When I first started this little blog up, I thought it would be an easy way to keep notes on my beer and record random thoughts and events that happened to me or that I was influenced by on brew day…What music I listened to, what the weather was like, what was pissing me off, what was making me happy, who helped brew, etc. A little photo album for each day or whatever. And it is. It’s a great idea and I need to keep this stuff written down as my memory doesn’t serve me very well as of late and I like remembering brew days. I don’t really own any notebooks, I lose any pen I get my hands on, and my organization skills are sub-par to say the least. But AHA! I use the internet daily. This should be easy for me to do!!! Yet despite all of my excitement and good intentions, BLOG FAIL. Don’t get me wrong. I haven’t given up. I’ve just proven to myself once again that one of my weaknesses is procrastination and I need to work on that.
I’m sick today. Just a bad cold. It’s my fault. The last couple weeks I’ve had the winter itch. SAD is what they call it I guess. I never thought I was affected by this “condition” but the dark snowy days have finally gave way to a need for increased social contact and I’ve been attempting to embrace that need. My boss calls it burning the candle at both ends. It’s not healthy and I know this. I’ve been working all day, and partying through the night…I saw it coming and it’s my fault I’m sick. I’ve just had too many nights stuck inside with the dog and the cat.
I need a bonfire! A huge one! A night under the stars with a bright moon to keep everyone’s bare or sandaled toes un-stubbed should they stray away from the light of the fire. Not a full moon tho, only half lit up with a slight crescent shape like a seductive wink of the eye in the night sky. That’s how I like my moon. A shirt optional drum circle, maybe with some warpaint for those of us up after 3 am and most definitely some scantily clad women dancing around, one that’s not too good on the tambourine but ain’t afraid to shake it. That’s what I need. A night of the wild, abandoning all inhibitions. An evening barking at the moon. There needs to be beer there too, oh yes, plenty of beer…but really it’s a night for whiskey…yea…thats what I need right now…whiskey and women, fire and the moon. Nature…but not this cold shit!
Bah! What am I talking about? I need some dayquil, a cup of tea, and a nap!
The reason for this post and rant is to once again try to light a bonfire under my ass and get me to update this with my brew notes, and in the future, write more concise accounts of the brew day. I’m sitting here staring at my last two brew “notes” and I need to get them down before I can no longer understand my own chicken scratch. Hell the last notes are written on the cardboard backing of an aqua-mist air stone package. (I use the airstones to infuse oxygen into the wort).
So long story short, I got my torrified wheat! I’ve brewed a cyser and a winter ale and should I call into work sick today, it is my goal to have both of those written up before bedtime.
I did not use any clarifying agents and it seems pretty dang clear to me, however I did acclimate some ec1118 to the must along with the priming sugar before priming/bottling. In hindsight, the still product tasted sooooooo good, that I’m wishing now that I would have left half of it unprimed. This bottle, only 2 days old, is already showing slight carbonation, as you can see in the picture i think. Initial thoughts are that it seems a little yeasty (probably from the addition of ec1118) but i’m thinking that will go away as bottle conditioning is finished and the cyser ages. It should hopefully be replaced by a tart acidity that will compliment the dryness of this beverage… Either way i’m nothing but enthused about this brew. Initial brew on the 22nd of november makes this bottle only about 2 and a half months old, 2 days out of the secondary. I’ll try another in 2 weeks…or maybe 2 hours…
