Way Behind.........

This seemed like a good idea back in the fall when I brewed my first batch, however, the updates have fallen by the wayside of late.  Well actually since, November 2nd!

A few thing have happened since then, brewed the third, fourth and fifth batch, and there is very little left of second and third to drink!

Third brew as a Vanilla Coffee Robust Porter that Joe helped me brew on election night of 2009 as we watched the returns come in.  Election didn't turn out how we wanted but the Porter is (nearly was) great.  Think I will definitely brew again and maybe up the vanilla just a tad.

Fourth brew is an ultra-hoppy IPA that is in secondary fermenter being dry-hopped right now.  Samples during process were quite tasty so looking forward to enjoy this one at the beginning of March.  Hopefully will be bottling sometime this week.  Have found that bottling is a major pain in the ass sanitizing 50 or so 12 oz. bottles --- will be looking into kegging soon.

Fifth batch is the Furlough Oatmeal Stout brewed this past Friday on a state shutdown day.  Pitched the yeast at a high temp (~80*) and left to go north for the weekend - came home Sunday and it was bubbling away and some had bubbled out of the airlock.  Not sure if it will skew the final brew or not.  Checked gravity today and it is progressing along nicely - we'll see.

Already plotting the next brew and hope to be more regular with posts in the future...

In other news, a great beer blog (Maine written but covering beer in general with some great highlights of Maine happenings) is having the "Mother of All Beer Blogging Contests" with some great prizes.  Visit www.blogaboutbeer.com for more information (direct link to contest is here) and follow the blog - tons of great info and well written.