It's 5:09 p.m., I've got a belly full of turkey, I'm watching football and...
 

I'm getting ready to have a brew kettle full of Belgian Tripel. Life is good. :thumb: :toast: :BLVD:

I should clarify that I'm not drinking a kettle of tripel, rather I'm brewing one.

Good stuff bud! Enjoy...Cheers!!
:toast: :toast:

Did I mention that while you brew beer you can drink beer?

My Guiness clone is in the bottles aging as we speak and I just brewed a lovely Weizen this morning. My lager will go into the secondary this week. Should have plenty of refreshing beverages around Xmas. Methinks I will be brewing a nice Alt or Doppelbock later this month.

Life would be better if the dish fairy came and did my dishes....and of course it the boys could put a hurting on the donks...:D

Winter certainly lends itself to lagers. I'll be brewing a triple decoction pilsner after the first of the year and a Marzen shortly thereafter. I've got a hophead red and a dubbel in secondary right now and just bottle a bourbon-vanilla porter two weeks ago.

Are you a fan of Lambic by any chance? A lot of people are put off by the twang.

I'm on Belgian kick and I like the Lambics but it's the saisons that I'm a big fan of. I won't brew a lambic because I don't want to screw with the bacteria. Makes me nervous. I usually just buy them and currently have a Duchesse De Bourgogne cellared. Are you all-grain or extract?

Mmmmmmmmmm........Maerzen. I may have to plan a batch of that but I want to get at least 2 more lager batches in before winter is over including a Bitburger clone that has to lager for 3 months.

i got laid by an old high school friend yesterday I came back threw my money around in my old days and just like the mike jones song, same size a year later the same hoes wanna **** me

I currently am extract but do a partial mash with each recipe. I really need to construct a decent Lautertun so I can go all grain.

I use a rectangle cooler and stainless hose braid. Batch sparging is the only way to go IMHO. Check it out: http://www.tastybrew.com/articles/dennyconn001

BTW, batch sparging is cheaper than extract, easy and most importantly not as time intensive as fly sparging. An extra 30-60 minutes tops once you have it down.

Since most of the malts I brew with are well modified I typically just do a single-step infusion.

[QUOTE=JimNasium]I use a rectangle cooler and stainless hose braid. Batch sparging is the only way to go IMHO. Check it out: http://www.tastybrew.com/articles/dennyconn001[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the link. It will be very helpful. I'll be coming back off the road on the 22d of DEC and may try to construct it then. It will definately reduce my cost just in extract alone. I have a few other plans for the spring as well. I have the perfect spot for planting hop rhizomes and will be planting Tettnanger, Hersbrucker, Hallertauer, Cascade and Fuggles. I will have to do some research on how to test for AA content in fresh hops but that is a bit down the road.

[QUOTE=CHIEF4EVER]I can't decide on whether I want to screw with raising hops or not. As I understand it, it is tough to determine the AA thus making them better candidates for aroma hops. Maybe I can learn from your experience.

I suppose it will be just a case of learning as I go. I'll do a little digging on testing for AA. I am also interested in how hard/advantageous it would be to learn how to culture my favorite strains of yeast myself. On another note, the last 2 days I tested a few beers to determine if I would want to try cloning them. I tested Boulevard Pale Ale, Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat and Killians Irish Red. The only one of the 3 that I liked was the Pale Ale. The Wheat was just LOUSY. A pitiful attempt to brew Weizen. I wasn't particularly fond of Killians either. I may brew a decent IPA sometime in the near future and will definately do a British Bitter.

i dont think ive eaten this much in one day so far in about 3 years, seriously wow

:hmmm: Must have been good stuff, as I don't see you around here....;) Happy Thanksgiving to you and all.