Ommegang at the Taphouse on Thursday

So my favorite local watering hole is having a Brewery Ommegang night on Thursday. I believe four of 5 beers on tap including Suz's favorite Three Philosophers. I'll have to bring my Ommegang growler and fill 'er up with the good stuff.

edit. They did in fact have five different Ommegang brews on tap inlcuding the Gnomegang, Adoration ale, Chocolate Indulgence , Rare Vos and Three Philosophers. The local rep was there along with a couple of guys from the distributor as well. My "beer guy" Bob even managed to make an appearance and tell me he was transferred to another beer store. Such is life. 5/4/11

Don't judge me

So I've been reading my homebrew books this week and I'm toying with the notion of trying to take the BJCP beer judge exam. I think it would expand my horizons quite a bit and most probably make me a better brewer. I think I have 2/3 of the books on the suggested reading list.... now I just need to reread them all and actually study/pat attention to the small details.

Eeeeek! Out of homebrew

So I guess I need to start scheduling my beers better because until my Blonde/Scotch ales finish bottle aging, I'm all out of the good stuff. Luckily for me I made a quick detour from the food store today and ended up in one of our local liquor stores and picked up a few items to keep me happy.

I ran into a friend of a friend yesterday who used to brew and we started chatting about good ole fashioned homebrew. He even offered to let me rummage through his gently used equipment and take what I wanted. Although when we finished our conversation I think I kind of rekindled the spark. He will most definitely be invited to our next shindig.

It was a quick one

Well it didn't take long at all for my newest brew to start a bubblin' like mad. I'd say we pitched the yeast around 11PM on Saturday night and when I woke on Sunday morning at 8ish it was already popping. It was by far the shortest of all my lag times. When I left for work today it had already slowed to a bubble about once every 10 seconds. I can't wait to give her a go!

Ahh yes, good times

Brewed and bottled last night and it felt great. We made our first attempt at a Duvel-esqe clone named The Devils Nightmare. Very light in body but tons of flavor and alcohol. We used some new equipment in the process courtesy of Suzi's gift certificate that she very thoughtfully gave me the other day. Consisted of a new burner (SP-10) and a 30qt. brewkettle.

We double barreled the bottling as we tackled the Scotch and Blonde ales. The Scotch smelled soooo good, it took alot of self control to not drink it out of the carboy. I'll be giving both of them plenty of time in the bottle to condition, minimum of three weeks. That leaves just the IPA in secondary where it will be for a little while longer before either tertiary or bottle. Stay tuned

Been far too long

So it's been far too long since I've brewed.... it's gotten so bad that even my girl had noticed. To rectify the situation she went to the LBS and picked up a gift certificate to that most fine of establishments. It will be put to good use this weekend with any luck. I'm thinking another try at the Decimation IPA (that I still have bubbling slowly in a secondary). Or perhaps the beer we had while at the Grand Opening party awhile back. Stay tuned

Double Rack tonight

Tonight a few compatriots and I will be racking the Scotch ale and Haystack blonde into secondaries. The Scotch has been sitting for awhile, and the Haystack sat for three times as long as my first attempt at it. I'm hoping it turns out three times as delicious! I'm going to have to run to the store and get provisions.