Long time, no brew!

Believe it or not, we haven't brewed for two weeks! I mentioned the bottle shortage (which my dad offered to help me out with, although the logistics were a little murky...) and even though we are still behind, we did have enough to brew a batch today. We brewed the Honey Weizen, which was a pretty simple brew. We used the full boil technique, and what a full boil it was! We only have a 5 gallon pot, and it was about 4 1/2 gallons full. The other thing we've implemented (several brews ago) was that we started buying oxygen absorbing caps from Northern Brewer. They only cost a bit more, and oxygen is supposed to be bad for the beer so we figured it is a little thing we can do that might improve the flavor of the beer!

We now have 3 new kits that we can't wait to make. One of them is an Imperial Stout, which is a stronger beer and needs to ferment longer. But we don't want to sacrifice our containers for that long fermentation! The way we are set up now, every container is in use at all times. So next week, while we're in Connecticut for Boxing Day, we're hoping to find a homebrew store and make a few purchases: new 5 gallon carboy and a couple dozen bottles. It will also be fun to just wander around a brew store and look at stuff! It is handy to shop online but it is also nice to see things in real life!

We bottled The Inn Keeper:



An english style ale: Thirty six major awards. Four-time Brewers International Champion. Four-time CAMRA Beer of the Year. Simply put, the muse for this kit has won more awards than any other English beer, period. From very simple ingredients comes a wonderfully well- balanced dram. Spicy, herbal, and English biscuits. Flashes of clean citrus and chewy minerals blend into a complex finish that is refreshingly bitter and remarkably dry. The way a pint was meant to taste. Truly spot on!

Chris did the brilliant design on this label. I guess he's done the last few... I better get to work on the next one!

Tasting: We tasted Rudolph's Tasty Treat last week. It was so good! Very spicy. It will be a nice warmer for the winter. I think this was the first one we tried the full boil on, but I can't remember for sure. Anyway it seemed to work.

Victoria is in town! She lives in Southern California, getting her PhD at UC Irvine, and I am so glad to get to spend some time with her while she's home for a couple weeks. Anyway, this post reminded me that we need to get some brews into the fridge so we can have a tasting with her! She has only tried Hopalilly, and that was before it was aged enough - it keeps getting better. Hopalilly was our first attempt with fresh hops but I kind of messed up the yeast by putting it in the water while the water was too hot.