Random Grumblings

Carbonated the homebrew last night. It is mighty tasty but needs a bit more carbonation, comes off tasting a tad flat. I am storing it at a high pressure right now and am going to shake it a bit more tonight to try to get more CO2 in solution.

I have a sports rant that I need to get off my chest (sports and beer do go together). Ended up watching some the Boston v. Atlanta NBA game last night and remembered why I hate watching basketball and usually refuse to watch it until March Madness, and even then I usually only watch the opening rounds. Out of every sport, the officiating in basketball (and the NBA in particular) is horrendous. Sure in football holding is never called and WR get too many pass interference calls but usually the refs do a pretty good job. Same can be said for hockey, baseball, soccer and pretty much every other sport except basketball. The idea of what constitutes a foul is pretty open to debate and half the time you can't even pick the call out. Star players get a lot more calls to go there way than the league minimum guys. The game gets so choppy when the crew decides to make a call every time down the court, ugh. Several times last night star player "a" would make a drive towards the basket and would pull up for a nice fade away jumper. More than once the defender didn't even challenge the shoot and was still called for a foul. ?? I dunno, I guess I wish they would let the players run a preseason game where they called the fouls themselves pick up ball style. Hell, back in college, unless you where thrown to the ground, held NFL style or bleeding there wasn't a foul.

A good beer from A-B? Can it be?

Went to the grocery store with the wife this past weekend and took a quick stroll down the beer aisle just to see what seasonals where to be had. Picked up a 6er of Red Hook Winter Hook. A very nice winter lager, not too spicy, hops are just right. The 6er that really caught my eye was Michelob Winters Bourbon Cask Ale. I thought, hmmm, a Winter Seasonal craft brew from the makers of Michelob Ultra? Let's give it a try and if it terrible I'll have something to feed my key lime tree. Got home and popped one open and poured. Poured a nice deep brown/copper color. Took a sniff, huh do I actually smell a hint of bourbon, a nice vanilla note? No it can't be, this stuff is brewed by Anheuser-Busch right? Took a sip, wow this stuff is actually good. Took another sip, huh this stuff is really great. In fact this is the best "Bourbon" beer I've ever had. Now, in all truth I don't know how much actual Bourbon was used in the making of this beer but there has to be some because the taste is there but in the background. It lets the maltyness and the vanilla (that it is also aged with) do most of the work and then fills in the gaps. The perfect place for bourbon to be in a beer. In all the other Bourbon aged beers I have had (and oaked beers to a lesser extent) it feels like I am drinking fizzy bourbon, it is used to cover up the taste of an inferior beer. I will have to hand it to the folks at Michelob, in my opinion they knocked this one out of the park for a macro brew. A good introduction to a craft beer style for the masses. Maybe some random Bud drinker will pick up a 6 pack of this and be impressed enough to give some other interesting styles a shoot. If even one Bud drinker is converted over to the world of beer with taste because of this brew then that is a great thing. I'll give this one 3.5 out of 5.

Happy Drinking!

Corny Keg is full and ready to go....

Got the corny keg cleaned and sanitized last night, also ran some sanitizer through the beer line to clean out the Miller Lite that it had been hooked up to. The pony of Miller Lite is still pretty full, I plan on taking it up to a Poker tourney a guy in the neighborhood is hosting after the first of the year. The keg of Sweetwater IPA is on its last legs, I can't believe it is still pouring. Got the English Pale Ale into the keg and put it in the fridge for it to cool down to allow me to start force carbonating it, using the pressurize and shake method my buddy suggested. Figure I will try that either tonight or tomorrow, looking forward to giving this brew a try.

I took a quick picture of the current kegerator set-up:

You can see the Miller Lite Pony, Sweetwater IPA Torpedo and the Corney Keg in the back. Underneath the stand I built I store what is left of my 2 previous homebrews, only a few of the lagers left and about 16 or so of the IPAs. Looking at this makes me realize I could go to a 3 keg system if I really wanted to but I doubt it will ever be this full again. Most likely I will keep 1 keg of homebrew and one torpedo keg on draft most of the time. It is good to know if I ever had a huge bash that I can fit a 1/2 barrel keg + a 1/6 barrel keg and a corny in there if need be. Anyways, I hope to have a review of the English Pale Ale in a day or two. Until then, Happy Drinking!

Kegging Commences...

Hit the beer equipment store this weekend. Picked up a nice used Corny keg and a new beer kit. Got the keg all cleaned out last night and plan on getting the beer into it tonight. I'll let it chill for a bit and plan on getting it carbonated either Tuesday or Wednesday night. It will be nice to have to celebrate the New Year. The new beer kit is some mega hopped brew, can't remember the name but I think it topped the IBU chart somewhere around 50 or 60, yummy. Figure I will brew this up sometime in late January.

Quick Update and some quick reviews

Moved the homebrew over to the secondary fermenter yesterday. A few more days in there and then I have to figure out how if I want to bottle or keg it before I head out of town for the holidays.

Some quick beer reviews of brews I have tried in the past few weeks:

Serra Nevada Celebration: Yuck, strange hop note. Almost undrinkable 1/2 pint of 5
Anchor Christmas: Nice and spicy but not over the top, a nice seasonal. 3 out of 5
Sweetwater Festive: Another nice dark seasonal, more hoppy than the Anchor. 3.5 of 5
Goose Neck IPA: Not all that Hoppy for an IPA, seemed closer to a hoppy lager. 2.5 of 5
Goose Neck Honnker: Ugh, too sweet and very bland, glad I only tried a sample. 1 of 5
Great Lakes Christmas: Very nice, best Christmas brew I've had to date. A nice sweet malt start, very mild spiciness and a hint of hops to end. Very drinkable. 4 of 5

The Perfect Thanksgiving Weekend....

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I can't say that mine could have gone any better than it did. Had a great Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family on Friday. Drank a few Sam Adams Light while frying the turkey (Now 4 years with no major disasters or injuries!), also sampled a Yuengling Light for the first time. Not a bad brew, a good full tasting light beer, I can see this becoming a tennis party staple.

Got up Friday morning, drove my TR6 around a bit with mi padre. We went to check out a 1964 Land Rover Series IIa that I was interested in, turned out to be a rust bucket so no dice. Played golf that afternoon, weather was perfect. Played poorly on the front nine, broke out a cigar on the back and played much better. Won a few bucks and had a nice pint of Guinness in the clubhouse after the round, always a pleasure.

Got up Saturday, figured I had a few hours to kill before the UGA v. Georgia Tech football game, why not try brewing some beer. Brewed my first big batch o' beer, it went well with no issues. Beer is now sitting quietly in my basement while the yeast does its magic. That gives me about 2-3 weeks to find a used pepsi keg to put the finished product in.

The weekend was capped off by the wonderful results of "Clean, Old Fashioned Hate", GT 48 - UGA 45. Best game I have seen in a while, just glad it ended in a Yellow Jacket win. Spent the rest of Saturday drinking off my kegs (Sweetwater IPA, been trying to kill that keg for a few weekends but it refuses to die...) and watching football. Sunday was spent doing nothing and basking in the glow of a wonderful few days.

I'll keep everyone up to date on the fermenting progress and my search for a keg, until then...

Happy Drinking!!