Taste Test! And Weekend Recap

Twas a very busy weekend around these parts.

First, I bottled the Amber. Some of the bottles I used were old Newcastle glasses. Newcastle uses clear glass bottles for some reason. This normally lets a lot of light onto the beer and can give beer that skunky flavor it sometimes has. Fortunately for me, my beer is hidden away in darkness, so it shouldn't be affected too much by that. However, the clear glass bottles allow me to get a good look on how the beer really looks. It actually looks very light in color. Not quite as amber as I had hoped. More Golden in color.

With the bottling of the Amber, came the racking of Tyler's Pale into the Secondary. This is going to be a fun brew. It's almost yellow in color, mainly because of all the suspended yeast. Once it all settles out, this is going to be a very light beer.

Next came the taste test of the Porter, just prematurely.

I now give you: The Pink Circle Porter!

So, taste results: Well, first, it's not carbonated quite yet. It was still too early to really taste it. It made the nice pssshht sound when I popped the top, but it just hasn't aged long enough for the CO2 to really get pushed back into the liquid and carbonate it. Apart from the lack of carbonation, it tastes just like a porter. It's very malty with a slight roasted malt flavor. It's not overly hoppy but it's got a nice bit of bitterness on the back of the tongue. I plan on opening one every few days or so to see when it ages. Once it gets to the right amount of time being conditioned, it'll be ready for the public.

The Canes also won on Saturday. They came out like a team possessed in the first period and held on through the rest of the game to shut out the Atlanta Thrashers 2-0. It was a very fun game to be at, especially in the 1st period. If the Canes can play like they did in the 1st, there's no reason they couldn't make the playoffs and even make it past the 1st round. I just hope they can put that effort in consistently.

There was also some other game that went on on Sunday night as well. So it was a busy weekend.

Here's some random bird pictures I took while distracted from cleaning.

For the Birds

The Canes (Can'ts?) lost to Buffalo yesterday, to no one's surprise. However Sabres' goaltender Ryan Miller did stand on his head for most of the 3rd period Saturday. It's good that the Hurricanes on are a roadtrip this week. It means they have that much more time to win before I show up at their next home game with a bag over my head.


The last time Carolina had a 5-game losing streak was way back with our old coach. I mean new coach. Our current coach. Back in 2002-03, we had two 5-game losing streaks and one 6-game losing streak to end the season on. It seems like Mo is well on his way back into form.


On a brighter note, I bottled my Porter yesterday. Now, in just 3 weeks I'll have some nice home brew to keep my mind distracted from the Canes. Bottling my Porter made room in the Secondary for my Amber Ale. It's beautimous. Check it out.



I'll leave with some pics of some birds. We got a new bird feeder the other day, mainly just so I can take some pictures around the house if nothing else.

Brew Update!

Porter:

The Porter is currently in its second day in the Secondary Fermenter. Things are going well. The past couple of days I've been able to see little clumps of yeaties and other goodies going up and down as the brew ferments off the last bit of sugars. It's definitely not as exciting to watch as a Primary Ferementaion in a Carboy, but it's still fun.


As you can see in the second picture, there's a nice layer of dead yeast and proteins forming at the bottom of the carboy. This was my main reason for even using the Secondary Fermenter to begin with, just the clearing effects that it will have.


American Amber

My American Amber is coming along nicely as well and is bubbling vigorously. I can't wait to get it out of the bucket and into the Carboy to see it's color. It's promising to be much lighter than the Porter(being almost black), but I'd really like to see through it and see some light. I can't wait for the weekend! Here's a pic of the bubbler on the Primary.