Jeepers, it’s been a looooong time since I’ve written anything here. Nearly two years, as a matter of fact! So here’s a quick update.
I’m still brewing. Thanks for asking! Won a couple ribbons, so I guess that’s vaguely noteworthy.
Bottled a Saison last weekend. Even though it’s only been a few days, I plan on drinking one tonight. Looking forward to it.
Made a few meads in the interim. I’ve got one in tertiary right now that I’m particularly excited about.
I stopped at Shoreline last night and picked up a few nice-to-haves. First, they’ve never carried it before (that I’ve seen), but they had a few Chouffe selections on-hand. I picked up the “Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel”, sort of a tripel married to an IPA that sounds intriguing. Also picked up a Fantôme Saison D’Erezée – Hiver (their “winter” offering from their seasonal line… this must be close to a year old at least!) and a Reissdorf Kölsch. Also drank the Fuller’s London Porter last night, which was exemplary. Now I’ve never really reviewed a beer, so don’t expect me to wax prosaic along the lines of “pours a dense black liquid beneath a fluffy brown cloud” cause I didn’t take notes or anything, just drank it and enjoyed it. A very nice porter, indeed.
(more…)
Finally got around to bottling the Rye IPA the other night (Aug 20), and boy is that sucker bitter! I’m hoping it’ll mellow out a bit over the next couple weeks. I was lower on bottles than I thought, so I had to mix it up pretty much. Used 8 22oz bombers, 14 of my older, heavier, nicer 12oz bottles, and the rest the newer, lighter, cheaper, not as nice 12ozers. Oh, and it did drop a couple more points in the three week secondary, so finished at 1.020. Target was 1.018, so it’s close but no cigar. From a start of 1.074, that gives… 73% attenuation.
I’ve been thinking of joining a homebrewing club here on Long Island, but I can’t seem to find good information on them. I know there’s one that meets at the Blackforest Brewhaus, which isn’t too far from me, but my wife’s schedule prohibits my evening freedom (she does a lot of volunteer work). I’ve also been thinking about starting my own club of sorts, either of brewers or people I think would enjoy it, or just as a beer appreciation thing. I don’t have a lot of guy friends that I get together with often at all, and I think maybe I’d like to change that.
(more…)
This previous weekend was Father’s Day, and a couple beer-related things of note transpired.
On Friday, I stopped by Shoreline (a place I frequent far too often) and picked up an assortment. Rochefort 10, St Bernardus Abt 12 and another Fin du Monde. All but the Fin I’m planning on just holding onto a while, build up a sort of collection. They now sit next to a Rochefort 8 and a Stone Old Guardian barleywine. Not much, but it’s a start.
(more…)
I’m writing this from “the future,” so you’ll just have to live with the tense changes. So tonight was the first annual Long Island Beer Festival, sponsored by Shoreline Beverages. I really didn’t know what to expect, and didn’t have terribly high expectations. I thought the turnout would be fairly weak, particularly considering the late emails we received saying there were still around 200 tickets available and they would be selling them at the door. Boy, were we mistaken.
(more…)
