It's been a long year. At least 28 batches of beery, cidery and meady things were made. And that included a two month long tax season hiatus. So if my math is correct, this appears to be an average of roughly one batch every other week. And for a guy with another full time job and a family, not too shabby. I'm pooped.
A special thanks to Ellen for putting up with me. We'll shoot to get the alcohol license in 2009. It would be great to see Raz's Fine Ales with a small retail distribution by the end of next year.
We wish everyone a safe and happy New Year's.
Cheers.
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Congrats on what sounds like a great brewing year! So, brewing wise, as you look back on the year, what was your biggest success, biggest failure, and biggest experiment that exceeded expectations?
ReplyDeleteErin and I are looking forward to seeing you in '09. Best wishes to you, Ellen, and the kids for the coming year.
Scott
My biggest success was winning the Best of Show award. I'm very proud that my beer was selected. Hopefully I'll have some decent success at additional state wide or even national competitions.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest 2008 failures are twofold.
1. The water I'm using in my beers and for cleaning is relatively hard - Total Hardness (CaCO3) is approximately 300ppm. What I now know is that the sanitizer I'm using is neutralized pretty quickly by hard water. I believe some things weren't sanitized properly in the earlier part of the year leading to a couple of undrinkable infected beers. Our water is not treated with chlorine so at least I've never had that issue to deal with...
2. I've got a slow gas leak that for the life of me I can't figure out. It's absolutely driving me nuts! At this point I think it's partly due to a problem with a dual regulator and partly due to small gaps being created around the connections where the vinyl tubing has been subjected to cold temperatures and simultaneous bending in the fridge. Still working on it...
I'm not sure if I've had one experiment that turned out to be the absolute best. Experiments that have turned out well include:
Sweet Potato Barleywine
Chocolate Stout
Coffee Russian Imperial Stout
Spiced Cherry Dubbel
"European" Cream Ale
Sticke Altbier
If I had to choose absolutely one, I would probably go with the Coffee Russian Imperial Stout. The original recipe was developed by my brother-in-law. I slightly tweaked it and then we brewed it. We blended the coffee to our taste (not what judges would probably like). It's really starting to hit it's stride right now...we brewed it in mid-May.
Should be fun seeing you guys later this month. Hope you all had a fantastic New Year's. Thanks for reading and your continued interest.