FOOLCiRCLE

Last Saturday Wooly through a Birthday Party for himself. It was a great time and I’m really not going to go into too much detail. Erik Mitchell’s band with Robert and Corey played which was really cool because they decided to have a lot of fun with it, check out the set list below:

4/7/07 The Rodney Latimer Memorial (Stonehenge) Amphitheater, Wilmington, DE
Old Man*>
Wanted Dead Or Alive*
Baba Dochia
Need You Tonight*
The Humpty Dance>
Catapult*>
The Humpty Dance
Worst Woman
Chili’s Theme Song*^
The Bride Of The Black Sea
Pepper’s Ghost
Dukes Of Hazzard Theme*^
Ocean Man*
She’ll Follow
What I Got*

Eye Of The Tiger*
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter>
Dick In A Box Tease
The Jefferson’s Theme*+
Morning Dew*
Staying Alive
Real Men Of Genius*(see below)>
Happy Birthday*
America, Fuck Yeah*>
So Ronery*>
Montage*
Martyr
Locomotive Breath*%
Easy*
In The Bayou*

Hells Bells/Kells Bells*$
Cracklin’ Rosie*
If This Is It*#
Grandma’s Hands
Bri-Bri Beer Spill Jam*>
The House Of Osiris>
Franklin’s Tower*@
Son Of A Preacher Man*
Dirt
What’s Going On*~
Easy To Love You
Piece Of The Pie
Cherry Hill Nissan Theme*+
Out In The Rain
Wharf Rat
Sleep
I Try
Every Rose Has Its Thorn*

all songs with Corey Bonser on bass, Robert Desjardin on drums (except Locomotive Breath and Real Men Of Genius)
*first time played
^w/Dan Woolard and Erik Mitchell on vocals
+w/Mike Kavanagh and Erik Mitchell on vocals
%w/Robert Desjardin on vocals
$w/Mike Kavanagh on vocals
#w/Corey Bonser on vocals
@w/David Carson and Mike Kavanagh on vocals
~w/David Carson on vocals

Real Men Of Genius:
This week we salute you, Daniel Craig Woolard.
(what’s up Wooly)
Without you, Don McCloskey would have no one to hold his harmonica.
(slobbering on his hand)
We know you like to be at the concert five hours early, and that your pockets are full of Immodium.
(no poop pills pack me up tight)
You have an entire room in your house dedicated to porn.
(57″ wide-screen gapes, yeah)
You’re the only human over twelve years old who Tivo’s Battlestar Gallactica.
(he’s so gay for Gaius)
Rule #137 – No one is allowed to drive your car… ever.
(it smells like dead french fries)
Your friend once made you a beer with your name and picture on it, but you couldn’t drink it because it wasn’t in a green bottle.
(so sorry Bri-Bri)
So put this on the list Mr. Listmaker, right after you buy your new Ikea writing table.
(you support the Swedish economy)
Even though we know your circles never cross, we believe you truly are having sex…
Happy Birthday Wooly

It was an awesome night to say the least. Thanks, Wooly.

Last Wednesday Karen & I tasted all of the different flavors from the Oatmeal Stout Experiment. Just to recap these were: “Plain” Oatmeal Stout, Vanilla Oatmeal Stout, Bourboned Oak Oatmeal Stout, Coffee Oatmeal Stout, and the ever popular Cocoa Pebble Oatmeal Stout. I tried to pour them all in the same glass at about the same time and temperature.

These reviews are going to be based on memory. I didn’t take any notes because I thought I would have posted much sooner. Because of that they may too be shorter.

• The “Plain” Oatmeal Stout was good, but nothing extraordinary. I will say that it is the best stout I have ever brewed. Creamy, smooth, yet still robust. Don’t get me wrong, when I say not extraordinary I’m not saying it is bad, just not ‘Oh-My-Gawd-My-Stout-Kicks-Your-Dark-Lord’s-Ass-So-Bring-It-Stout’. But it was a perfect base beer to build this experiment from. The biggest draw back is because of the experiment I have fewer bottles.
• The Vanilla Oatmeal Stout was love-good, but very vanillay. The more you drank it, the more it seemed appropriate, but initially it was very intense. The smell was great! I guess it is true that a little good fresh vanilla goes a long way. One person who tried this suggested that it would be an award winner in competition.
• The Bourboned Oak Oatmeal Stout was good yet more subtle. Hints of both Wild Turkey and oak were present in the aroma, and a little bit more present in the taste. But this wasn’t one of those ‘Would you like some stout with your bourbon sir?’ kind of bourbon stouts. I actually can’t wait until I have a chance to blend a bottle of this and the vanilla stout together – give this an extra boost and mellow out the vanilla, together with them already being complimentary flavors – nice!
• The Coffee Oatmeal Stout was originally dubbed the ‘Breakfast Stout’, but I think it would have been better dubbed the ‘Old Percolator Stout’. It both smelt and tasted of cold old coffee, a little different that I had planned. I was hoping for something along the lines of FC Espresso Stout or Peche Mortel, oh well. It isn’t bad, but I bet it is the last of the stouts that are finished.
• And the Cocoa Pebble Oatmeal Stout. Well, … I honestly had low expectations for this stout from the get go, so I wasn’t disappointed. When the cap was cracked I took the precaution of opening it over the sink (reminiscent of the ol’ Fall run of FC 2001). This one was a gusher, but I’ve had my training and knew the proper thing to do was pour into the glass immediately to help relieve the pressure. The beer had an odd brown film on the top reminiscent of the scum you may skim off the top of a home-made soup, yum. The smell too was of, sweet alcohol? It was weird to say the least. And the taste? Not Cocoa Pebbles, that’s for sure. I can’t really describe it besides sharp and biting – I also only took two sips, a braver man than some.

Originally I started this whole experiment just to try and make a pre-sweetened cereal beer for a specific category for a specific contest, but didn’t want to “waste” a whole batch by mashing with the cereal just in case it flopped. Well, the one I was trying to have come out did flop. I actually drain-poured the other 6 Cocoa Pebble Oatmeal Stouts, trust me, you aren’t missing anything.

This issue was titled ‘Living the High Life’. Did somebody say Miller? Did BeerAdvocate house Miller’s slogan? Just kidding. This issue was kind of about the bling-bling of the beer world. Not quite the who’s who, but more like the if you want the best of this style beer get this, or the ultimate 6 pack of beers would be made of these, and the best beer trips in the world would be to these places. Once again my favorite article was the ‘9 Steps to Beerdom’ where Greg Koch of Stone was highlighted. Dunno why, but I think in every issue this has been my favorite part, Tomme Arthur, Larry Bell, Nick Floyd and now Greg Koch. I swear I can rattle off at least 5 or more people I would love to see featured here. Regardless, the layout and articles are very cool and appropriate once again. Also, the article on the new Sam Adams pint glass is pretty cool, cool enough that I may put out the $32 for a four pack of them (not counting shipping).

Once again, the worst part was the reviews section, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – leave them on the website! And finally the cherry-on-top of all stoopidness was the full page ad by Eulogy and Michael Naessens (owner) where he makes himself look and sound like a ridiculous pompous ass. I’m not saying Eulogy isn’t cool, or there new place won’t be the shit, or even that he doesn’t know his stuff about beer – but what I AM saying is you look like a freakin’ buffoon trying to convince us (persuade us?) all that you are not only ‘The Man’ but the one and only true ‘Belgian The Man’ (whatever the hell that means). Learn to be humble, it goes a long way – wow, at least your ad got my attention.

OK, finally book two (I could have swore this was the third book?) of the year is done, “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” by David Sedaris. It’s a shame the way it kind of comes off sounding like a chore, but with all the other dumb shit I try to squeeze into a day some how reading usually takes a back seat. This book was pretty good as a lunch reader because it is more or less a bunch of short stories that sort of go together because they are all based around David Sedaris’ life.

It’s funny, it’s hard for me to think of what to say, but I have honestly never been good at “book reports”, which is how this kind of feels to me. I used to hate book reports in school. I understand they had to figure out a way to see if you were really doing your reading, but I swear half the time I wasn’t. I would either borrowed someone else’s book report, or have them explain the book to me, or read the Cliff Notes, or just read the back of the book and like two pages and make it up (as if the teacher couldn’t tell). I seriously used to hate reading, since first grade I can remember faking reading assignments. The worst was summer reading. I don’t think I ever read one whole book on my summer vacations. I just didn’t like the idea that what they wanted me to read was better than what I would have chosen to read. Especially Mrs. Ryan and her freakin’ Newbury Award Winners – all of her books for 7^th and 8^th grade had to be Newbury Award Winning books, as if that made them better. Usually they were so overlaid with metaphor that the message and plot were lost to me, and then when she asked about the metaphors after the fact I’d get all pissed off because I didn’t get it but could have gotten it better if someone would have just said something – whatever!

Anyway, I finally was in tune with David Sedaris on this book and thought it was very enjoyable and made me laugh out loud a few times. I especially like the way he writes his brother’s dialog. If you’re into David Sedaris and haven’t read this one pick it up. Not to knock his writing skills, but I think he would make an excellent magazine writer; quick witted, humorous, and not long winded, maybe that’s just me.

Last weekend (March 31st, April 1st & 2nd) Robert and I went for a 3-day 45 mile backpacking trip. We have tried to go every year for the past 5 years, but somehow it has turned out to be every other year or so. With Robert completing an Outward Bound course during the summer of 2006, I think we were ready for another adventure. Some of the prerequisites for this trip were: it had to be during a specific time frame (Robert’s spring break), it shouldn’t be more than about 4 hours drive away (this was 3 and a half), and going south sounded better than going north (OK, we went west). After all the planning was done, we were off. All basically went to plan except for one thing, we planned the trip without a map. We tried to order one over 2 weeks in advance and it never showed, so we had to buy it the day of. Originally we were hoping to do three 15 mile days, instead it turned out to be more like a 15, a 19, and a 11 mile day.

Since this has now been over a week ago, I may not go into as much detail, but I’ll run through each day. Saturday (March 31st) I got up about 4:30AM to finish packing, take my last shower for several days, and eat some breakfast to pick Robert up by 6AM. I left the house a little after 6 running late and we were officially on the road a little after 6:30. It was about a 3 and a half hour car ride south on I-95 to Baltimore than west on I-70 to GRSF. We checked in at the office, paid our fees, and got our map. After looking at the map and seeing the state had built a few Adirondack Shelters, we decided to get going and aim for one of them – about 15 miles away, which turned out to be mostly down hill. It was a long day to say the least. I was up late the night before, up early that day, had driven a decent drive (why does driving take so much out of you?), and was now hiking in the “mountains” of Maryland with a 50 pound pack on my back.

Robert and I quickly slipped into Bundles McFister and Duchon Mandik mode rather quickly. That night we stayed in one of the shelters. It was both very cool and very weird. The coolness was that we didn’t have to set-up or break-down the tent, we were pretty much guaranteed to stay dry if it rained (we had a 50% chance for most of the weekend), and it gave you a place to sit down other than the ground. The weirdness for me basically boiled down to the fact of my sense of security was all wacked out while sleeping since these things only have 3 walls instead of 4 – it made me feel very exposed.

The next morning (April 1st) we woke up kind of crunchy. Fortunately it had not rained while we were asleep, so we got to start our day dry and prepare some breakfast and break camp. We knew today would be the most miles (we weren’t sure quite how long when we started) and the flattest of all the days, so that worked out to be a good combination. Funnily, as soon as we started hiking the rain started, it only really lasted an hour or two but the timing was hilarious. Just to get the morning off to a good start, while we were crossing a creek I slipped and fell. Just before my face was about to hit a rock, I caught myself and thought I was OK, but because of the momentum, my back kept going and busted me in the back of the head slamming my face into the rock. Robert was in front and didn’t see it happen, but when he turned around and asked what happened all I said was ‘I face-planted’. In the long run no major injuries, no stitches or anything just a funky bleeding nose for a couple hours.

We were hiking from GRSF to the C&O canal and we were going to follow the C&O canal tow path from Lock 67 to Lock 58. The exciting things about the C&O canal from my perspective were the Paw Paw Tunnel, the first couple Locks we saw, and the fact that we camped in a place named Devil’s Alley. Other than that, the C&O canal tow path has got to be one of the most boring, repetitive, straight, and boring, repetitive, straight, and repetitive trails I have ever hiked, especially for as long as we did. My feet were turning into meat-puppets and my attitude was not staying high. We eventually hit Devil’s Alley campsite which was feet away from the Potomac River. And right when we hit camp, right when we took our bags off – it started to rain again. This almost broke me. I was so exhausted, I was starting to feel like Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump when he is yelling during the storm on the shrimp boat. It rained for about another hour – long enough this time to get most stuff wet while we set up and most of the easily accessible firewood wet too. I would have loved to have had another one of those shelters again that night. Everything else went alright that night. After we went to bed, a few hours later it really started to rain for a little over an hour, lightning and thunder – the whole deal. So to say that sleeping wasn’t easy isn’t saying much at all.

The next morning (April 2nd) we were both drained. Two nights of not enough sleep after too much physical activity can just wipe you out. The positive was we knew it would be the shortest amount of miles, the negative was that it was basically all uphill. Actually let me rephrase that, it could have been all up hill, but instead it was repeatedly up really big hills just to go back down again and to do that over and over again about 4 or 5 times. And when I say big hills, I’m talking 1 to 2 mile stretches with 500+ feet elevation gains and drops. That third day was an ass-kicker of a day. Even with the shortened miles, but because of the elevation changes, it still took us a full day to do the hike. We arrived at the trail head where the car was about 5PM.

We both brought a clean set of clothes for the car ride home (lesson learned from the past), changed, called our girls, and hit the pike – next stop, Brewer’s Alley in Frederick Maryland. Brewer’s Alley is a brewpub about an hour from GRSF and about 5 or so miles off the interstate. It was nice to have a beer, and food someone else cooked, and to sit in a stable environment, but it is always weird to have to deal with people, and traffic, and not peeing wherever you want. The cask-conditioned dry stout was excellent. It took us longer to get home than I would have wished, but home and safe we made it all the same.

I hope we get to go on another trip soon. We try to go once a year which doesn’t happen, but I’d really like to go twice a year to once a season. We started to talk about a trip in June when Robert is done school, we’ll see. Even though it probably comes off that I am bitching about this trip a lot ( and we bitched a lot on the trail too), I still really enjoy myself and feel a great sense of accomplishment when I have finished. Good job buddy.

Since the brewmaster is out getting down with nature, I have taken over and given foolcircle a facelift (insert lightning strikes and diabolical laughter here).

Some things are new – the posts are managed by wordpress, the guestbook works, the contact page works, and the archives are much more user friendly. Some things are the same – brews, games, villiage idiot. Over the next little while , those that are the same will move to new.

The wordpress backend gives access to a lot more tools. You can now comment on posts (and brews in the future – along with much more brew info), grab the RSS feed so you are always up to date, or search the site.

Keep an eye open for updates.

Yesterday was a two-for. I got two brewing objectives completed in the time-frame of one, AND it wasn’t as painful to do both as I thought it was going to be. I may have to try it again, with just as good as results in the one and hopefully better results in the other.

So yesterday I bottled the English Pale Ale (EPA, Bitter, ESB – whatever you want to call it, it’s all the same). I knew it was time to bottle, and I had all the bottles prepped since Thursday, but I was worried about trying to do it on a brew day. I figured if I could get everything set up before I mash and then bottle as fast and safely as I could during the mash, stop for the recirculation if I had too, and then continue and finish during the sparge I would be fine. That time fram, minus the pause, would be about an hour and a half to two hours – just the right amount of time. Well, I busted my ass with the bottling and actually got it done in 64 minutes (not counting janitorial). Why do I know it was 64 minutes? Because it was exactly 4 minutes after my mash had set. The beer looked great, nice and clear, and tasted good too. This is the kind of beer that was made to be drank like this – slightly warm and without any full carbonation. I would love to get a firkin to really dispense a beer of this style.

As far as the brewday went, well, that’s a different story. Probably the worst brewday in memory. I was brewing a fairly straight forward pale ale brewed with american c-hops and a chico yeast strain. Everything seemed to be going normal: same time-frame as usual, hit the temperatures I was aiming for, I was relaxed and happy. Then, after the mash and during the recirculation I realized something was a miss. The liquid was draining from beneath the false-bottom but was not flowing back into the area beneath the false-bottom. I had a stuck mash on my hands. No problem I thought, I can deal with this. I tried about 5 different techniques to try to un-stick my stuck mess. After talking to another homebrewer, it appears as if it could have been caused by all or some of the following factors: because my mash tun is so small I can not do a mash out so I have a lower mash temperature then may be expected during recirculation, again because my mash tun is so small I have to use a very stiff water to grain ratio with the safe minimum being 1 to 1 and I was below that, I had a small amount of wheat malt in my recipe which is know for stuck mashes in high quantities, and the grind from the mill may have been more fine than my mash tun could accomodate but since I have used that mill in the past not as likely. Regardless, it was bad and the whole mood of the day switched.

I eventually figured out a way to retreive the sweet liquor from the spent grains. It was not easy, it was not fast, it was not clean, and it was not pretty. I basically could not filter what was coming through except for the very big pieces so the wort was very chunky, a great word for beer, “New Extra Chunky Style!” Also, since there was so much grain matter in my boil I am sure I leeched an excessive amout of tannins from the grains, which will hopefully just be perceived as more astringent than I would have liked. I captured five and a half gallons, but after settling it looks like only half will be able to be used as beer, pitaful, but we’ll see. I was hoping that this was going to be the first beer kegged for the DDSH, we’ll have to wait and see. I was also going to harvest the yeast-cake from this beer to brew two more five gallon batches, guess not. I’ll let you know how things turn out.

On Saturday, March 24th, Robert and I tried to complete the Delaware C.A.C.H.E. in one day. A very ambitious goal which we fell drastically short of. It was a great day and we still did well, but we missed our objective.

The Delaware CACHE is an event that takes place at Geocaching.com where 24 caches are hidden throughout the state of Delaware that all have to be found in order to find and participate at a final event. Both Robert and I enjoy geocaching in the first place, so this was an interesting challenge to us. The time frame to get all 24 caches is like two or two and half months, but we decided to try and do it in one day, just to see if we could. We went for 15 of the 24 and found 13 of the 15. One of the caches we did not find was definetly gone and the other we had the wrong coordinates for.

The Delaware CACHE reminded me a lot of the Delaware Digital Scavenger Hunt, in that it was state-wide, had a certain criteria that had to be followed, digital pictures were a must, and there would be awards for different categories at the end. Some of the rules for the Delaware CACHE are:

• You must register to play and you must earn your invite to the final event by following all the rules for all 24 caches, then figure out a final puzzle to find the actual location for the event.
• You must sign the log book at each of the 24 caches.
• You must post a picture of yourself with each cache at each loction.
• Record a “secret” number from the inside of each cache that will be needed to figure out the final puzzle for the event.

Some of the categories eligible for prizes are:

• Best photos in the following categories: Wildlife/Animals, Nature/Scenery, and People/Geocachers.
  
• Best on-line log in the following categories: Best Overall, Most Unique Log (Creative), Best Log About What You Learned

Overall it was a great time and I can’t wait to figure out a time to get the other 11 – 9 of which are in New Castle County and 2 are still in Sussex (poo). We actually started on Friday night by “preparing” at Dogfish Head Brewpub. We got to try one of there new beers the Beanie Bock, which we both thought was good, but after talking to the brewer apparetly it was very different (no longer good) than it had orginally turned out. After DFH we headed to the beach house and crashed, got up at 5AM to start at 6 and were on our way. The caches veried from lame to interesting to frustrating. The worst was I had printed up the sheets for the caches in February, since then one of the caches had been stolen and replaced. After it was replaced they moved the cache. We did not know that so we were looking in the wrong place the whole time, for over an hour, in the area that was furthest from home – and had to come up with a ‘did not find’ – sucked! The rest of the day just got weird in a good way, just ask Duchon Mandik and Bundles McFister.

Today, I just finished the third issue of Beer Advocate Magazine. I must say, I think it is a really good magazine for the beer lover, not just the homebrewer or industry professional, which are the two typical targets. Only real downside is they use 4-6 pages on beer reviews. Maybe some people like that, but for me, keep it on your website.

The first issue, the “Inaugural Issue”, came out in January and was only sent to those who signed up as a “life member”. What the whole life member thing was was basically you were buying into this magazine without any ever being published at $20 per year. As a life member this price will never go up, always $20 a year. It is already $30 a year for others, but they throw in things like T-shirts and stuff, for now. It also came with a cool calendar which was photographed at Hair of the Dog Brewery and features beer related images, information, events and holidays – nice. The other thing I really like about the magazine is they decided to use a higher quality paper and a matte finish, really smooth and unique layout.

Each issue seems to follow a format, which is good, it helps you prepare for what’s coming or anticipate a particular section if that is one you happen to like. Some of the format appears to be this: Beer Smack (the top dogs of the web site and magazine talk shit), BYOB (a one page homebrew section), Style Profile (where they really break down one still with history notes), 9 Steps to Beerdom (where they feature a brewer from an established brewery and how you can be more like them in 9 easy steps from the brewers mouth (my favorite section so far)), Ask the Beer Geek (get your questions answered, not always correctly and not always politely (my least favorite section so far)), 3 or 4 feature articles all about 2 pages long, Beer Reviews (by Todd and Jason – yawn, boring), Destination (where they go into some depth about beer for a particular area), a food beer pairing type of artiicle (this could get better or worse), and Last Call (a one page sign-off about a popular hot topic). Issue one did a pretty good job, enough so to anticipate the next.

The second issue, the “Extreme Beer” issue, was the first issue that everyone received which is part of the reason I think they chose it as the extreme beer issue. The majority of the subscribers I’m sure are Beer Advocate members, and in my opinion the majority of Beer Advocate members are junkies for the hottest-rarest-one-off-hoppiest-boozy-beers around. Don’t get me wrong, I love those beers too, but I also enjoy my stand-bys which are available at most local retailers or from my homebrew cellar. Some of the stuff this issue covered was; An ABC’s of how to get started in homebrewing (according to the auther his homebrew pieces will get better, he just needed to start with a base somewhere), 9 Steps to Larry Bell, an interesting “Anti-Extreme Beer” article by local writer Lew Bryson (he is heavily advocating the Session Beer as of late (I bet the session beer issue isn’t far around the corner)), and Last Call with Jim Koch of the Boston Beer Company talking about the biggest of the extreme beers – Utopias! (Which I have yet to try.)

The third issue, the “Beer Geek” issue, was my least favorite so far. Still pretty good, but didn’t feel as solid as the other two. A lot of people have been getting all pissy about the term beer geek recently, my guess is the “too cool” people who would never want them selves associated with the word ‘geek’ ever. They are pushing for ‘Beer Connisuer” and “Beer Aficianado” which both just sound like “Beer Snob” to me – I’ll take geek and embrace it. Anyway, some of the articles from this issue were; the first homebrew recipe (a dry stout) for the beginner, 9 steps to Nick Floyd, an article called ‘The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth’ written about maybe 10 or so ‘hard-core geeks’ that stand out from the rest of us, maybe a paragraph or 4 on each person, a nice article on beer marinades (and these were made with better beer like bocks and triples), and Last Call with Larry Horwitz from Iron Hill North Wales basically telling the beer geeks to relax a little. The irony of Larry being the one who wrote the article is that he is not a Beer Advocate fan, or so I’ve heard, so I thought it was funny that when offered to join the crew he did, whatever, I would have too.

So that’s what I have for now, until the next issue, the “Belgian Beer” issue (?), just a guess . . .

Yesterday I got to brew an English Pale Ale, one of my favorite styles to have on draft or as a homebrew. Most bottled commercial examples just aren’t, right.

I was afraid the day would be full of mishaps, I was working on like six hours of sleep or less after staying up until after 4AM and had a deadline held over my head of when I had to finish in order to go to a show that we already had tickets for. Let’s just say it was one of the best (no problems) brew day in a while. I hit my mash temperature, my original gravity, and the day was done in five and a half hours from set-up to janitorial. Only true down side, I didn’t enjoy any beer while brewing, by choice.

Really only two mistakes happened (what would a brew day be without some sort of mishap). Number one isn’t so bad and I’m actually quite used to it, so it isn’t as much of a mistake as it is just the same thing didn’t almost happen. So basically, after your wort is done cooling you transfer it to a carboy to ferment. Well, unlike the finished beer, wort in the kettle is full of suspended debri, and it would be best to leave as much non-liquid behind in the kettle. I have never done this successfully. So, after the wort had cooled I tried to initiate a whirlpool to draw the debri into the center of the kettle, this does work. Typically I get sort-of clear wort which eventually runs kind-of muddy. This time I had almost clear wort. I was pretty stoked and by four gallons into the carboy I was getting excited that I may finally have figured out what I needed to do to draw clear wort from the ketle. I guess because so much more had settled or something, after the four gallon marker it started to look like nasty mud coming into the carboy. It was thick enough I debated whether to just stick with the four clear gallons or go with the extra one which would give me five “normal” gallons – I went for the five. No biggy, not really a mistake, just thought I’d figured something out – guess not.

The second mistake shouldn’t be too bad, at least for me, and that’s the main person to please, but it may have repercussions if I choose to enter this beer into a competition. Anyway, I had decided to use the same yeast that I used in the Oatmeal Stout in this beer, so I had about a pint of WLP002 yeast slurry in my fridge for the past two weeks. Per normal brewing, I made a starter for the yeast 2 days before the brew. The yeast turned the started almost black, like a stout. There was no off aroma, so I was pretty sure it was color carry over from the stout. Knowing I should have made the beers the other way (lightest to darkest) but really wanted to have my own stout for St. Patty’s , I went for it. I have heard on the internet that there could be residual carry over, but I have never seen / met someone who has had it actually happen to them. Well for now on if anyone asks you and your’ve read this, it has happened to someone you know and it does happen. Supposedly you can wash the yeast and stuff, but I don’t like to play with me yeast (ask a doctor about that one). So I decanted as much liquid as I could off the yeast starter and pitched the remaining slurry. I would say that the wort appeared to go from an orangy-copper-tan to an instant iced tea color. Definetly darker than I anticipated, but not “wrong”, well not pale, so maybe wrong – whatever, I’ll drink it and enjoy it.

So the EPA is done, time to start thinking about the brews for the Scavenger Hunt. Anyone want to make a suggestion, now’s the time, ingredients will be ordered by the end of this week at the latest (I hope!).