...and Other Earthly Delights

It's been a while since I've talked about two of my favorite things: beer and music.

Last time on the beer frontier, I 'blogged about our foray into homebrew and anticipation of the Belgian Summer Saison Ale. That brew turned out damn good and didn't last long at my house. It may be the best we've done so far.

After all of the Summer Saison was gone, I started to get a hankerin' for some hoppier, less sweet beer. I was looking for more of a "lawnmower beer" [LMB]. Over the past couple of years, my LMB's of choice were Lagunitas Dogtown Pale Ale and North Coast's Scrimshaw Pilsner. They're both relatively cheap, light, and refreshing while still offering full flavor. But I got kinda burned out on those, and that led to my lengthy, mostly exclusive love affair with the Belgian styles. After a few failed searches for a worthy replacement LMB , I've settled on a couple of beers from Mendocino Brewing Company--Eye of the Hawk and Blue Heron Pale Ale. Both beers have a nice balanced flavor with good hop character, but not so much that it tastes like DEET [e.g. other overly-hopped West Coast brews]. Both are also easy on the alcohol, so one bottle after an afternoon of yardwork won't send you to the spirit world for the evening.

In homebrew news, we brewed a Weizenbock and a British Pale Ale in the last month or so. The Weizenbock is just now officially ready after four weeks of bottle conditioning. I had one this weekend, and it's very good. But experience has taught me that a week or two of extra conditioning time yields tastier results. We just bottled the pale ale, and it should be ready in about 5 weeks. I was hoping for this beer to turn out similar to the Blue Heron Pale Ale, but it looks like it will be lighter bodied and less hoppy, which is disappointing. I could be wrong. I didn't think our Cream Ale would be worth a damn, but it turned out mighty fine. That's the cool thing about homebrew!

I almost forgot about music. Lately, I've been listening to the hell out of Gnarls Barkley. Maybe I'll have something about that, later. Plus, it may be time to talk about my not-so-new adventures in hi-fi.