Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted on here, but I have been posting my drinking adventures via the Uptappd app. I'm liking the social aspect of the app, but I don't want to neglect this blog either, so this post is a catch-up to get everything back up to speed. I'll try to do this more often so they aren't as long in the future...

Orange Shandy

Had the most interesting beer last night. It was an Orange Shandy from Leinenkugel. I've had several fruit beers over the years, but this one was the most interesting for sure. It was a good orange flavor that tasted very much like a glass of orange juice, just not as sweet. I kept expecting to get a bit of pulp!

Underneath the orange was a good beer. Its officially described as a wheat, but I had it pinned for more of a wit at first. Yummy nonetheless.

Is this one I would seek again, probably not. But it did put me in the mood for hash browns and sausage...

Hercules Double IPA

Hercules Double IPA from Great Divide was the brew-of-the-night last night. This was a great IPA with good, strong hops and very little bitter bite. Smelled and tasted nice and piney.

Once the beer warmed, however, the hops began to overpower everything else and overloaded the senses a bit. It didn't push it too far and it was still enjoyable though.

Cheers!

90 Shilling

Its crazy to think I haven't posted anything since last October! Sheesh! Time to get back on the bandwagon and back to drinking. Wait... that didn't sound right.

Anyways, the other night I had a 90 Shilling beer from Odell Brewing. I'll be honest, the only reason I grabbed this one when I built my last 6 pack was because it was the cheapest beer on the shelf. I had no idea what to expect and didn't really have high expectations. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised.

I didn't realize it when I opened it up that it was a scotch ale. After I listed my tweet-sided review via the Untappd app, it came up as that which explained a few things. Fortunately, this is one of the best beers of that style I've had. Normally, in my opinion, a scotch ale tastes too boozy. Thinking back, this one had the flavor, but without the off-putting burn/taste.

90 Shilling smelled a bit fruity when I poured it and it's head frothed up nice and thick. When I got into it, it had a very nice malty flavor with just the right blend of hops. Definitely smooth and very easy / pleasant to drink. This is one I wouldn't mind picking up again.

Blackthorn Pizza & Pub

I went somewhere new last night and fell in love. I went with an amazing group of men from Church to Blackthorn Pizza & Pub in Joplin with the promise of amazing pizza and a big selection of craft beer. Needless to say, both lived up to their promise well! I've found a new watering hole in Joplin that is 1, smoke free, 2, good pizza, and 3, big selection of craft beer on tap.

Mead Batch #2

This post is quite a bit past due, but I have my second batch of mead working away, aiming for it to be ready for Christmas. This batch was actually started on July 31, 2013...

I followed the same steps I did in my first batch, so I'll skip that dialog of the process. With the first batch, I added spices to create flavor. This time, I opted for something better. I used fresh blackberries and cherries!

All the ingredients ready to go.

I used Clover Honey this time (first batch was "wildflower") and the finest fruit Walmart had to offer.

Happy must (and a curious "helper" who wanted to taste the fruit)

Fruit is loaded and ready to go. Those cherries took a while to prepare...

And they're off to a good start.

Even though I poured out about half a gallon of water off the containers, I still had a lot of must left over. Fortunately, I still had the honey container, so I now have the 2 berry batches and one more that's plain. That plain one bubbled madly with all the extra honey for the yeast to feast on!

It's been almost 2 months and all the fermenting has stopped for the most part. I pulled the balloons off the two berry containers and tasted a sample of each before putting their lids back on (I was smart and saved them this time!). These two are turning out much better than the first batch already. They didn't taste like nail polish!

Next step will be to rack them into glass jars. I have two gallon sized jugs ready, they just need to be sanitized. I also need to get a hose to siphon the mead into the jugs. I'm not sure what to do with the plain mead. I might see if there is extra space in the jugs and add the plain into them.

I'm excited to see how these turn out with a few more months of maturing!

Mead - Lessons Learned and Batch #2

I learned my lesson the hard way with my first batch of mead. It was tasting so good too, but I wound up dumping over half of it out because it became so tainted it was sickening. What's the lesson? Never leave your mead in plastic bottles!

My hunch is that the alcohol was eating away at the plastic and it finally reached a point where it leeched so much that it turned the mead. It was nasty. I'll do the initial ferment in plastic bottles as others have proven it works well, but for batch #2, I'll actually rack it into glass bottles (as soon as I can find some cheaply).

Luckily it wasn't all lost and some of the mead is still good. It's my "plain" mead that still good. It was still in a plastic bottle, but a different type of bottle than the others. I'll be transferring it out into something glass soon to ensure it doesn't go bad. It's been 9 months so far and I love it.

Coming up next will be 2 more gallon sized batches and I'm going to be getting a little more creative this time. One bottle will contain a Cherry Mead (Black Cherry if I can find them) and the other will be Blackberry. I've got all the ingredients I need except for the fruit. As soon as I pick it up, I'll mix up the next batch and post again.