Friday, October 07, 2005
YAY! Weekend...
This weekend is the Kennett Square Microbrew Festival, and I can hardly contain my excitement. My wife and I will be going and meeting up with several other folks from the area. We'll probably chill out at one of Kennett's many good restaurants for dinner after, then head over to Route 202 for an evening away from our children, more beer at John Harvard's / McKenzie's, and probably the movie "Serenity". I've been waiting over a year for that film to come out.
This morning I found that one of my Wit carboys had a blowout. The airlock was sealed shut with yeast, and when I removed the top cap, the internal carboy pressure shot the inner lock into the air... Foam and yeast everywhere - it was spectacular. Needless to say, I had to scramble to get my BBBOT sanitized and in the carboy as well as clean up the mess before heading off to work. Hopefully my meticulous cleaning will prevent any adverse effect from that minor crisis. The second carboy is still sitting there chugging along without any danger of blowing out... but I also used 3-4 drops of anti-foaming agent, so that is to be expected. My little experiment definitely proved the value of using the anti-foam drops.
Anyone else out there getting excited about this upcoming meeting / homebrew competition? I am. Still haven't decided how many entries I'll make, but I have plenty of candidates. I think I will even enter 2 beers for Brian Moore, who hasn't managed to make it by for a meeting yet. I think I will definately enter my oatmeal stout, amarillo pale ale, black honey ale, and oak-aged vanilla porter... And I am still debating about the Native Rage India Red Ale, Abbey Tripel, and Oak-aged Scottish. At 3 bottles a piece, bringing 4 of them is already 1/2 case of beer - Which is why I am thinking that maybe I enter 4 max. At what point does it become "too much"?
Sadly, I won't be entering any of the following since they are still sitting warm in kegs, and there is no way I'll finish one of my current "cold" kegs by then:
This morning I found that one of my Wit carboys had a blowout. The airlock was sealed shut with yeast, and when I removed the top cap, the internal carboy pressure shot the inner lock into the air... Foam and yeast everywhere - it was spectacular. Needless to say, I had to scramble to get my BBBOT sanitized and in the carboy as well as clean up the mess before heading off to work. Hopefully my meticulous cleaning will prevent any adverse effect from that minor crisis. The second carboy is still sitting there chugging along without any danger of blowing out... but I also used 3-4 drops of anti-foaming agent, so that is to be expected. My little experiment definitely proved the value of using the anti-foam drops.
Anyone else out there getting excited about this upcoming meeting / homebrew competition? I am. Still haven't decided how many entries I'll make, but I have plenty of candidates. I think I will even enter 2 beers for Brian Moore, who hasn't managed to make it by for a meeting yet. I think I will definately enter my oatmeal stout, amarillo pale ale, black honey ale, and oak-aged vanilla porter... And I am still debating about the Native Rage India Red Ale, Abbey Tripel, and Oak-aged Scottish. At 3 bottles a piece, bringing 4 of them is already 1/2 case of beer - Which is why I am thinking that maybe I enter 4 max. At what point does it become "too much"?
Sadly, I won't be entering any of the following since they are still sitting warm in kegs, and there is no way I'll finish one of my current "cold" kegs by then:
- Alucard Strong Dark Belgian
- Limey Vale Nut Brown Ale
- Phoenix ESB
