Happenings
I really think I use that subject line way too much, but I guess it works so I'm sticking with it.
I had a pretty good weekend. As I was brewing beer this weekend in Milford, I drove up to Bangor right after work. I had no plans that night, and was really, really tired anyway, though when I was in about Waterville, Mike Rombeiro called me to see if I wanted to go to the Great Lost Bear. The only time I'll turn that down is if I'm not physically there, so I had to say no obviously.
Saturday was dedicated to making our annual fall IPA. We somewhat revisited the 2006 version, as it was our favorite to date, but with more accurate IBU calculations this time. The idea was to make a fairly standard-strength beer and hop it using only late hop additions to preserve aroma. We used a mixture of Amarillo aned Centennial hops, the longest hop addition being a mere 20 minutes, with others at 10 and 5 minutes. We required something like a half pound of hops to achieve our target of 64IBUs with such little boiling time!
The wort smelled just wonderful though when we got done. I'd say that we accomplished our mission. Sparging yields were high this time, giving us a starting boil volume of 7.6 gallons, and an end volume of just under 7, perfect for our 6.8 gallon SS conical fermenter. Once primary fermentation is done, we're going to dry-hop this with an ounce of Amarillo.
After brewing, I went out for a bite to eat and a drink with my old friend Amy Dow, who I hadn't seen in quite awhile. It was nice to sort of catch up, we used to hang out all the time in Portland, in fact she was my racquetball partner, but since moving back to Bangor, we haven't seen each other much, even though I'm up there a lot. She may be coming back down South though, so perhaps that will change. I'd love to have a racquetball partner again in any case.
After hanging out at Paddy Murphy's, a bunch of us went over to Catie and Chris's for a game night, and played a game of Apples to Apples followed by Cranium. I won the former, and my team lost the latter, thanks to Brian's very good beaver impersonation. We didn't get home until nearly 2am though.
Yesterday I didn't do much of anything - went to Mass, watched the Patriots, played my guitar a bit (I brought it to Bangor with me), then had a very nice dinner before leaving. I opened a bottle of 2002 Los Vascos Reserve Cab, from a property in Chile owned by Chateau Lafite Rothschild. For $18, it's pretty hard to beat, as it is rather old-world in influence and could be easily mistaken for a $40 Bordeaux. I love Los Vascos for this reason.
I hope everyone out there had a nice weekend, too!
I had a pretty good weekend. As I was brewing beer this weekend in Milford, I drove up to Bangor right after work. I had no plans that night, and was really, really tired anyway, though when I was in about Waterville, Mike Rombeiro called me to see if I wanted to go to the Great Lost Bear. The only time I'll turn that down is if I'm not physically there, so I had to say no obviously.
Saturday was dedicated to making our annual fall IPA. We somewhat revisited the 2006 version, as it was our favorite to date, but with more accurate IBU calculations this time. The idea was to make a fairly standard-strength beer and hop it using only late hop additions to preserve aroma. We used a mixture of Amarillo aned Centennial hops, the longest hop addition being a mere 20 minutes, with others at 10 and 5 minutes. We required something like a half pound of hops to achieve our target of 64IBUs with such little boiling time!
The wort smelled just wonderful though when we got done. I'd say that we accomplished our mission. Sparging yields were high this time, giving us a starting boil volume of 7.6 gallons, and an end volume of just under 7, perfect for our 6.8 gallon SS conical fermenter. Once primary fermentation is done, we're going to dry-hop this with an ounce of Amarillo.
After brewing, I went out for a bite to eat and a drink with my old friend Amy Dow, who I hadn't seen in quite awhile. It was nice to sort of catch up, we used to hang out all the time in Portland, in fact she was my racquetball partner, but since moving back to Bangor, we haven't seen each other much, even though I'm up there a lot. She may be coming back down South though, so perhaps that will change. I'd love to have a racquetball partner again in any case.
After hanging out at Paddy Murphy's, a bunch of us went over to Catie and Chris's for a game night, and played a game of Apples to Apples followed by Cranium. I won the former, and my team lost the latter, thanks to Brian's very good beaver impersonation. We didn't get home until nearly 2am though.
Yesterday I didn't do much of anything - went to Mass, watched the Patriots, played my guitar a bit (I brought it to Bangor with me), then had a very nice dinner before leaving. I opened a bottle of 2002 Los Vascos Reserve Cab, from a property in Chile owned by Chateau Lafite Rothschild. For $18, it's pretty hard to beat, as it is rather old-world in influence and could be easily mistaken for a $40 Bordeaux. I love Los Vascos for this reason.
I hope everyone out there had a nice weekend, too!