Nobody Listens

We hosted a BBQ on August 16th.  It was a good time.   Good food, slip and slides, fireworks and friends.  What more could you ask for?

More pictures after the break and you can view all of the pictures here.

PS.  Coronitas sneak up on you.

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I finally got around to bottling the wit a long time ago.  Drank it and it turned out pretty good.  I think leaving it in the secondary made it uncharacteristically clear.

I brewed another batch, I think about 2 months ago.  I’ve lost track.  It is a clone of Fat Tire.  It has set in the secondary fermentor for ages.  I’m hoping the batch isn’t a goner.  I won’t get to bottle this week because it is jammed packed.  We’re heading to the beach t his weekend and work is pretty busy.  Hopefully, next week when things settle out, I’ll have a chance to bottle.

I’m thinking of doing a winter warmer or some other celebratory ale.  Some recipes I’ve seen you need to let sit for at least 2 months, so I should get cracking soon.

Well, I’m trying out some new themes until I can find one I really like.  This one, Freshy, isn’t too bad.

I hope to start posting again more regularly.

So, it’s been a while since I brewed the wit (April 11th) and I still haven’t bottled it.  I did rack to secondary so hopefully it is OK since it isn’t sitting on the yeast, but I have to imagine leaving it for this long might produce some off flavors (or make it taste great, who knows).  Hopefully, I’ll get around to bottling this weekend.  Things have just been so busy lately.

We sold our pool through craigslist on May 16 to a nice couple from the Eastern Shore.  They did most of the work.  I felt bad, but I had to watch the kids since Megan was at the beach for the weekend.  

I have no regret getting rid of it.  Sure, it was fun, but it was 30′ and took up almost my whole back yard.  We’re thinking about planing a garden this year instead of grass.

I fought off the kids running through the puddles from the pumped off water from the pool as long as I could.  The begging won out this time.  Plus it kept them busy for about a hour and I got some good pictures.

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Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted so I have some catching up to do.

We celebrated our 9th anniversary on May 1, 2008.  We celebrated by having a picnic with the kids on the beach at East Beach in Norfolk.  Some PB Sandwiches, some chocolate chip cookies, some chips.  Good times.  Hard to believe it has been 9 years.  Love you, Megan!

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Finally got around to bottling my first batch of Pale Ale. 

I soaked my bottles in OxyClean to remove them and clean them Friday night thinking I would get to bottle on Saturday night.  One thing led to another and I wasn’t able to get to it until Monday.

I can see why people Keg.  Not only is the whole process a pain, but storing all those bottles sure does take up a lot of room especially considering I’ll need to bottle batch number 2 in a few weeks.

I tasted the brew and it tasted pretty bitter.  I’m hoping the carbination will cut that a bit.

My Final gravity was 1.014 so it hadn’t changed since I racked to secondary (which is expected).  My Original Gravity was 1.056 so that puts the ABV at 5.46%.  Not bad.  My target Final ABV was 6.02%.

Now, more waiting. 

• Total time in Primary: 12 days
• Total time in secondary: 16 days

Thought it was a good time to revisit easter with some photos I uploaded to flickr.

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   I decided to make something my wife might enjoy a bit more than the pale ale.  Homebrew USA had a Wit recipe that I decided to try.  I was pretty excited to get the next batch underway because I was going to do my primary in glass (Thanks, JP for the carboys!).

So on to learn from my first batch mistakes and make new mistakes with this batch (it’s how you learn, right?).

Recipe: “Wit” Way is Up?
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So I racked to secondary.  The kid in me won out (sorry John!).  

 I prepped all my gear and got to siphoning.  The whole process went pretty smoothly.  I did notice a Star San Snake appear out of the top of the carboy, but as I have read numerous times, “Don’t fear the foam!”

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