The Dust Has Almost Settled

We got through the wedding, the honeymoon, and our only problem now is that we have a ton of beer. There are about six cases of macro-brew left, maybe four cases of my own, and a few cases of top shelf Texas micro as well as stuff from Anchor and Sam Adams. Let's not forget the hundred dollars or so that I dropped local California beer on the honeymoon [they all made it back in my suitcases safe and sound] I'm brewing either a Belgian Strong Ale or a Cherry Pale Ale tomorrow, but I can't even justify doing it. Oh well.

By the way, the picture to the right is my wedding present from Natalie. It plugs into my fridge and keeps the temp to within a degree of what I need. Right now I've got a porter I'm keeping at 60 degrees and it's working like a champ.

Wedding Beers A Go-Go

Wedding Beers a go-go
Current mood: lethargic

Well, I've finished all the beers that I made for the wedding [even the apricot is carbonated now] and here's the list-

Garden Wedding Cream Ale
HopESB
Apricot Wheat
Black and Blue Wheat
Child-Sized Cherry Wheat
Juniper Red Ale
Brown Ale
Bell's Two-Hearted Clone
Make Mine A Double IPA
Sweet Wheat

It was not easy saving some for this long [the Brown, HopESB, and Black and Blue Wheat are at least three months old] but now there's 10 homebrew selections available. There are some gripes, of course; the Juniper and Apricot have some diacytel issues, but some surprises, too. The Sweet Wheat was awful when I tasted it; over the top cloying sweetness, but it really mellowed out in the bottle and now it's quite unadventurous but enjoyable as a lawnmoweer beer. All in all, it's been great fun and when I get back, I'm going to get an all-grain system and perfect the HopESB, as I think that's the soon-to-be flagship beer in my stable.

Just made my first porter a few days ago and it's now bubbling away in the airlock. I was very careful to keep this one in the fridge set on low, so it's maintained a 62 degree ferment the whole time. I liked the looks of this recipe because it called for a whole bunch of things that I needed to use up anyways, and the secondary fermentation takes 20 days, so I don't hav to mess with it until well after the honeymoon. Up next is that HopESB, a Cherry Stout, and a Maple Brown Ale.