Brew Batch #52 tIPA

Racked into the keg tonight with a wonderful color, dropped to 1.002+ 0.002@ 76F to give it a nice 7.7%abv or so.  I'm concerned about the slight sweetness but at that FG maybe it's the Maris. Nose was good, should be able to tap tIPA in about a week or less. I just want to make sure I give it enough time on gas so that the first pint is as goo as it can be. Hope everyone likes Target hops! (BTW this is a great virtual quick quide).

Our Tastes-- Hoppy Top™

Sliding into some Hoppy Top™  made by Red at BlackStone this evening. And I'll have to admit, it poured a limp wiener head and an off brown color that made me rethink what Junk had delivered. "HT" was carefully written on the cap and since I've started sealing all of my growlers with electrical tape, I simply believed the hop head and carbonation would hold? This was supposed to be exactly what I sampled previously. Taste was grassy alright, the same type of soured bermuda on the bottom of my lawnmowers deck since I've only been able to cut my grass 3 times in July thanks to all of the rain kind of grassy. And the nose, well let's just say I try to keep the garage aired out until our drier summer arrives. What withered leaf did Red put in this batch of paint thinner? HA!, today is opposite day suckas! This brew is simply another feather in the long flowing headdress of Stands with a Hop (aka Red). Color is a beautiful straw with bright white head that kept great in the aforementioned growler. The nose runneth over with grapefruit on this Big C brew and the taste has an awesome Simcoe (I think) bite. Even across the palate and still has a stupendous lattice down the tumbler. I can only hope my IPA turns out this way and Kent was smart enough to put this one in regular rotation with some sort of true trademarking. 69 IBUs, hhmmppff, and about 7%abvish? It's no Adam Bomb, thank God, the world only handle one of those! A truly phenomenal beer.

Brew Batch #52 tIPA

Racked over this 1st in the series of 3 IPAs I'm doing this summer. Current gravity 1.008+ 0.002 @76F. So it's dropped fairly well. The swill has a nice hoppiness to it and isn't as sweet as I had expected with the Maris Otter usage. So I just dry-hopped it with some left over Target since I enjoyed it so much in RR 2012.

1st Annual Hotballs 10K

Since I couldn't find a 10K this month to keep my streak of one per month going that I've had all year, I invented one. This is my attempt to insure that this year's Hyundai Half and next year's Seaside are solid races for me. But in true Beat-12 form, I decided to do this like I pretty much do everything, HARD. I started by pre-hydrating with 2 Silver Bullet pints while I tended the Mitchell #1 Zeus hop garden, yeah it's only Zeus now, Centennial bit the dust. I then proceeded to have BlackStone's bottled version of my favorite, Maris Otter. BTW the label is far more eye appealing than the other kin, Rogue Sea Otter Ale. Plus you can pull it and get a sweet beer fridge magnet from it. I then waited for it to get to an even 90F, because relative humidity was only 47% anyway and filled my Nathan hydration belt with 16 more ounces of Maris Otter. I learned many tips on this "fun" run. One, beer is a postrace bevvy, not to be consumed just before or during an event. I hadn't made it 200yards when I realized the jostling of the fluid bottles at the small of my back filled with the aforementioned Maris had started to foam out and run into my running shorts. So this forced me to blow through about 4oz of reserve in the 1st mile and hold those bottles to maintain even pressure. I then noticed this burning in my calves within the first quarter mile and realized it was probably lactic acid build-up, well that soon went away as the Maris kicked in at about mile 3. That's about the same time I had to continue hydration. By now the plastic bottles had Maris Otter at about 85-90F and you know that's when one can REALLY notice serious changes in a beer's profile. The malt and hop bills seem to fight on my palate for dominance. And logic dictates that the 94.2% water had to be helping my performance and though I thought I was maintaining about 9min/mile pace the EtOH was actually winning and I was delusional at closer to 12min/mile pace. That must be when I miscalcualted my run route, because ultimately I ended up running 6.6 instead of 6.1miles. Eh, what's a half mile when you place 1st with an overall of 1:18:35 and you're off by close to 35mins of your best time?

Our Tastes-- Belgian O Juice

Another wonderful concoction by Red at BlackStone and this one seems to be a real lady pleaser. Without knowing true specifics about the beer I will simply make some of it up. (All attempts to reach the "O" man went unanswered). An apparent wit and if this is the recipe he talked about on the last trip was made with a nice Belgian yeast and the pith (no that's not a lisp) of 70-80 lbs of oranges. Color was a great medium brown/copper and settled lightly on the palate with just a touch of the bitter pith on the aftertaste. I had a pint a day whether I needed to or not until I finished the growler.

Our Tastes-- Slaapmutske

Purchased about 4 years ago, Slaapmutske is a wonderfully labeled Belgian Tripel Ale. And being part of Junk's Imposed Taster List means that it clears the beer fridge for more rotation. Hue is a deep orange dark gold and taste is past it's prime, but still maintains a peach/apricot "twang" and plenty of the 8.1% EtOH is breathed out the nose with each swig. No head to mention and we dared not swirl the yeast bed on this one. There also seems to be a little sweet fruit almost melon on the palate. Glad we had it and moving on.

Brew Batch #52 IPA of some sort...

I've got several IPAs to brew this summer but initially I was going with a ZIPA (not related to what holds back the denim dingaling) but a Zeus hopped IPA. But after further IPA review, I realized when I made my wedding beer, I left out a serious step. Yeah I know, 4 years later. I dry-hopped the original with Cascade! So now I'm thinking about reliving the 42* series. We'll see how this one turns out. But as of right now OG 1.056+ 0.001 @70.5F. As long as it drops well and doesn't hang out to be sweet. This one was made with Maris Otter malt.