Blogging.  Rhymes with jogging.  Both of which I am not great at.  But I did brew today!  And that my friends beats blogging and jogging.  Today (its really still going, my last brew is in the kettle right now) has gone well.  Great mash beds, lots of quality ingredients, everything sanitized and ready to go.... and I got to see Joline and Noll today since I was homebrewing in the basement.  Plus Joline made some wicked good meatballs.  I should check my lotto tickets tonight.  (and though you can't tell, an hour has passed, the wort is in fermenters, and the yeasty beasties are beginning to throw down).  So, back to those Meatballs!

The brews today were a lager and an ale.  Specifically, a Helles Bock which was hopped a bit too lightly for BJCP Style Guidelines (Beer Judge Certification Program) and a Kitchen-Sink Stout which was too awesome to be worried about guidelines anyhoo.  Mike was over earlier and helped out with the Bock.  He is now sporting a noodle-arm from having to hand-crank my malt mill (I left my drill at The Civil Life so that it could hang out with my hammer and my tape measure).  He got revenge by soundly thrashing me at darts.  Note to Mike- I nailed 2 bulls in a row after you left.  

The Helles Bock was made with primarily Pilsner malt, which is one of the lightest malts, and some Munich (a fair bit darker) as well.  The hops hailed from Tettnang Germany and smelled very Noble.  All said and done, drained from the kettle it hit 15 Plato which was EXACTOMUNDO what I was shooting for.  Go me. White Labs Bock Yeast and we is rollin'.   

The stout on the hand was flying blind.  Mike had to split since the roads were icing up and he beat me at darts.  So now my handy dandy lap top computer was splitzville- something about how Meg needed it for work?  What the heck!  We're making beer here!  Work can wait!  I need those spreadsheets!  Pre-loaded information cells!  Auto-calculations!  Technology!  Bah!  I can hand crank my mill!  I can figure this stuff out with a pencil!  So, I gathered my wit.  It was over by my laundry playing Tiddly Winks.  "Ok, Self" I said.  "Make a face-melting stout and have two more meatballs."  So for those tech-heads out there... Simpsons Maris Otter, Weyermann Rye, Franco-Belges Kiln Coffee, Caramel 20, De-Husked Chocolate Malt, Flaked Barley, 2 Onions, 1 pound of ground Deer (thanks Eric!), Parsley, 1 egg, 1/2 cup bread crumbs... wait a minute.  Pretty sure those meatballs ended up at 12 Plato.  

And now... for the terminology report:  Plato = the density of beer wort in terms of percentage of extract by weight.  HUH?  Its how much sugar is in the beer juice.  

And now... for the pineapple beer report:  nothing to report.  

Well, this blog post is spiraling out of control.  Before I sign off, BIG HUGE THANKS to Steve Crider, Owner/Brewer of Second Shift Brewing Co for inviting us out to his brewery in New Haven and THANKS to Izek for buying lunch.  Thanks to Noll for thoughtfully playing in his car seat and taking a 20 minute nap.  

And while I'm in the business of thanking people... Thanks to everyone who crossed the threshold at 33.  I learned a lot over my 4 years there and I hope I was able to bring you great things to drink.  Cheers! Prost! and To The Civil Life!

(more on my thoughts of 'The Civil Life' next time...)

Well, its the New Year!  And I'm older.  And so are you. I was able to celebrate Christmas with my family (Hey! New Pants!), New Years with friends (made it home at 12:00 on the dot to wish wife and son a great New Year), and my birthday  with even more friends at Schlafly Bottleworks. (the Imperial Pils is on draft and it turns out that Iris is quite the dancer!)  All of this is to say that the end of last year and the beginning of this year has already reminded me why The Civil Life is so important to me.  So Thanks!  My New Years Resolution was to be more Hip.  Which really shouldn't be hard since I only just started 'texting' a month ago.  

So anyway... Whazz up? (see?  already more hip) The brewery is ever steadily moving forward.  This week we are trying to get the tanks and brewhouse situated in virtual space so we can bust up even more concrete flooring. (Bwaaa bwaa bwaa- sad trombone) Whoever built this building sure wasn't planning on us putting in a brewery.  At least they weren't planning on five housand pounds of beer chillin' (hip) in a three thousand pound tank for a couple of weeks.  They did have the forsight to install a bunch of roll up doors so that we could receive the equipment and a loading dock too, oh and nice high ceilings so that's not too bad.  I've been back and forth with Alan from Premier Stainless trying to get closer to a final footprint and I think we're pretty close.  Here is my shout out (hip) to Alan, he's doing a great job offering different looks at the space.  

On the homebrew front, things have been a little slower the past two weeks.  i'm blending a couple of beers today and racking two other Rye beers so I'll give you an update on those next time.  We sampled some homebrew out to some of our neighbors (I'm sorry I couldn't be there myself) and we got some nice feedback on the Rye we've been working on.  

I've still been drinking plenty of beer in the meantime and during the  Holidays we've just celebrated I had the chance to revisit some oldies but goodies and try a couple of new ones.  Aecht Schlenkerla!  How do I love thee!  I mean... Aecht Schlenkerla!  Its legit!  The brewers have concocted a new brew for the end of the year- an oak-smoked dopplebock that is truly exceptional, however, not for the faint of heart.  Anchor Liberty... What can I say?  Schlafly APA?  Yessir.  And we've got more coming this year!  Urban Chestnut just announced their first two beers and Perrenial Artesian Ales has found a home!  And don't forget Second Shift, Steve is making a great IPA.  As Jake has already said "Happy New Beer!"