Beer meanderings

Last night I had the opportunity to try AZ Wilderness Pale.  AZ Wilderness is a new brewery which is trying to open in Queen Creek, about 7 miles from my house.  The brewmaster/owner, Johnathen Buford is a great guy and a SERIOUS outdoor adventurer.  He also plans on doing some "out of the box" brewing, thank goodness! This will be mostly taphouse with a few handles at local craft beer bars.  The pale was a nice easy drinker.

The Cake-And-A-Card had a little issue- what's called a stuck fermentation.  This is OK, I pitched a packet of dry ale yeast and hopefully this will get it started again.  Over the last 24 hours, it has been bubbling again, so I'm not too worried.  Apparently the fats in the ice cream can muck up the works. No worries though.  (I do have 12 liters of another porter as a backup, so... they won't be without beer :)

Looking at doing 3 all-grain batches on Sunday- I got the day all planned out in a spreadsheet, no all I have to do is make the plan work.  My only concern is water heating times.  It can take an hour for the hot-lauter tanks to heat the water to 180, so I need to have a backup to stay on schedule.  Probably keep some water simmering on the stove.

Also looking into alternative hop varieties-  I have Pallisade and Zythos in the freezer, so I want to use them correctly.  Apparently Zythos is a blend of "C" hops, which is fine.  I think after the 3 on Sunday, my next brew will be an all Zythos pale.

It IS, after all, session brew season.  Time to kick those heavy imperial IPA's to the curb. Some nice light session ales.  Right Red Rye is good at 6.5 it is a bit high though.  Portly Squirrel is a nut brown- not necessarily a summer beer, but a 5% delicious drink.  I'm also doing the Grilled Lemon Cream Ale again on Sunday which is clearly a perfect summer drink :)

Cheers!  OH!  And Happy St Paddy's Day!