Smashing Pumpkins, Beer & Pizza

Pretty mellow weekend. The weather was nice so the driveway saw some considerable hangingoutitude, predictably. The Greeks & I found a new Chinese restaurant that delivers until 2am, which is incredibly rare in Boston, so THERE's something to be thankful for. Also, it should be noted that for whatever reason, I was continually followed around by the oeuvre of the Smashing Pumpkins all weekend: it seemed wherever I went they were being played on the sound system, bars, restaurants, you name it; whilst driving out to Newton Sunday morning 2 pumpkins tunes came up on the radio; the Pandora I had rocking at the house all weekend kept throwing pumpkins tracks at me every 5 songs or so. Double-you Tee Eff? Billy Corgan must be getting a juicy royalty check this week with my name in the memo part. I BET HE WILL BE SO HAPPY!



umm....maybe not

Brew Status:

Friday night I bottled the Oleana Spice beer. After about a week in secondary we tasted it, and it was agreed that the spices were indeed a bit TOO subtle, so I added what remained of the original spice mix (about 1/4 of what I originally made) into some boiled water and then into the fermenter. A week later at bottling the taste was noticably more pronounced to us, but still totally balanced and a blind taster would be hard-pressed to pick up the actual spices used. I am really happy with it.

With some of the yeast that I had saved from that brew, I boiled up another Belgian on Saturday afternoon. I had the house to myself for most of the day so I took advantage and had a nice, relaxed, 6-hour brew session...took my time with everything and the results are always just a little bit better when I'm not rushed. This beer will be something of clone of Rochefort 8 or 10. I call it: Rochefortesque.

Also, Thursday night I am attempting grilled pizzas in the driveway on little Smokey Joe. Dough is proofing in the fridge. Research has been done. Fingers are crossed. I'll keep you posted,

-'Wrence