Brewing update and a plan to grow hops

Brewing update
The beer that I am brewing is progressing nicely. It is sitting in a 25 litre plastic fermentation vessel (bucket) in the corner of the kitchen at the moment. The vessel has a snap tight lid which lets gas out when the pressure gets high enough. I tend to release the lip of the lid for the first few days of fermentation to prevent the lid buckling under pressure. This is also a good way to check the progress of your beer as the vigor of the fermentation is related to how long it takes the lid to bulge upwards.
Based on this the fermentation is slowing down after one week exactly. This is what I would expect. Will leave it where it is for another week or two before bottling it and hopefully having the self control to let it condition a bit.

Growing hops in Ireland
I saw pictures of another home brewers garden a few years ago and he was growing hops for his own use. They seemed to be very vigorous and he said they were easy to grow. I think hops used to be a big crop in Ireland, but as far as I know nobody except Rupert in Cork are growing them commercially any more.
A while searching on the web revealed that a lot of people are interested in this, but few are doing it. To grow hops you need a rhizome (chunk of underground plant stem) or a young plant. There is a supplier in Germany called Eickelmann which seems to get good reviews. The stems are not expensive, so I reckon this is worth trying out in the spring.
I reckon I will need a much bigger garden if I am every to try growing barley for my beer, but I would really love to give malting and all grain brewing a go. Growing hops will hopefully be an easier introduction to growing for brewing.