Today marks the one year anniversary of me starting this site!

I actually had to go back and do a little research because the date stamp on the very first post is a few days off what I remember it being (there were some issues early on).  After posting something on this site every day for the entire year, today marks the first day of the second year.  Since I enjoy it and am still having fun, I hope to continue my consecutive days posting streak throughout this year as well.

This will make sense after you read on.

In looking back over the last year I noticed a few things that I might not have guessed would happen going in:

• Home brewing became a bit of an obsession.  After failing miserably with my first batch, I was able to successfully brew 12 different beers.  That is not as many as I might have liked to brew, but still something I am quite pleased with.
• 113 beer reviews were posted on this site over the course of the year.  That is an impressive number to me, though I could have done more as I have 41 (yes I counted) still sitting in my binder ready to post.  Those numbers also don’t account for the ones consumed for a side project and those I never bothered formally evaluating at all.
• Though I might have neglected to write about a few of them, I have been to a fair number of breweries, participated (on both sides of the table) in beer festivals, and have done quite a bit of travelling as well over the last year.
• I walked away from my cubicle life to pursue other interests and possibilities.  That just might be the most shocking of all to me.

So you might ask how one celebrates a blogiversary (or you might ask if that is an actual word).  Well, The Wife made a trio of desserts for enjoyment this evening (and beyond) using my home brewed beer as an ingredient in each.  How awesome is that?!  You can check out the recipes here, then drool over . . .

A beer cake with bourbon-soaked raisins that is now my breakfast for the near future.

She even got me a candle.

A stout ice cream that is incredibly tasty.

Perhaps to serve with/on the cake?

The sweet and salty goodness of pale ale pretzel caramels.

Very addicting

If you don’t hear from me for a while, it will be because I am in sugar and butter shock.

In the excitement of finishing up the first year, I have come up worth a few things I would like to do for the next year on this site.  I reserve the right to add to this list, but I would be very happy if I just got to all of these.  This list is site specific as I will surely continue with the festival and brewery visits anyway and would, of course, enjoy having some steady employment again sometime soon .

Here we go and in no particular order . . .

1. As hinted at a few days ago I would like to start doing my beer evaluations closer to the BJCP guidelines.  I already use their beer score sheet to keep my notes on and use their style guidelines as reference, so it is time to start grading by points and leave the letter grading behind.  Letter grades were a fine way to start for me, but using their grading system will allow more specific evaluation and will certainly help me prepare to take the BJCP exam someday.  I might even revisit some of the beers that I have already evaluated using the new method.
2. It would be pretty neat to write something that will be published elsewhere.  I will start with guest posting on another site or sites and go from there.  Getting others to guest post on my site is another effort that I would like to make.
3. Evolve from mini/partial mash to all grain brewing.  Surely The Wife is excited to hear this one as it would take my brewing operation (almost entirely) out of the kitchen.  I have an excellent reference in my friend Mike and I think it is a very realistic brewing goal.  Of course I would like very much to have a kegging and draft set up to limit my future bottling efforts as well.  That will likely be first, but I want to do both.  It would also be great to get one of my friends hooked on brewing, at least so I have an extra set of hands for my all grain efforts!
4. Do many, many more videos (reviews and otherwise) for the site.  I have the equipment to do so and if I keep practicing I might actually become competent at editing what I shoot.  I can start by posting some of the video footage that I have already.
5. Focus on beer and food pairing if only because the relationship is interesting to me.  That topic will be on my mind all year and it would be nice to host some sort of beer pairing themed type event (desserts, cheeses, etc.) at our house before the next anniversary comes.

Five is probably a good number to stop at for now, though I also have ambitions to do more giveaways this year and to better utilize/organize/evolve my site among other things.  I did say that I would likely add to the list in the future and it probably will not take me long to do so.

Bourbon soaked raisins leaves raisin infused bourbon.

In closing, I would like to thank The Wife for her support and an infinite list of other things, my various content contributors across the country, the people who have been keeping up with me since the beginning, and those who have just started to follow along.  You are all entitled to have a good beer tonight (as if you needed my go ahead) in celebration.

Cheers to a great last year and to an even better year to come!

What I am referring to this time is that I am in the early stages of pondering the possibilities of growing my own hops.  Hey, if I ever make myself a randalizer, I would love to fill it with hops from my back yard.

Peppers are great, but . . .

Before moving along too far with this thought I would like to make it known that I realized it is at least a moderately crazy idea if only because Florida is not exactly the greatest situation for hop growing.  With that said, it is not impossible.

From my (admittedly limited) understanding, hops generally grow best between roughly 35 to 55 degrees of latitude.  My location (at about 28 degrees latitude) does not meet that basic requirement.  Though I don’t know that it is true, I have read that hops have been grown in Hawaii, so I should have a shot.  For this argument I will still say that my geographic location is strike one.  With that as the first I can list some of the other hurdles I might have:

• Soil – my sandy soil is not exactly the desired nutrient-rich mix.  That would likely affect the yield at minimum.  Maybe if I mix enough of my spent grains into the compost I can better that situation?
• Height – The plants can grow up to 30 feet (or so).  I assume The Wife and all of my neighbors could do without that sight.  They may not grow that high, but they would certainly end up taller than our fence.  Then again, I could train them to grow horizontally along the fence.
• Pests – Judging by the various bugs that we had in trying to grow a pesticide free vegetable garden this might be the toughest issue to overcome.  Florida may also bring some different plant diseases that the hop vines would have to deal with.
• Me – Have I mentioned that I don’t exactly have the best record of keeping plants alive?  My thumb is not even close to a shade of green.
• Whatever else I am not aware of at the moment.

So instead of giving up maybe I should just expect to fail many, many times before getting some variety to grow for me?  Of course I could also turn my garage into a growing room of sorts (reference the close cousin of hops) and take all of these variables out of play.  I think it would be far less expensive and intrusive to my home to just fail a bunch of times though.

Why use these when I could have fresh?

Or maybe should forget hops and just turn my entire lawn into a barley field?  I don’t like mowing that much anyway!

This is another of those posts where I am thinking as I write, so I have much more research to do before becoming legitimately serious about taking a shot at this.  The concept of having (essentially) a proprietary variety of hops that only I will brew with sounds pretty cool to me (similar to my pint glass).

Then if I could get Seattle Jeff and Syracuse Rob to grow some as well exclusively for my brewing we would have infinite brewing options via geographically remote and unique hops.

That’s enough of my hop growing train of thought for today . . . to be revisited at a later time.

I miss the aroma of pellet hops.

Since I am making a lot of small lists lately, I will use that format to get my thoughts organized here.  Welcome again to the inner workings of my mind.

• Should I bother with any sort of beer style that would be nice for summer?  I know it will be warm here far after summer ends in other places, but even if I order my supplies now my beer would probably not be ready before seeing fall seasonals on the shelves here.  I am leaning toward focusing my efforts on some brews more appropriate for fall.
• Even had I not been leaning that way, revisiting my pumpkin ale was already in my head.  In fact I plan on brewing two batches of that this year, though I may play around with one of them.  However since I don’t expect to see any pumpkins in the grocery store anytime soon, I probably should focus on other things first.
• There are other ways to go (other than fall appropriate) as well.  I could revisit some of the other recipes that I have used previously to see if I can improve the end product.  I could also just continue to try brewing styles that I have never tried before.  Then there is always the option of just focusing on the styles that I enjoy drinking the most.  Decisions, decisions.
• Is it time to take a step up and try to brew an “Imperial” something?  Maybe that is for winter?
• Then, of course, I could say why choose one option when you could do them all?

I need more spent grains for dog treats.

Do you see how after all that I really just ended up back at the beginning?  I do have a few options that I am thinking about doing (as of today):

• Bière de Garde – since I have tried a Saison already, perhaps its sister deserves a chance.
• A Dubbel or maybe a Tripel – sticking with the whole Belgian theme for a moment.
• Brown Ale – not really one of my favorite styles, but one worth a shot.  The same could be said for a Red Ale
• Kölsch – this would be for the warmer weather.  A Cream Ale would also be an option.
• IPA – This deserves a revisit that is not split for experimentation purposes.
• Rye Ale of some sort – Perhaps even a Rye IPA?
• A Stout or Porter is always a good option as far as I am concerned.

My employees have been waiting for something to do.

If it really doesn’t look like I have made a decision it is because I haven’t even come close to picking one, let alone two or three.  Like I said, what to brew, wheat to brew?

Any suggestions based on my short list or something completely different?

It is probably a good idea to get the more unique one out of the way first, so I will start with the beer candy.  Well, at least I think that the package says beer candy.  It actually says “Sapporo Beer Drops” on the container, so maybe they are supposed to be cough drops.  Perhaps one of you out there that can interpret Japanese can help me out with this one.

Beer in candy form.

The Expat Ken recently gave me a tin of these candies that he brought back from Tokyo not really knowing if they would be any good or not.  Though I did not exactly have high expectations going in, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they taste pretty good.  Apparently when you add a little sugar to what the bottom of a glass of Sapporo tastes like, you end up with a decent hard candy.

It cures what ails you!

Not as much of a surprise is that my spent grains from brewing at home can turn into a good treat for the dogs.  On top of that Ian and I have both tasted them with no apparent side effects, so those same dog treats can be a little snack in a pinch.  I think in the future some sort of baked goods will be made from spent grains as a treat just for me.

The ingredients and method for the dog biscuits was easy:

• 4 cups spent grain (that has not been in contact with any hops)
• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup  peanut butter
• 2 eggs

The ratio of the grain and flour can be adjusted and I have seen recipes where the amount of grain is double the flour.  You mix all of the ingredients together (I used my hands) until everything comes together.  I have made this recipe a few times (the pictures are from the first batch) and found the initial mix to be quite dry (I allow my grains to dry before using), so I mix near the sink so I can easy add a bit of water even with my hands covered in peanut butter and flour.

A very simple list of ingredients.

Scored before going into the oven.

Then you spread the mixture out evenly on a cookie sheet and score it into the sizes you want.  I used a pizza cutter to divide it up.  It all then goes into the oven at 350 degrees for roughly a half hour or until they are pretty much firm.  After that take them out and break them into the individual pieces that you scored before going in.  Then spread those pieces out around them pan.

Back into the oven.

After that most recipes I have seen say to drop the temperature down to 200-225 degrees and let them go for hours and hours (8-10) to dry them out so they will not mold during storage.  I do let them go for a while in the oven, but I store them in the refrigerator in a partially open Ziploc bag so mold is not as much of a concern to me.  Besides the dogs like them so much they don’t last all that long anyway!  

Ready to eat.

Now I really have to get brewing again to come up with some more spent grains for future experimentation.

Now on to the bottling details for the bourbon vanilla half . . .

As usual, there are not too many additional details to share with the bottling process (especially since these few bottles went smoothly), but if you have more interest in how it happens check out the video for the Blueberry Chocolate Stout bottling.  There was nothing to add at bottling this time, but that video will give you the gist of the excitement that is bottling.

The evidence left behind by the vanilla bean.

Since it was only half of a batch, I boiled a light ½ cup (rather than ¾ cup) of corn sugar in 1 cup of water (instead of 2), cooled it, then added it to the bottling bucket before racking the beer over.  This was all after rinsing the sanitized bottles and bottling equipment and allowing them to air-dry a bit.  For this one I used a handful of 22 ounce bottles and the remainder went into the 12 ouncers.  This felt like a good one to go into the larger bottles and it ultimately made for fewer bottles to fill (which is always good).

Taking the final reading

The final hydrometer reading left it with a specific gravity of about 1.015 which was a bit higher than I was hoping for and gave it a final ABV of roughly 4.94%.  If those numbers are still accurate with the inclusion of bourbon into the mix I don’t know, but I would expect that it changes the game a bit.  Something to do research on for the next time.

Not technically black, but very tasty!

The aroma was lightly earthy and sweet with slight bourbon warmth and a faint bit of vanilla (as expected).  After drinking the sample I was impressed how the flavors blended smoothly with some light dryness and bitterness at the finish.  It seems to be a good variation on the control half of the batch. 

Now comes the waiting

Now comes the difficult part as I have to wait for it to condition and become carbonated.  I will definitely be sampling this one in a week just to check in on the progress.  If it goes well I think a full batch of this (with the appropriate tweaks) will be in my brewing future. 

Stay tuned for the official review!