fishnabowl

Yep...been slacking here. Don't pop in for long. To finish up in CA where I left off, I went on a beer pilgrimage of sorts. My last night in the Bay Area. My friend and I drove up to Petaluma to visit Lagunitas Brewery. Had some delicious cask ales. I had a cask Hairy Eyeball and a cask Reuben and the Jets. Had the Hairy Eyeball on regular tap when it was first released and it was a tough drink. Aged and cask was awesome. Had not tasted the Reuben before. It is the last of their Frank Zappa Anniversary beers. Very tasty. From there we drove up to Santa Rosa, CA to visit Russian River Brewing. They make such delicious beers. Absolutely the best IPA, hands down. Blind Pig IPA is the best. Brought a growler of Pliny the Elder back to Oregon with me. That is their double IPA if you didn't know.

Brewed an IPA with a friend back in October and it actually turned out well. Not exactly what we want but good. And I am critical of my product. Way more critical of my cooking than the people that consume it. Same with my beer. Got a good bit of brewing stuff for Christmas. This weekend we made a Cascadian Dark Ale (Black IPA) on Saturday and a Russian Imperial Stout on Sunday. Saturday when we were done, we drank one of our original IPAs. It was tasty. Good light amber color and nice bitterness. I hope these work out. The CDA is going slow in fermentation. Augie will pitch more yeast in tomorrow. We had such a high gravity, it likely needs more. The RIS is kicking. Bubbling away. Pitch two vials of yeast in it. So maybe I can sleep tonight. Was too worried about the fermentation last night.

There is the Cheers for Belgian Beers Festival here in Portland in May. Want to enter the homebrew competition. The yeast is selected. Everyone uses the same yeast. Thinking about a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. It has to be ready by April 23. It's $10 per entry and you get free entry to the fest which is $10 so might as well throw a beer on the table.

Hope everyone had a good holiday.