20070727: Thoughts

I collaborate on a few brews with my dive buddy Dave. Since he buys the ingredients, I don't count his brews on my list. Still, we estimate that we've done nine or ten together. Tonight's brew is a Vanilla Porter - extract recipe (not mini-mash). All told, we finished this one in a touch over three hours - three and a half including clean up.

While the boil was going, I was able to rack my second Red #4 to make room in a primary. I always siphon a taste off. Dave said that it was very hoppy. I enjoyed it because the Saaz hops are exactly the flavor I'm going for. The Red gets dry hopped with Saaz Auscha hops for a couple/three weeks. I may rack again to try to filter off the hops and then finally to keg.

We also took the time to keg my third batch of a Belgian Summer Saison in 5 months. I was smiling. The flavor seems as good as my last batch. This one was racked after spending only two weeks in secondary. It seems to have clarified enough, though hard to tell, since it is meant to be still a bit cloudy. The flavor is all there and that is what really counts.

While we were at it, I was curious to see how my White Oak Porter was coming around. I siphoned off a taste for Dave and myself. Definite vanilla oaky aromas and I could taste them as a more subtle flavor in the beer. Makes me proud to think that my goal when I made it will turn out as planned.

This 8 keg beer geek only has 4 empty kegs now with 5 brews in the pipeline. Sweet!