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Monday, April 2, 2012

Mass Effect 3: Beaten


Over the weekend I finished Mass Effect 3, and it was a sweet ending to a great franchise.  A franchise which I am going to sorely miss.  I beat Saren in Mass Effect, defeated the Collectors in Mass Effect 2, and finished the job by synthesizing the Reapers in Mass Effect 3.

My finishing ME3 made discovering this video on Kotaku today even more enjoyable.  Apparently, a USC student made this video for Padinga, and if you enjoy the Mass Effect franchise, then you're in for a treat.

Brown Ale Review, Farmhouse Update, RIP BIPA

The same day I brewed the Skeptic Farmhouse Ale, I also kegged the Bearder Brown Ale.  I held off on a legitimate review until it had been in the keg for an entire week to mix with the CO2.  Even though I had a couple of missteps during the brewing process, I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out.  It's got a nice, sweet aroma and flavor.  Since it's a bit of a hop-forward brown ale, I'm also getting a nice, but not overpowering for the style, hop flavor and aroma.  I think it's still got some work to do yet to fully mix with the CO2, but I'm pretty happy with it.


I also transfered the farmhouse ale to the secondary fermenter yesterday.  It'll hang out here for at least a couple of weeks, and then I'm going to have to pick up another keg.  That'll finally give me the chance to set up my two-keg system in the mini fridge.  


When I kegged the brown ale, I also put the remaining black IPA into a growler.  I'm a little sad to see it go.  I'll remember you fondly, BIPA.


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Skeptic Farmhouse Ale Homebrew


Sunday I brewed what I'm calling the Skeptic Farmhouse Ale, which is actually a Surly Cynic clone kit from Northern Brewer.  Brew day went pretty well, without any real missteps.  It was a beautiful day in Indianapolis, perfect for brewing.  I made this cinemagram of the boil:


And here's the Skeptic in the carboy with the yeast really going to town:


I should be able to keg it in about 3-4 weeks, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Reunited With An Old Friend: Sixpoint Craft Beer

Back when I was living in New York I was able to rather easily enjoy Sixpoint's craft beer from Brooklyn.  That changed when I moved back to Indiana.  But!  As of just a couple of weeks ago, Sixpoint is now distributing to Indiana!  I knew they were coming to Indy a few weeks before they actually got here from total happenstance.  I happened to tweet to them one day in January suggesting they distribute to Indiana, when I came to find out they were already in the process of bringing their goods here!  The first two 4-packs of cans I picked up are the Bengal and Righteous Ales:



After the twitter conversation, I ended up also sharing some emails with the founder of Sixpoint, who told me they were going to be at Winterfest back on January 28th.  So not only am I able to now buy their beer locally, but I was able to taste some of their special stuff they brought.  They brought an Anniversary Ale that was just fantastic.

I look forward to continuing to enjoy this little piece of NYC.

Two Surly Clone Homebrew Kits Ordered

Last week my buddy Mott forwarded me an email from Northern Brewer saying that all ingredient kits are on sale until tomorrow, 3/20, with coupon code MakeGreatBeer.  I figured it was a good opportunity to grab a couple of Surly clone kits on discount.  I ordered the Cynic and Furious all-grain kits.  I decided a while ago I was going to try the Furious clone, and I ordered up the Cynic kit because I already decided my next batch of homebrew was going to be a saison/farmhouse ale.  Hopefully I'll get around to brewing the Cynic this weekend.

Northern Brewer Surly Clone Kits FTW!

Monday, March 12, 2012

New Homebrewing Toys

I took the day off this past Friday, and between the long list of chores Les left for me, I found some time to stop by Great Fermentations.  A new tool I picked up is this carboy cleaner, and it's awesome.  It came in awfully handy cleaning the 6.5 gallon carboy after I transferred the brown ale to the 5 gallon carboy.  Once I had water and PBW into the carboy, I just stuck the cleaner in and attached a drill to the end of the rod and let it work its magic.

To fully prepare myself for running both my black IPA and Bearder Brown Ale off my CO2 tank, I picked up this two-way manifold.  I also got the other necessities, grabbing 4' of tubing to run from the tank to the manifold, and another gas disconnect to run from the manifold to the keg.

I'm excited to get all of this hooked up and running.  Options FTW!

Bearder Brown Ale Transfer

After two weeks of fermenting in the primary I've got the Bearder Brown Ale transferred to my secondary fermenter.  It smells incredible, and boy is this a dark one.  I didn't taste it, but the aroma has got me really excited to get it in the keg and tapped.  Now I just need to wait about two more weeks to keg it.