Quick Wit...

Rob and I decided to brew up another Belgian Wit last Saturday. Both wives were tied up in Houston so we found prime time to get some steady tastings in as well. Beautiful weather and lots of fun was had.

The Wit is a pretty straight forward partial mash recipe, however, no spicing was added this time. The fermentation has been monstrous... blowing krausen out the top of my air lock. Time to fabricate a blow-off tube for the carboy. Rob has never had a problem but both times I made a wheat based beer at my house the fermentation blows up! Hopefully things will reside today and we will let this one clean up for a few days. This should be a wonderful beer to session through christmas time.

We managed to put down a respectable list of beers Saturday as well. The most intriguing (but a bit of a let down overall) was Deschutes Dissident. Dissident is a Flanders Oud Bruin that has certain funk characteristics but the 'wow' factor of Jolly Pumpkin or Russian River sours wasn't quite there. As much as we enjoyed it, hype fooled us. To honor the begining of this years holiday season I cracked a couple 2008 Sierra Nevada Celebration Ales. Such a great, hoppy beer. I really love how the fresh citrus hops mingle with the minty pine notes. Other honorable mentions include Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout, Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale, Fishermans IPA, Cisco's Indie Pale Ale, Cisco's Pumpkin Drumkin, and plenty others that I am forgetting. Maybe we can get Rob to come in here and remind me.

Election party tonight at my parents' house!!! Rob and I will have some treats to bring in the new leader of our country. Look for an update soon.