Down to One

As my nearly three weeks absence from Spokane draws near, I am already saddened by the downturn in homebrew work to be done. Carl and I have not brewed for two weeks and although it is nice to see our drinkable supply grow as our kegged and bottled batches condition, I find myself feeling much more complete when there are two or three carboys filled with beer in some state of fermentation sitting in the basement.

Last Tuesday, Carl and I set to work kegging the second batch of Pool-Pah Pale Ale. First, we had to undertake a sad task; dumping what was left of the first batch. While it was just passably drinkable, I did not foresee us reaching for it anytime soon with such a large supply of much more tasty homebrews on hand. The keg emptied, I plunged my tiny arms inside to give it a thorough cleaning. Meanwhile, Carl began cleaning the six bottles we were going to use in addition to the keg so that we had more easily portable options for sharing with family and friends.

As we both moved forward with our cleaning duties, we also shared in getting ready for the transfer; moving the carboy upstairs and outside, cleaning equipment and so forth. When I finished with cleaning the keg, Carl had cleaned another carboy so we began the final racking for clarity. As the liquid gold slowly transferred, I went to the kitchen to prepare the dextrose solution we needed to carbonate the bottles. Once it had been mixed and cooled, I measured out the dosage amount for each bottle using a turkey baster (cleaned, sanitized and never used for anything other than homebrewing, of course) conveniently marked at quarter ounce intervals.

Our bottles and keg ready for beer, we began filling them from the clarified carboy. As we filled the first bottle, we realized we had forgot one minor detail; caps! Carl retrieved them and they went into some sanitization solution before we applied them to the now filled bottles. I switched the tube over to the keg and began cleaning the first carboy. Carl watched the transfer to the keg and tended to his baby while I hurried about cleaning. We finished in what seemed record time and discussed when to convene to bottle the Granfalloons.

As a side note, a large contingent of my family descended on Spokane last week to celebrate my grandmother’s 75^th birthday. This gave me opportunity to share our recent homebrew creations with numerous new mouths and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Uncle Tom was recovering from an eye surgery and he said the Bagombo IPA really helped. My step-dad Alan is an “anti-hop head” but he really liked the malty goodness of our Thieving Bastard. Nothing is quite as rewarding as sharing your homebrew with people who truly enjoy it!

Finally, do not despair that with my absence will come silence on my blog. For two weeks, I will be working in California and will be making trips to local breweries and beer bars. Following that, I will be heading on a road trip to South Dakota, hitting breweries and beer destinations along the way. A slight deviation from where my blog has been heading, but a break from my descriptions of homebrewing procedures may be welcomed by some!