September at the Hop Festival in Zatec, Czech Republic home of Zatec (a.k.a. Saaz) hops. The festival had a midway, two sound stages, and 19 or 20 breweries each serving a few beers. The beers were typically different gravities of Bohemian Pilsner or a Dark Lager. The Pilsners were listed as 10, 11, 12, 13, or higher degrees where that just means the OG in Plato. Multiply by 4 to convert to SG, e.g., 11 is 1.044. The Dark Lagers are typically fairly sweet. The hop heads made their crowns from the fresh Zatec hops being cut from a small patch growing right in the town square. For more on the Zatec and the festival see some of the following URLs http://www.docesna.cz/index.php?page=2&lang=en http://english.mesto-zatec.cz/tips-to-visit/tips-to-visit.html http://english.mesto-zatec.cz/hops-and-beer/hopsandbeer.html http://www.beers.cz/hopmuseum/a_ch_mu.html http://muzeum.chmelarstvi.cz/indexen.htm -- Steve Piatz piatz(a)cray.com Cray Inc. 651-605-9049 1340 Mendota Heights Road cell: 651-428-1417 Mendota Heights, MN 55120