To say it's been a while would be a gross understatement. I'd always resolved to skip posts lamenting lack of updates, as they almost inevitably seem to sound the death knell for that blog. The last few months have been some of the busiest of my life; finishing this doctoral degree will be a real accomplishment, and it will happen this spring. Of course, to guarantee that, other aspects of life have gone by the wayside. Things like, oh, brewing and blogging. I'm very much looking forward to having time to come back to both more strongly, though once school's out the job search gains further momentum (it never stopped).
For now, I'll make a few quick notes on the past year of brewing, based only on my current recollection:
- I would've loved to have brewed more. The class/homework/project/dissertation schedule kept the kettles in the closet, mostly.
- Beers tended to sit much longer than intended before bottling. E.g., the Burton ale is now the best part of two years old, and I'm only now considering the dry hop. Still haven't even tasted it. Guess we'll see what kind of havoc the massive amount of oak cubes--probably 5 oz total?!--have wrought.
- More tasting notes are in order. Still working on that one.
- Utah low-point beer isn't terrible, and the brewers here work their asses off to pack as much flavour as possible into that small amount of alcohol. That being said, I won't be sad if our next home is somewhere outside the state, where full-strength beer is a bit easier to come by.
Right now, I have the Burton ale, a Belgian "amber" strong, and a pale ale in the fermenters. The APA will get the end of last year's locally-picked hops for dry hop in the next couple days, and the Burton will finally get its final dosing of Goldings soon. I look forward to writing all about each of these beers as soon as possible. Til then, prosit.
