So much beer. So, so much...

Judged in every session this weekend. Over 3 dozen if you count best in category consensus. Hard resetting my exhausted palate with some strong coffee, then it's just water for the rest of the day, thanks.

Was assigned some extremely challenging tables, but was rewarded with a lot of compelling brews, which outnumbered the offensive diacetyl bombs. Actually had a couple more Lichtenhainers, which was brand new for me on Thursday, glad I got the practice. Top of my grading list was a Kentucky Common of all things...easily not my favorite, but it was a masterclass in technical proficiency.

Someone had the guts to enter a non-alcoholic beer. There's no specific category for it, so it must be judged to the base style *and* the risk of getting sick. The very low pH made it way safer though, and it was *damn* good actually...strawberry passionfruit sour? Delicious. Would sell insanely well if marketed commercially, and easily would've placed if they claimed a different base style.

Lots of different colleagues with varying personalities and preferences, lots of debate and diplomacy with our obsession. Quite a weekend. Bigger competition added a lot more moving parts.

#beer #alcohol #homebrewing

The week of brewing hell begins.

I have my sugar mixture cooling on the stove so i can bottle the German Pils in the basement and then clean that bucket. Tomorrow and Tuesday will be brewing days.

G-d, I hope this all goes well.

#homebrewing

Just started my spiced pomegranate mead. 🍷

Original gravity: 1.110.
Target final gravity: 1.012-1.020
Target ABV: 11-13%
Finish: semi-sweet

When fermentation is complete, it will bottle age for 4-6 months. I'm going for a mulled wine vibe for winter.

#HomeBrewing #mead

So today was the busy homebrew competition day for April for me - 4 different competitions sampling my beers.

2 of them aren't having their awards for a bit, so we'll find out how those go. But of the two today... my ordinary bitter (Tsurrus) came away with 2 silvers.

Kind of terrifying, actually.

#homebrewing

#29 Un etichetta

https://buttondown.com/LaCapannina/archive/29-un-etichetta/

#dirtyrunbrigate #corsa #run #running #runningpigro #ultrarunning #wcft #fkt #blog

#beer #craft #homebrewing #handmade #sport #music

Question - Temperature Control During Aging (mead focused, but also in general)

https://infosec.pub/post/45462279

As I'm trying to get my gear ready for my impending several brew days, where I'll be prepping 3 beers in 3 days. And I can't find one of my iSpindels, an electronic hydrometer that I use to track the fermentation progress.

Me: Where's my red iSpindel?
Me: WHERE is my red iSpindel?
Also me: Seriously, where the heck did I put it?!
5 minutes later, after tearing apart my office: Oh, wait. The red one's probably in the German Pils downstairs...

Just checked Brewfather. Yup - it's the in the Pils, which is getting bottled Sunday.

#homebrewing

3 of my 6 beers at the Philly first-round site for National Homebrew Competition advanced.

This is the world's weirdest First World Problem, in that I'm going to have to rebrew before sending them to finals. And I don't think I have enough bottles or fermentation space. And I have to figure out how to make *time* to do it.

#homebrewing

Pulled a bottle of my ordinary bitter ("Tsurrus") out tonight after I've been dealing with some synagogue stuff and...

Honestly, it's gotten better with the chance to sit for a bit. Let's hope that bodes well for the competitions it's in this weekend.

#homebrewing