First off, Saison du Muqunee, brewed by the homebrewing homosexual duo of Justin and Dave. Good looking brew for sure. Cloudy straw gold with a nice white head that dissipates down to a collar but chills the whole glass. The aroma is really something else - spicy, ginger-esqe notes blend with a grainy, almost cereal backbone, with lots of underlying fruit - apple, pear, and maybe even peach. There is also a curry type smell which is real weird, but I dig it. The taste is wonderfully refreshing and easy drinking. Light fruits up front followed by some pepper and grass, with a long grainy, bitter, dry finish. Well fucking done kids!! I know this was your first all grain and I must say you killed it. Very clean with absolutely no flaws, perfect attenuation, and the yeast comes through flawlessly. Your best yet.
Secondly, what the hell have I been doing? The answer: working... like a motherfucker. But it's a lot of fun. For now we're not brewing too often, so mostly I'm the kitchen expediter. It's stressful but worth it. The restaurant is doing real well and the food is great. People are really responding to the beer as well. So far I've help Tom brew 3 batches. First was the Bradley Effect - a 3.8% ABV dark gruit. The advent of using hops in beer was not until the 17th century-ish (depending on where you lived), so to balance out the sweetness of the malts they used herbs. In this one we used yarrow, sweetgale, wild rosemary, and a bunch of others I can't remember. It's very interesting because not only is it tough to find a true gruit, I've never herd of a dark one. We brewed it with Doug whom, I doubt anyone remembers this, was behind Heavywight's Doug's Colonial Ale. The second batch is the Schuylkill Bitter which was originally to be an E.S.B., but we accidentally left a valve open on the brew kettle, so all the extra and special parts wound up on the floor. Tom blames me, I blame him, whatever. The last batch was O'nekrups Rebirth, later renamed Berkun's Finger (as in "hey, give me the finger"). It's a simple baltic porter based on Perkuno's Hammer only scaled back. All went well with brewing, and I can't wait for this one. It's aging with a lager yeast at 58 right now.
Damn, I went on and on. I need to blog more. I will try. Right now I'm drinking a 750 of 2005 Heavyweight Old Salty.. Thanks Tom. The beer here in Philly is unreal, as my ratebeer ratings will show. This is definitely a good beer drinking city, but goddamn it it is expensive. Well I'm done. I'm really gonna attempt to post more. Keep in touch, kids..
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