2010/11/15

geekdom.

i should probably clarify that as beer geekdom... richmonds beer week ended on friday and i certainly donated large parts of my wallet and liver to the cause. a quick rundown of the events/brews i partook in:

legend brewery: lunch, tastings (brown, ipa cask, pale ale, porter), brewery tour, lots more brown...
cap alehouse (d'town): dfh india brown, st bernardus abt 12, art show benefiting ms society, ten-fidy, dinner, flying dog ba porter and single-simcoe casks
wine & beer westpark: ommegange beer theatre sampling hennepin, dubble, adoration, three philosophers and cup-o-kindess.
mekong: stillwater artisanal virginia launch party with tastings of saison darkly and existence black ipa in a dry-hopped cask. lots and lots of the existence...
williamsburg alewerks: brewery tour and stocked up on cafe royale for the cellar.

somewhere in there there was a stop at our fav bottle shop for a mix/match case of various bombers/750s and other assorted brews.

no, i am not an alcolholic. yet...

homebrewing.

i dabbled in it a few months ago with disastrous results. of course, i couldn't accurately know if the batch was ready to ferment as my girlfriend broke my hydrometer and i could barely get my stockpot up to a boil on my piece-of-shit cook-top and i was using a god knows how old ingredients kit. nah, it couldn't have been any of those things...

well, i'm about to begin again. i still need to replace that hydrometer and i need to purchase a few odds/ends but for the most part i am good to go. picked up a turkey fryer with a large 34 quart, 8.5 gallons to you and me, kettle with a built in spigot/valve this past weekend; that will solve my lack of heat from my cook-top issue and give me a much needed piece of equipment for when i, eventually, switch to all grain.

going through several recipes now as i will need to know that to determine what ingredients i will need. i'm thinking a nice brown ale... something session-able.