Brew Day III

4 28 11

The third day came quickly. It was Saturday and in the blink of an eye, Thursday. We became crazed, hooked, falling over stumbling mad. We had just completed our second brew day in history and already found ourselves five days later at it again. Brewing, creating, taking the night away from its comfortable routine. We had become engorged with mouthfuls. We were gluttonous little piggies slopping up home brewed delicacies and desserts. We found a craft and simply had to master it, take it, keep it in some sort of state of dependency.

Ingredients left behind from Batch #2 included White Labs California Ale Yeast, Dried Light Malt Extract, Colombus, Centennial, Warrior, and Northern hops. We decided on Colombus and Centennial for 60min, Warrior 30min, and Northern 15min. We boiled those hops, those little rascals, them fresh, crisp, little nuggets. We dug in with conviction and forgot to check the rear views. We made a decision and struck hard on the gas. The transfer was flawless to the carboy, but we later realized how wrong we were. We dry hopped incorrectly once again, and packaged 5 gallons of fresh wort into a 5 gallon carboy, thats right no 6.5 hefty weight hanging around here, just an itty bitty 5 gallon buddy. We left no room for expansion. We gave krausen absolutely no room to bulk up! As you may have guessed we dealt with a home brewed emergency a few days later compliments of a spewing, gargling, popping upheaval. A disgusting looking mess. Ive never witnessed beer in such an ugly light. Crusty, split-pea, swamp-like, disgusting mess with no regard for our sanitized airlock or the sweat off our back. What a bitch. This one was a big bitch. They are all bitches I suppose. Beautiful bitches. Beautiful batches of home brewed beer they are.

Anyhow, we learned our lesson, did as much clean up, repair work, and focused action as possible and let our batch continue its conditioning. Boy, did we make a difference in appearance, I just hope its reflected in the flavor of our beer. She seems to have settled down, and taken that ugly roar down to a soft purr. I think she's cozy and showered and happy. When she's happy, I'm happy.

They say just let her sleep.

-Gaucho