Saturday, March 7, 2009

Free time for brewing is few and far between

So I haven't brewed at all this month, which entirely defeated the purpose of buying a second carboy so I could have two going at once. Ah well. Still haven't bottled my Nightshade Ale yet either...although I think I have enough bombers lying around to do the batch, I haven't had the time to devote to bottling. When I have had time, going through the effort of bottling has been the last thing I've wanted to do. It's not that bad of a thing though - work and law school has kept me ridiculously busy, so I wouldn't have the time to enjoy the beer anyway. I still have a good amount of the chocolate porter and raspberry-chocolate stout I made, anyway.

The raspberry-chocolate stout has mellowed out somewhat, but the raspberry flavor is still a little strong. If I do a beer like this again, I might stay away from the extracts. It added a medicinal flavor that is kind of unpleasant. Still, it's a pretty solid beer - I'm happy with it.

I did order the ingredients for my next brew, however, and I did decide to do the Imperial Stout. I'm going to be on spring break next week, but hopefully when I get back I'll be able to make time to brew the batch. I enjoy brewing MUCH more than bottling, and my lack of free time will definitely be a good thing with this beer, since I'll want it to sit in secondary for awhile. I'm going to be out of town for most of the summer, so I haven't decided if I want to leave it in secondary over the summer, or bottle it right before I leave (after a month-month and a half in secondary), and let it bottle condition. I also plan on aging it over vanilla beans in secondary, so that might have something to do with which way I lean.

Since I am going to be gone this summer, I'd like to make full use of both carboys and have another batch going while I'm gone. I'm contemplating making a barleywine/winter-warmer combination...or basically a barleywine with traditional winter spices. I think it'd be perfect to do over the summer, because it would just be getting drinkable right around as the temperature starts to drop in the fall. That, however, is obviously way down the road.

I'll be gone for the next week, as I said, but hopefully I'll have time to brew my Imperial Stout sooner rather then later once I get back.

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