'pe

Back from the LHBS...trip wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The dude working was one of the few normal ones remaining and as such he didn't try to talk to me at all. Here's the recipe for the Go Heffe Yourself which will be brewed this coming week (possibly Wednesday):

6# White Wheat
5# German Pilsener Malt
1/2 oz Tettnang hops (5.1% AA)
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephaner Weizen Yeast

It'll be the most traditionally "German" heffe I have made so far and I am interested to see how it comes out.

Oh...also...bbq'ing tomorrow. Doing a full rack of baby backs slow cooked with a dry rub. I am looking forward to eating the shit out of them. More on that as it progresses. Carry on.

&Ry

Wrapping things up in Middlebury

So we are almost done here at brewschool. I can't believe how quick it has come up after nearly 6 months of this stuff. Some quick thoughts before I pass out:

It finally stopped snowing and was actually somewhat mild today. Very nice.

Amongst the 28 samples of spiked beers, (we are studying flavor defects every night) was one called Butyric acid, which is described as "baby vomit" and tastes just as it sounds. Lovely! Now I know what I DON'T want my beer to taste like.

Here is a nice shot of my current workspace, the common room of the Inn I am staying at. They used exterior shots of this place for the Newhart show, if any of you are old enough to remember that one....
___________

anyway, I should start studying now, final exam tomorrow. Will get another post up soon.

Goodnight from VT with love!

-Wrence

Brew School

It's snowing in Middlebury, Vermont.

I've just finished another 12-hour day.

In case you haven't been paying attention, I'm finishing up brew school this week up in VT, working days in a considerably-sized microbrewery and studying sensory analysis, water chemistry, and QC with a class of 22 brew students (brewdents?). There are several solid bros (and sisters) in the class, but also a few annoying douchebag-types; you know, the kind who have to shout whenever they are talking (so as to subject as many people possible to their idiotic ramblings), name-drop (about people in the brewing industry, for christsake) and make fun of innocently bland beers like Labatt's Blue.

Regardless, most of my classmates are cool, and I'm psyched to see what some of these people are doing with themselves over the next year. Most of us are off to apprentice for 5 weeks after this, at various breweries. A lot of people are going back home to their local brewpub, but some are actually off to really cool places like: Hopworks (Portland, OR); Firestone Walker (Pasa Robles, CA); Ommegang (Cooperstown, NY); Sixpoint (Brooklyn, NY). I will be at an un-named brewpub/production plant located in Santa Rosa, CA.

Also: one fellow student grew up in my college town and knows all kinds of people that I do.
one fellow student went to college with one of my best friends from home.
-weird-

SO: I'll put something else up later in the week...it's mega-busy time for Wrence here, and I've only a few hours in the evening to check the emails, maybe chat with a roomate for a minute, and throw up a blog post (if possible) so stay tuned. Graduation is Friday!

-'Wrence

edit: also I'd like to add that we just discovered that the TV in our room at the inn is set to parental-block any show that's rated over TV-14 or some shit, and we can't watch South Park because of this. My roomate just stormed downstairs to confront the inn-keep about this. Amazing.