Confluence of various Blog-esque personae, drinking beer and general good-timery

As I type this I am sitting in The Bones' kitchen drinking coffee. It's 9am in Needham and I've been drinking & eating pretty much non-stop for 48 hours now, and have yet to really be full, nor have I experienced a hangover. I can only conclude that as I age I keep getting better and better at being awesome.

Last night the Bones & I took the T into town (which was actually pretty convenient considering he really lives in the suburbs) and went to CBC to meet some friends. The place was almost disturbingly empty at first on this black Friday, but the relative calm and quiet gave me a chance to catch up with some of my friends who work there before they got too busy to talk and before we got distracted by our people showing up...

Among whom was none other than the the Toymeister himself (the guy in the picture to the right, who used to post on here often) replete with his usual array of idiosyncratic humor and jokes that really only HE can get away with. This may include sending text messages of cock drawings to us before he arrived, but I can't confirm that.

Today the Bones plans on brewing something (once he wakes up, that is); we still have the house to ourselves and plan to pretty much just chill here for the day/night. We picked up a mic yesterday to complete the "band" and are tossing around a few song ideas. Hopefully we get some tracks down at some point in the day, all the while knocking off a righteous Pale Ale. And oh yea, there's turkey, too.

Peace

-Wrence

2009 Brewing

So, I wasn't exactly planning on doing too much brewing after coming back from California; the reason being that I am not exactly sure how much longer I will be here. But, let's be Frank, I'm going to be here for at LEAST a few more weeks if not much longer. So, Frank, I decided to brew a quick turn-around Pale Ale early this month, in the vein of a Russian River styled hoppy beer.

8.5# 2-row (U.S.)
.5# Dextrine Malt

.5 oz Chinook -60 min
.5 oz Chinook -30 min
2 oz Chinook -0 min

Dry hop#1:
.5oz Chinook
.5oz Amarillo

Dry hop#2:
.5oz Centennial

Wyeast 1056
SG: 1.051
44 BUs

Dry hop #1 went into the primary after fermentation subsided. The beer was then racked off of the hops into secondary, where Dry hop #2 was added. Both were about 5-day rests.
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That beer is in bottles now. It finished BONE dry at a frightening 1.006 - But it still tastes solid as all get out.

So last night I decided, "Shit, Frank - we will definitely need more beer than just that." The decision was made to brew up an even quicker turn-around, mega low-gravity beer that I could have in bottles within 2 weeks. The idea of a Belgian Wit reared its fruity head, but then the idea of doing a Mild Ale hit me and I didn't look back. These beers can start out in the 1.03s, for shit's sake, and still be very flavorful. Also I thought the roasted character that some exhibit would be a good drinker for the month of February. I ALSO also decided to make this a larger batch, and bottle it right out of my 6.5 gallon primary fermenter.

Here are the details:

(5.5 gallong batch)

6.5# Maris Otter Malt
.5# Crystal 120
.3# Chocolate Malt
.25# Crystal 60
(I kind of whiffed on the crystal malts when at the brewstore, RyToy style, not sure how or why I ended up with what I did - it does look a bit odd)

.3oz Chinook -60 min
.2oz Chinook -15 min

Wyeast Northwest Ale Yeast
18 BUs
SG: 1.046 (which was WAY higher than I wanted. I was looking for 1.038. So I diluted the wort the following morning with another .5 gallon of sterile water to take it down to 1.042)

The yeast choice was partially a reaction to my over-attenuated XPA, and also due to that just being what they had at the brewstore...and it was mega fresh. I knew I wanted something that was a low attenuator, and I have always wanted to try this yeast, but never would have with any of my normal gravity beers.
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So that's the update on the Brew crap. Otherwise I am just hanging out & sending out resumes. There has been some good feedback from some of these brewers, but not job offers yet. Also, Thursday night was CBC's Barleywine Fest, which is always a blast. The Greeks joined me, as well as Tom from the Balazs Clan fame. Lit is the word I would use to describe how I got.

Peace out, January.
-Wrence

CBC Anniversary party

So our "readers" in the Boston/C-town area may know about this, the 19th anniversary of Cambridge Brewing Company. They will have a good 19 beers on tap all weekend; the list was just finalized:

Cambridge Brewing Company’s
19th Anniversary Beer Menu
19 Years = 19 Beers
(Ok, maybe 24 but who’s counting?)

1 Regatta Golden - Kölschbier – 4.2%
2 Cambridge Amber – 4.7%
3 Tall Tale Pale Ale – 5.9%
4 Charles River Porter – 6.0%
5 Spring Training I.P.A. – 6.3%
6 Bitchin’ Bitter – 4.0%
7 Golden Ring – Abbey Pale Ale – 6.0%
8 Cerise Cassée 2008 – Barrel-fermented Sour Ale with Cherries – 7.75%
9 Barrel-aged 2007 Blunderbuss – American Barleywine - 11.75%
10 CBC HefeWeizen – Unfiltered German-style Wheat Beer - 5.5%
11 Big Man Ale – ‘Nuff Said – 6.8%
12 * Red God 2006- More Than Enough Said – 8.4%
13 * LuvBuzz Espresso Stout - Stout with Organic Coffee - 6.1%
14 * Late Harvest I.P.A. 2007* - 6.5%
15 Cask-conditioned Tall Tale Pale Ale with Cascade Dryhops– 6.0%
16 Tripel Threat 2007 – Belgian Special Strong Ale – 9.5%
17 * Arquebus 2007 - Chardonnay Barrel-aged Summer Barleywine – 10.75%
18 Bannatyne’s Scotch Ale – The Brewdaddy Special – 9.2%
19 * The Wind Cried Mari 2006– Unhopped Heather Ale – 5.0%

* will be replaced by:
12 Red God 2008 – 8.5%
13 Cherry Stout – Stout Aged With Organic Montmorency Cherries – 6.3%
14 Om – Barrel-aged Liquid Enlightenment – 9.4%
17 Biere de Miel 2007 – Belgian-style Blonde Ale with Cambridge Honey - 8.8%
19 Weekapaug Gruit – Unhopped Herbal Beer – 6.0%

I may have just drooled on my space-bar

-'Wrence