So this is a blog, huh. It always sounded pretty nerdy and tedious to me, but now that I think about it, I am a nerd, and nothing gets me going like tedium.
I have been brewing beer for around three years now, and - as many of my friends (or passersby) have noticed - I love to talk about it. It's one of those things that, when I first did it, I knew right away that I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. I also love to write, but up until recently I have kept my works relatively hidden. I was always that kid who did well in English class but never really thought he had any noted ability whatsoever. I still feel this way, but now at least I have an excuse to share my writing: Americans love beer, and I make beer. Damn good beer.
Feel free to click the little red dot in the upper left corner (or red "X" in the upper right, depending on your operating system) of your browser if you are looking for piss-water musings. Yes, Bud Light fans - I mean you. My advice to you is: Go out and pick yourself up a six-pack of Lagunitas Maximus, pour a glass, then get in Manny Pacquiao-defense mode. Bend your knees. Get on the balls of your feet, and prepare your mouth for the hellacious hop barrage. Or, you can keep pretending that Bud Light isn't the A.J. Burnett of beer.
My hope is that my blog will be:
- informative for those interested in homebrewing
- insightful for those who wonder what exactly it is I am ranting about on Facebook
- therapeutic and philosophically quenching (a la Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
- an entertaining way to communicate with friends, past and present
My most recent batch was based on a recipe I found on my go-to website for all things beer, Homebrew Talk. The beers I like to brew are generally big. I'm not sure if that sufficiently explains my point, so I'll try it again. The ingredients that impart a beer's bitterness are my close personal friends, the hops. Brewers measure how hoppy a beer is by using international bitterness units (IBUs), which are quantifiable based on which type of hop was used and in what dosage. Bud Light generally has about 8-12 IBUs. Dogfish Head 60 Minute has 60 IBUs. The human palette is capable of recognizing up to 100-120 IBUs, depending on which study you refer to. My last bottled IPA had 247 IBUs. That's right.
Anyway, back to Saturday's batch, the bourbon vanilla porter. I was particularly excited about this session because it was a collaboration between Buddha Brew and Chew's Brews. One of my dearest friends, Casey, has come back to NY from Colorado for the month of December before he ships off to China for a year to teach English. He is a wickedly smart guy with some brewing experience - brew day could not come soon enough.
As we got down to it though, I quickly realized that it was not the brewing that was important to me. Casey is a friend that I hadn't seen or really spoken to in over a year, yet all it took was a friendly hug, genuine smile, and hearty laugh to kick it back into gear. I've been fortunate in my life to have friends that have traveled this Earth extensively, but it seems that no matter how far they've gone or how much time has elapsed, we have this uncanny ability to pick up, almost mid-conversation, from where we had left off. It is a gift I do not take for granted, and for that I am thankful.
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As I type this, the sweet wort is grumbling in the fermenter, slowly devoured by the yeastie boys, who, when they get their fill, excrete alcohol. My goal is to have this batch ready for the kegerator by Christmas, so if you are in the area, and you'd like to sample it, let me know. 'Tis the season.
