Baby, Brews, and Brewery Tours

Since the Future Brewer has arrived, I obviously haven't had a ton of time or energy (thanks, sleep deprivation!) to do much writing in the Blog lately. However, there has been plenty to write about.

First off, the Future Brewer(FB) is doing great! Apart from a few nights where she doesn't want to sleep very much, it's been a dream having her around. We're here at just about 6 weeks, and she is really starting to enjoy being around us as well. She smiles at us all the time now. Especially when she hasn't seen one of us in a while. Coming home from work is even a bigger joy now.

Since the FB is out and about now, the SWMBO can drink my beer again! A few weeks ago we cracked open the first of Jennifer's Cherry Wheat. Unfortunately, it's underwhelming. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this beer, apart from a bit of over-carbing, it just didn't get that cherry flavor that I was going for. I used 2 pounds of Cherries in the recipe, but I probably should have used something closer to four or five pounds. Apart from that, it's a very easy drinking beer. Very light on the palate, just slightly bready, and with a bit of fruity esters.

This weekend I intend on getting around to brewing the Wedding Weizen. This is going to be brewed for my sister's wedding rehearsal dinner in a couple of months. I plan on making this beer with a pretty simple recipe. It will just be Wheat DME, a touch of hops, and Wyeast Weiheinstephan Yeast. This should bring out quite a bit of clove flavor for this Hefeweizen. Since this will be a group function, I don't really want to use a bunch of bottles for strangers. I plan on making the first, although pretty small, step into kegging: Party Kegs! These are small 5L kegs that will carb naturally, and can use a small tap with small CO2 canisters attached to pour with. I figured this would be much easier to deal with than 40 bottles scattered about the place.

In the final bit of news; I got to get out this past weekend and check out Triangle Brewing Company, in Durham. The tour of the brewery is well worth your money (it's free!) and the beer (also free!) isn't too shabby. The tour itself is pretty basic. You find out about the very basics in brewing beer, but details and specifics are left out for the most part. This is a tour more focused on the uninitiated and "new to craft beer" types. The beers themselves were hit or miss. Being the hop-head that I am, I started off with their IPA. This was an excellent offering. Finally, an American-style IPA that this area can be proud of and isn't just bitter beer. Maybe someone got the message? I also tried their Extra Pale Ale. Meh. An overly easy drinking beer that really has no character (especially hop character) and isn't worth writing home about. I had a sip of their experimental Habanero Ale, which tastes similar to the Pale Ale, just with some pepper flavor, and heat in the mix. An interesting beer to try, but there's no reason to have more than half of one. The other beers they had available, I did not try. I was hooked on the IPA and kept with that.

I'll try to keep the PPP updated with bits on the Wedding Weizen, and how the new "kegs" go in the future.