A Year of Craft Beer Revisited

I have abandoned my beer drinking and reading audience!  Not to fret!  I will be returning very shortly.  Perhaps tonight if I feel up to it.  Before I do so, I feel like I need to explain...

Summer happened.  The season brought on LOTS of work at my employer with many an hour of overtime and just when it looked like things would slow up a huge fire breaks out at their main distribution center and our production has to ramp up to 7 days a week and then some!  It's not an excuse though!

Truthfully, I have had a bunch of different beers at my local pub The Grey Lodge and logged them in on Untappd where I have 48 badges now!  But at home I have only really had my homebrew here and there.

Other than an intense hot dog season there were little highlights to my summer.  I have been quasi helping my father work on the sailboat that we obtained last Xmas.  It is slow going.  Mostly I have been sleeping late on Saturday and putzing around out in the shop with him.

I threw a successful homebrew party where I showcased 4 of my brews in early summer.  The party was a success and It seemed that everyone liked at least one of my beers.  The most popular being Eddie's Small Bier which was a second running of the grain that I used for my Chocolate Stout.  I managed to squeeze a bit more sugar from that grain and made a tasty light ale with an ABV of about 3%.  I'm currently drinking in my apartment another second runnings beer that I reused from a Wee Heavy that I brewed for that party.  This one is about the same ABV and pretty flavorful.  The Scotch Ale grains are pretty appealing to my palate.  

I managed to see Furthur this summer with my brother, his friends, and my buddy Pat and his friends.  That was a really cool experience!  I had never seen Bob Weir or Phil Lesh play and was really happy to finally do so!

There was one HUGE event this summer.  One that I plan for all year and one that I brought everything, including the kitchen sink, to except my sleeping bag with the first night of this event dropping into the 50's.  The Philadelphia Folk Fest is what I speak about!  If you haven't been, then you haven't been.  It is very difficult to sum up.  I posted on FB when I got there that it was like I instantly had 3000 friends.  To sum up this years experience... Carolina Chocolate Drops were an incredible band amoungst a ton of incredible music both on stage and after the shows in the campground to whom I listened to until 6AM each night.  Todd Rundgren was kind of a d!ckhe@d on stage.  I don't know if he meant to come off sounding as such, but he did.

So alas, I lead up to the future of this Year of Craft Beer.  Tomorrow I will start off with a variety of pumpkin beer!  I know, it's too early, but they are in the stores now and they usually sell out by time I want them.  I snuck a few in before I blog about them and am glad that I had bought them!  All that I have to say is that Weyerbacher RULES!

In fact,  I may partake one now as I eat my dinner.  Have a great night and remember NOT to drink crappy beer!  Life is too short!

-Wiss